britney spears

From Chicago Breaking News:
A 26-room, 27,000-square-foot mansion in Winnetka has hit the market for $28 million, making it the top listing in the Chicago area. Le Grand Reve (the big dream) is owned by commercial real estate executive Sherwin Jarol and his wife, Deborah and was designed by architect Richard Landry. The six-bedroom home includes a two-story rotunda and Tiffany dome. To check out images see Landry's portfolio on the home.

From the Washington Post:
--Ethel Kennedy's Hickory Hill estate in McLean, Virginia has finally sold after a whopping seven years on the market. It was first listed at $25 million but sold for just $8.25 million.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Lenny Kravitz might finally be unloading his Crosby Street loft after more than six years on-and-off the market. The five-bedroom duplex went into contract late last week. It was most recently listed at $14.995 million.

--Andrew Guff, a managing director at the private equity firm Siguler, Guff & Company, and his wife Jessica Stedman Guff, the executive producer of ABC News Now, have sold their five-bedroom apartment at 333 West End Avenue for $5.27 million.
-- via bigdeal_nyc, Ryan Pedlow, a managing director at Ziff Brothers Investments, has paid $5.2 million for a 6th-floor apartment at 166 Perry Street.
--via the NY Post, real estate developer Louis Cappelli has sold his 13-room duplex at 515 Park Avenue to Swedish lingerie manufacturer Eric Ryd for $24 million.
--via the NY Observer, art dealer Christophe Van de Weghe has sold his loft at 77 Mercer Street for $2.8 million, or $1.2 million more than what he paid for it back in 2004.
--via the NY Mag, Real Deal, an eight-bedroom "Nantucket-style cottage" in Sag Harbor, New York sold for $14 million setting a new record in the community. The buyers may be hedge funder Charles Ray Langston and his wife Casey.
--Shire Realty CEO Rena Shulsky has cut $1 million off the price of her penthouse co-op at 812 Fifth Avenue. It is now listed for $10.75 million.
--via Newsday, James Seuss, the former CEO of Cole Haan who is set to become the chief executive at Tourneau in March, has sold his house on Shelter Island for $985,000.
--via the Real Deal, filmmaker Danny Boyle is the new owner of an apartment in Chelsea. He paid $1.7 million for a tri-level co-op at 334 West 19th Street for the apartment for his youngest daughter who is attending Parsons.
--Personal injury lawyer Eleanor P. Vale has dropped the price of her penthouse at Hampshire House. It is now listed for $9.9 million.
--via the NY Observer, author Caitlin Macy and her husband Jeremy Barnum, an executive at JPMorgan Chase, have paid $3.5 million for a duplex apartment at 1 Lexington Avenue. It's not their first time in the building.
--via Curbed, New York City's narrowest townhouse has to an unidentified buyer for $2.175 million.
--via the NY Observer, Philip Galanes, author, attorney, decorator, and Sunday Times etiquette columnist and his partner, architect Michael Haverland, have paid $2 million for a duplex apartment at 29 East 9th Street. The seller was Charles Gandee, a former editor at Vogue.
--via Curbed, Britney Spears' former penthouse at 14 East 4th Street has had another price cut. The three-bedroom apartment which Spears sold in 2006, is up for sale for $4.999 million, down from the $6.595 million it was listed at when it hit the market in 2008.
--via Curbed, the Greenwich Village townhouse that belonged to late party planner Robert Isabell is up for sale again. Four months it was purchased for $2.1 million, the building at 16 Minetta Lane is now back on the market with a $3.5 million price tag. The listing is here.
-- Barry Liben, the CEO of Travel Leaders Group, has paid $4.806 million for an apartment at 235 West 71st Street.
--via Curbed, the home of late abstract painter Judith Rothschild which was listed for rent for $18,000 a month has gone into foreclosure and will be auctioned off in February.

From the NY Post:
--Paul Greenwood, the former New York Islanders co-owner who has been accused of securities fraud,has listed his estate in North Salem, New York. The three properties are listed for $10 million and sit on just under 16 acres. The main house, is listed for $8 million and sits on 9.1 acres. It includes a spiral staircase that leads to a collector's display case where Greenwood showcased his collection of antique Teddy bears.
--Alvin Rosenthal, the late Leona Helmsley's brother, is selling his home on East 83rd Street. The one-bedroom co-op o went for just under $600,000. He and his wife are moving into a $1.9 million two-bedroom co-op with a balcony at 1025 Fifth Ave.
--Technology entrepreneur/investor Yigal Lichtman has closed on a $10 million unit at One Madison Park.

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
--Reinout Oerlemans, the former Dutch soap star who founded the Eyeworks television production company, has listed a Beverly Hills contemporary for $14.9 million.
--An equestrian property in Brentwood's Sullivan Canyon that was once the home of actress and activist Maxine Cooper Gomberg has sold for $4.4 million.
--from The Envelope, the latest celebrity spotted checking out apartments at The Carlyle on Wilshire in Los Angeles is rapper Akon. Larry King and Bruce Willis own units in the building.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Joss Whedon, who created TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has sold his four-bedroom, 4,064-square-foot house in Los Angeles' Brentwood area. It was once listed as high at $3.695 million but was most recently on the market for $2.47 million.

--Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have increased the size of their Los Feliz compound, paying $1.1 million to buy a property that his accumulated estate mostly had surrounded.

From the Real Estalker:
--Jared Followill of the bank Kings of Leon has picked up a home in Nashville, Tennessee for $1.825 million.
--Vidal and Rhonda Sassoon have listed another mid-century modern house in Beverly Hills for $17.5 million.
--Susan and Robert Downey, Jr. have picked up a rustic home in Malibu for $13,334,800. They've also bought a modern three-story live-work residence in Venice beach for $5.6 million. The building was recently used to film the reality television series Chef Academy.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Papa John's pizza-chain founder John Schnatter has bought three units in a new condominium-and-residence complex in the St. Regis Deer Crest Resort in Utah for about $23 million. He bought two penthouse residences with five bedrooms each plus a unit on the floor below with four bedrooms.
--The 780-acre Yale Farm in Norfolk and North Canaan, Connecticut is on the market for $24 million. The listing is here.
--The River Stone estate, a 1,500-acre riverfront property that is one of the largest private estates in Pennsylvania, is on the market with an asking price of $24 million. The listing is here.
--from the Home Front section, Detroit Pistons owner Karen Davidson is selling her estate in Snowmass Village, Colorado for $47 million. The property is ten acres and has multiple structures offering a total of 16,000 square feet of living space.



From ShelterPop:
Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen Find Their Suburban Dream Home

Live at P. Diddy's Former Pad

A Pillow That Fights Wrinkles?

Milan's Most Fashionable Bed?

Are JLo and Marc Anthony Heading for the Hills?

Tavern on the Green Auctions Treasures for the Home

Kardashian Sisters Launch Home Fragrance Line

It's baaaack. Britney Spears has flopped her home in the Summit community of Beverly Hills back on the market yet again. Spears bought the home on what appears to have been a quick impulse back in 2007 during her more manic days and she's been trying to sell off and on ever since. The home has been listed as high as $7.9 million last fall but now the six-bedroom villa is at a more realistic $6.499 million. Spears meanwhile has decamped to Calabasas when she's not on tour. The new price means that she will likely lose money on the deal, Spears bought for $6.75 million when it was on the market for $7.2 million, but I'm sure she'll be glad to be rid of the home once it finally sells.

[via The Real Estalker]

Britney Spears appears to be good news for the hotel industry as she travels around on tour. Recently she booked all 60 rooms at Chambers, the luxury art hotel of Minneapolis. The stay is said to have cost at least $17,000 a night not including the price of Spears's room, the Rock Star Suite.

The Rock Star Suite has floor to ceiling windows a parlor area with a wet bar, powder room, dining room table and white leather furnishings and a bathroom with a deep soaking tub with frosted glass window. The 600 square foot private terrace overlooks the courtyard and theater district. Prices start at $1,500 per night for the suite.

Being a lawyer for Britney Spears is quite the industry. The total of Britney's legal fees and costs since February 2008 tally up to over $2.7 million according to papers filed in court. Since Britney's father became her conservator, she's paid $409,849.21 to Andrew Wallet, of Hinojosa & Wallet who is a co-conservator. Jamie Spears and Wallet were made permanent conservators last October.

The papers do note that Britney is doing well currently both in terms of her relationship with her sons and in her career. While the documents did not reveal the full amount of Britney's wealth or how much money she has made since she got back on track but it could be argued that all the lawyer and conservatorship fees might actually be worth the cost.

Britney may have also added some money to her accounts in the form of sold real estate. Her home in the Summit area of Beverly Hills recently was on the market for $7.9 million but has dropped out of the MLS. Perhaps she finally has a sale on her hands.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Trader John Devaney has raised the price on the Sardy House, shown above, in Aspen, Colorado. We've seen this home jump around a lot in the past few years. It was at $16.5 million back in 2005. Devaney bought it in 2006 for $16.25 million and then put it on the market in 2007 (along with his yacht) for $21.5 million. He's now bounced it up to $23.5 million. The listing is here.
--Stanley Chais, who funneled funds to Bernard Madoff, has listed his Los Angeles condominium in the Sierra Towers for $4.7 million. The two-bedroom unit can also be leased for $28,000 per month.
--In Washington, D.C, the onetime home of a World War II spy, Betty Thorpe Pack, is on the market for $1.95 million. The listing is here.

From Newsday's Real LI:
--The owners of the restaurant Bar Pitti, Giovanni and Michele Tognozzi, have purchased a home in Peconic, NY for $1.6 million.
--The former head of the Olsten Corporation, temp agency, has put his summer home on the market for $14.5 million. The listing is here.
--Richard Gere and Carey Lowell have put their home in Water Mill, New York on the market. It's our estate of the day later today.
--You can rent an oceanfront home in Sagaponack belonging to the ex-wife of New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine for $900,000 from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The listing is here.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Ashton Kutcher has listed his Beverly Hills home for $3.7 million. This is the home where he lived before marrying actress Demi Moore in 2005. The home is already in escrow.
--David Litt, the writer ad creator of "The King of Queens" has listed his Hollywood Hills home for sale for $2.025 million. The listing is here.
--"Blame It on Rio" actress Michelle Johnson has listed her Hollywood Hills home at $5.85 million. Last year at this time she put the three-bedroom home in West Hollywood on the market for $6.35 million. The listing is here.
--Bruce Somers Jr., the son of Suzanne Somers and producer of several of her exercise videos, has listed his Brentwood home for $3.295 million. The French Normandy style four-bedroom home is stuffed with flouncy furnishings and has hand-carved fireplace mantels. The listing is here.
--Courtney Love is renting a five-bedroom Hollywood Hills home for $20,000 a month.
--You can rent the condo used in Entourage.
--Movie and commercial producer Lee Nelson has listed a home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles for $9.95 million.
--Music video director Mark Romanek has listed his four-bedroom Hollywood Hills home for $3.995 million.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--A Malibu home once rented by Britney Spears is on the market for $5.5 million. The listing is here.
--Actress Milla Jovovich has placed her four-bedroom home in the Beverly Hills, Calif. postal area on the market for $3.299 million.
--Soap opera actress Michelle Stafford has listed a three-bedroom house that she owns in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles for $1.599 million. The listing is here.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Brooke Astor's NYC apartment has been relisted at $29 million with some new pictures. It was listed at $46 million when it was our estate of the day last year.
--Fashion designer Richard Chai paid $2 million for a 2,300-square-foot New York City apartment.
--Actor Kevin Corrigan and his wife Elizabeth Berridge have sold their fourth-floor apartment at 321 Greenwich Street for $2.39 million.
--Blythe Masters, JP Morgan Chase's head of global commodities, has lowered the price of her townhouse at 150 Reade Street from $14 million to $11.9 million. The listing is here.
--New York Times public editor Byron Calame and his wife Kathryn have sold their three-bedroom co-op for $2.4 million to Bill Bermont, a vice president at Citigroup, and his wife Lynne.
--Joseph Kohls, a Bank of America managing director, and his wife Christin paid $5.2 million for an apartment at the Tribeca Summit.

From the Real Estalker:
--Lauren Conrad's four-bedroom home in Los Angeles is available for rent for $11,000 a month. The listing is here.
--Interior designer Thomas Britt has put his eight-bedroom home in Water Mill on the market for $13.2 million.
--Cassandra Peterson, the actress best known as Elvira has put her Los Angeles home on the market for $1.499 million. She bought this home for $1.698 million in 2007. The listing is here.

From Curbed LA:
--40 Beverly Park, a custom chateau in Beverly Hills has had a big price chop. It hit the market at $45 million, was at $39.9 million when it was our estate of the day, and is now at $31.5 million.
--Richard Neutra's Singleton residence is back on the market, listed at $14.95 million. It was at listed at $25 million (although also rumored to be $19 million) when it was our estate of the day in 2007.

From SF Gate's On the Block:
--A $650,000 home in Lake Tahoe is being raffled off by the Boys and Girls Club. The raffle is here.
--San Francisco's $70 million penthouse has been reduced by $21 million to $49 million. It was our estate of the day back in November.

From Homes and Properties:
--Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal are leasing a three-bedroom home in London for £4,000 a week. The home is for sale for £2,795,000 and the listing is here.
--Elle Macpherson has cut the price of her six-bedroom Notting Hill, London home from £9.5 million to £8.95 million. The listing for the classic Victorian is here.

From Move Trends Real Estate Blog:
--Chad Michael Murray has put his WIlmington, North Carolina home on the market for $785,000. The listing is here.

--Ryan Cabrera has knocked $100,000 off the price of his Los Angeles home. It is now listed at $1.599 million but was at $1.699 million when it was our estate of the day last August.

On Nov. 19, Christie's in London will auction off a stunning collection of photographs including some provocative shots of the world's most beautiful women. From a purely aesthetic standpoint the highlight of these is this 2000 portrait of Brazilian bombshell Gisele Bundchen by Mark Seliger, estimated at $9,000 to $12,000 - a relative bargain compared to Martin Schoeller's 2003 Angelina Jolie with Blood, est. at $23,000 - $39,000.

Also included in the sale: Albert Watson's 1993 nude Kate Moss, Marrakech, est. at $23,000 - $31,000; David LaChapelle's 1999 Britney Spears, Baby, est. $23,000 - $31,000; Michel Comte's 1996 James King, New York City, est. $6,000 - $9,000; and Gavin Bond's 2007 snap of Victoria's Secret stunner Adriana Lima, est. $5,000 - $8,000.

For at least the third time in the past year and a half since she bought the home, Britney Spears's six-bedroom home in the gated Summit community in the Beverly Hills post office area is back on the market. This time the faux Tuscan home is listed at $7.9 million, the highest we've seen it at (Spears bought for $6.75 million when it was on the market for $7.2 million). She picked up the home furniture and all so the listing pics aren't too much different from the ones back in 2006 (except for the addition of a kid's play area in the front yard. Rumor has it that she is headed to Calabasas where the paparazzi are a little less invasive. The property website is here.

UPDATE: Britney has reduced the price to $7.195 million.
Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

I know this is the second day in a row we are featuring a furniture-less New York apartment, but this one offers something different, the chance to see a before and after. This apartment in the Silk Building at East Fourth Street and Broadway used to belong to Britney Spears, and it took her forever and a day to unload it, dropping the list price from nearly $6 million to $4 million before selling it. The couple who bought the apartment in 2006 have now put the home on the market for $6.595 million. The current owners, Jessica Klein, a television writer and producer, and her husband, Isaac Levenbrown, spent several hundred thousand dollars sprucing up the home. And since we have some before pics from Britney's old listing we can see some of the changes. The floors have been darkened, the master bath has been changed and the kitchen has had a really beautiful upgrade.

The apartment, which has three bedrooms and a 24-foot-long terrace, was also once owned by Russell Simmons and before that by Keith Richards. I'm not quite sure what makes this apartment so attractive to the rich and famous but for $6.595 million you can get yourself a heap of celebrity provenance.

[via the NY Times Big Deal]

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--A look at the planned Nobu Hotel and Residences in the Financial District. The project, in which Robert De Niro is an investor, is a 62-story glass tower at 45 Broad Street that will include 77 "super-luxury" condos, a 128-room hotel, retail space and a Nobu restaurant on the third floor.
--Hillary Clinton's communications director Howard Wolfson and his wife, Terri McCullough, who's chief of staff for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have sold their condo at 455 Central Park West for $1.91 million. Not much of a profit, they bought the condo in 2005 for just under $1.8 million.
--Former Mets and Yankees pitcher David Cone is looking for an in-town apartment. He was recently spotted in the Miraval Living condominium sales office on the Upper East Side.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Baron Eric de Rothschild just bought his painter wife, Maria-Beatrice Caracciolo Di Forino, a Village penthouse where she can do some work whenever they're staying in New York. According to deeds, they paid $1.15 million for the one-bedroom, 1,050-square-foot co-op at 40 West 12th Street.
--Hotelier Jeff Klein has sold his house at 153 West 18th Street for $5.95 million.
--The listing for the late Brooke Astor's duplex at 778 Park Avenue is finally online, we covered it as our estate of the day on Friday.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Melissa Etheridge has sold a six-bedroom house in Hidden Hills for an undisclosed price after it had been listed for $4,995,000. The home was purchased by a two trusts (the Olivers Estate Trust and the Veronica Matsui Trust) which may indicate the home was purchased by a celebrity (the Real Estalker says Michael Bolton and Nicolette Sheridan are
--Actress and former MTV VJ Kari Wuhrer has sold a Craftsman-style house in Los Angeles' Windsor Square area for $1.7 million.
--Comedian Carlos Mencia and his wife, Amy, purchased an Encino, CA home in November from actor Eddie Cibrian for an official purchase price of $4.3 million.
--via the Observer, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and her NFL husband Tim have paid $3,25 million. for a condo on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

From the Real Estalker:
--The Real Estalker Mama drops a tasty blind item that a mystery billionaire will be bidding on the Kaufmann house auction that will be part of the Christie's auction on May 13.
--Action actor Jason Statham has been spotted checking out the Devlin Drive home, shown above, recently put on the market by Christina Aguilera for $7.995 million. The virtual tour of this amazing home is here.
--Former CSI: Miami actress Khandi Alexander has cut the price again on her Hollywood Hills home. It was ginally listed at $4,495,000 but is now down to $2,995,000 which is not much more than the $2,850,000 she paid back in January of 2006. The listing says "huge $1 million price reduction" in bold block letters with an army of exclamation points.
--Angela Bassett and Courtney Vance have dropped the price on their Hancock Park home from $5.999 million to $4.6 million. The listing is here.
--Britney Spears has been spotted touring a 7,350 square foot house on Tara Drive in the Clark Gable community of Encino.
--Dishonored Lord Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel are quietly putting their Palm Beach, Florida home on the market. No listing price yet but in 2007, the Palm Beach assessor valued the estate at $27,980,115 so we are likely looking at a fairly big number here.
--Football player Pacman Jones has listed Tennessee home, it's our estate of the day later today.
--Once again, Michael Jackson has forestalled foreclosure on Neverland.
--Louwana, a grand old Palm Beach, Florida estate has been listed for sale for $30 million. The listing is here.
--Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn have put their Malibu home for summer rent again for $95,000.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--More background on Roman Abramovich's purchase of Wildcat Ridge. Abramovich also bought another home in the area for $11.8 million in February.
--Baseball great Henry "Hank" Aaron has listed his West Palm Beach, Fla., home that borders a golf course for $900,000.
--A home in Corona del Mar, California has sold for about $28 million, a record for an Orange County off-water property, local brokers say.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Former NHL player Ken Belanger has put his three-bedroom Manhattan Beach townhouse on the market for $1.125 million. It is listed with Ed Kaminsky.

There is apparently a point at which some excessively rich individuals decide to do away with decent standards of dress altogether. They are literally so loaded they can afford to look homeless; their rags become a sort of reverse status symbol. In fact, as author Paul Fussell noted in Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, shabby clothes "advertise how much of conventional dignity [the upper classes] can afford to throw away. The wearing of clothes excessively new or excessively neat and clean suggests that your social circumstances are not entirely secure."

We'd like to think that's the reason behind the appearance of the celebs on Nerve's new list of the "Top 10 Rich People Who Look Poor." It would certainly seem to be for notoriously-underdressed billionaire Condé Nast owner Si Newhouse, who clocks in at # 7. But we think it's more than likely that the Olsen Twins (#6), Britney Spears (#3) and Amy Winehouse (#1), who's reportedly worth $20 million, are actually just slobs. Check out the full list here.

In the last few months, Britney Spears has been spotted around Los Angeles in a variety of vehicles. Now it looks like some of those cars may soon be for sale. Access Hollywood reports that a judge has granted Jamie Spears, Britney's father and co-conservator of her estate, the authority to sell off some of her cars. Britney Spears was also recently order to pay ex-husband Kevin Federline $375,000 to cover his extensive legal fees in the former couple's ongoing dispute over the custody of their two young sons. No word on which of Britney's cars will be sold yet but I'm betting there may be a Mercedes or two with a pop star pedigree on eBay soon.

From the Real Estalker:
--The Desert House, the sleek and modern prototype for the deluxe prefabs created by starchitecture firm Marmol Radziner in Desert Hot Springs has been listed at $1.85 million.
--Did Scott Baio move to a five-bedroom house in Encino? The Real Estalker Mama reports that Baio and his wife, Peaches Renee Sloan, still occupy Baio's home on Royal Oak Road in Encino. It looks like the couple "bought" the new home on the show for reality drama's sake.
--Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford are renting out a beach front four-bedroom home in Malibu for $22,500 a month.
--Rumors have been swirling that Britney Spears bought a new house in Hermosa Beach before she went into the hospital. The home in question appears to be owned by professional photographer Dani Brubaker (who recently took pictures of Britney and her children for OK Magazine) and it seems unlikely that Britney actually bought this home.
--Has billionaire Ron Burkle helped Michael Jackson save Neverland Ranch? Roger Friedman at Fox News has reported that Burkle might have intervened of Jackson's behalf to provide an extension to give Jackson time to refinance.
--Jennifer Aniston has moved out of the Malibu cottage she's been renting since 2005.
--Jermaine Dupri has listed a five-bedroom home in Atlanta, Georgia for $1.5 million. The listing is here.
--Melrose Place actor Grant Show has listed his three-bedroom house in the Beachwood Canyon for $1,995,000. The listing is here.
--Singer Dido has listed her house in the prestigious Bird Streets area of Los Angeles for $4.6 million. The listing is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--A Parisian home that once belonged to Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir is on the market. It is out estate of the day later today.
--NBA point guard Baron Davis of the Golden State Warriors has sold a pair of adjacent condos in West Hollywood for $2.66 million.
--Investment banker Warren Woo has paid $20 million for a house in Los Angeles, plus $2 million more for furnishings.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--A two-floor penthouse at 530 East 72nd Street which was lived in by Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow and then by Andy Warhol's physician, Denton S. Cox is on the market for $5,995,000 and it's a real fixer-upper. The listing is here.
--Ex-F.B.I. Special Agent Ali Soufan, who now works for Guiliani Partners, and his wife just paid $1.7 million for a new Manhattan apartment.
--Stephen Drucker, House Beautiful's editor, and real estate agent Frank Newbold closed this month on a two-bedroom co-op at 125 East 74th Street for $1.45 million.
--Parker Posey, who late last year listed her apartment in an 1845 brownstone on East 10th Street near Third Avenue for $1.175 million, is in contract to buy a $1.35 million one-bedroom co-op at 30 Fifth Avenue.
--Salman Rushdie's ex-wife, 37-year-old Padma Lakshmi, the model-turned-Top Chef hostess paid $1,651,111 for a long, full-floor loft in Alphabet City.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Wilmer Valderrama has sold a home in Tarzana for $1,750,000 after it had been listed for $2,250,000 and later reduced to $1,950,000.
--Rupert Murdoch has taken $2,000,000 off the asking price of his Long Island, N.Y. mansion, Rosehearty, reducing its listing price from $14,800,000 to $12,800,000. It was our estate of the day back in July.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--A new record residential price has been set for the North Fork of Long Island. A 135-acre estate that includes a 19-acre vineyard has been sold for $19.5 million. The original asking price for Indian Neck Farm was $22 million when it went on the market in 2006.
--Edgar Bronfman Jr. and his wife, Clarissa, finally have taken possession of their 11-room co-op at 1040 Fifth Ave.
--Author and interior decorator Regina "Gigi" Mahon has paid just over $14 million for two condo apartments on the fifth floor at the soon to be completed Plaza.
--Polo-playing communications mogul Adam Lindemann has found a new oceanfront Hamptons hideaway in Montauk for $21.5 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Keith Yamashita, a high-powered business consultant, has listed his contemporary Manhattan Beach home at $3.449 million because he and his partner, Todd Holcomb, are planning to return to San Francisco, where their 10-year-old company, Stone Yamashita Partners, is based. The listing is here.

From AOL Real Estate:
--A list of America's richest counties.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The $50 million Kress Family penthouse duplex at 1020 Fifth Avenue is off the market. It hasn't been sold, the family is just tying up some loose ends.
--Ahmass Fakahany, a top-ranking executive at Merrill Lynch, and wife Alsun Keogh have sold off one of their apartments at the Police Building, thelaw enforcement HQ turned co-op at 240 Centre Street for $2.93 million.
--Actor Tim Blake Nelson and his wife Lisa just sold their 7.5-room prewar co-op at 37 Riverside Drive for $5.25 million. Their buyer is Jonathan Morris, co-founder of the retail fashion Web site Bluefly.
--Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen have put their 12-room condo at One Morton Square, shown at right, on the market for $11.995 million which is $4,695,000 more than they paid for it three years ago, The apartment has been rented out for much of the time. The listing is here.
--Zach Braff has paid $3,200,000 for a 2,500-square-foot apartment in the building at 840 Broadway.


From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Sting and Trudie Styler have pulled their Central Park West duplex off the market. The couple have also purchased a $30 million condo at 15 Central Park West.
--A minor fracas has developed over the listing of Christie Brinkley's $30 million Bridgehampton estate. Stribling agent Jessica Mansell Ambrose has it listed as an exclusive on her site but Corcoran Group broker, Susan Breitenbach is supposed to have the listing.
--Billy Joel and his wife Katie Lee have closed on their latest Sagaponack property for $11.625 million. It was on the market for $12.99 million. Apparently restrictive building codes prohibited the couple from adding to the home they bought from Roy Scheider last spring for $16.75 million. The new property, just west of Scheider's old place, has a three-bedroom home that Joel may use as a studio.
--Seagram heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. has picked up a 10-room apartment for $18.75 million in the Carhart mansion. Bronfman and his wife Clarissa already have a posh co-op on Fifth Avenue so it is not clear what they will do with their latest acquisition.

From the NY Times Big Deal:
The $45 million triplex at One Madison Park, the tower going up at 23 East 22nd Street, will include a one-bedroom unit on a lower floor for use by a private butler, who will be provided by the condominium indefinitely and paid by it as well. The proposal is still in the planning stages.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Actress Rashida Jones, daughter of Quincy Jones, has paid $1,240,000 for a two-bedroom Cape Cod-style house in West Hollywood.
--Todd Stashwick, who stars on "The Riches" on the FX network, has paid $1,255,000 for a three-story home in the Hollywood Hills.
--Actress Denise Richards has sold one of the two houses that she owns in Hidden Hills, Calif. for $3,800,000.
--It looks like Avril Lavigne has finally sold her home in the Mulholland Estates neighborhood in Beverly Hills. The house, which was listed at $6,200,000 now shows that it is "looking for backup" in the LA MLS.
--British celebrity Anouska De Georgiou has paid $1,180,000 for a four-unit apartment building in the Los Angeles' Grove area and a few months ago she paid $1,167,000 for a three-bedroom, Spanish-style house in Los Angeles' Fairfax/WeHo area.
--Victoria's Secret model Emma Heming is the latest celeb to pick up in an apartment in the Broadway Hollywood building in Hollywood, paying an undisclosed amount with her then-fiance, party promoter/DJ/nightclub guru Brent Bolthouse for a unit in the building that she no longer occupies. The couple split up and she moved back to New York City picking up a condo in Chelsea.
--Actor Wilmer Valderrama has also picked up a unit in the same building as above.

From the Real Estalker:
--Rumor has it that Jason Lee may be moving to the Los Feliz home currently owned by musician Robert Cray and on the market for $3,250,000.
--The house in Palm Springs that Cher flipped and put on the market at $2,495,000 has been reduced to 1,999,000. It was our estate of the day back in January.
--House flipper turned reality star Jeff Lewis has listed another home, this one in the Los Feliz area for $1.795 million.
--Actor Eddie Cibrian and his wife Brandi have put their Encino home of the market for $4.395 million. The Real Estalker mama wasn't a fan of the property but someone was, is already listed as "looking for backup." Check out the virtual tour and make your own judgement, Valley palace or slapdash decorating at its highest iteration?
--Britney Spears' former NY penthouse is back on the market for $6,995,000. Considering how much trouble Spears had selling this it is pretty amazing that Beverly Hills 90210 producer and writer Jessica Stein and her husband Isaac Levenbrown have put the home on the market for $2,995,000 more than they paid for it in August 2006. Spears also appears to have taken her Beverly Hills house off the market yet again. This after various gossip blogs have reporting that Spears has a fantasy room in the home and that Spears is not exactly the tidiest of housekeepers.
--Actress Angie Harmon and football player Jason Sehorn have put their three-bedroom Beverly Hills home on the market for $1.895 million. The listing is here. The Real Estalker Mama reports that the couple actually live in Hidden Hills in a much larger four-bedroom home that is right next to the one that Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels recently purchased.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Looks like I got it wrong on which Rising Glen house belongs to Rachel Zoe a few weeks back. Check out the listing for her home listed for $2.995 million here.
--Jerry Rice and his wife, Jackie have put their Atherton, California estate on the market for $22 million. You can see pictures here.
--As we mentioned above, Jeff Lewis of the Bravo reality show "Flipping Out," has listed a home in Los Feliz. Ruth Ryon puts it at slightly more than $1.8 million whereas the Real Estalker Mama had it at $1.795 million. He also recently sold a Spanish-style home in Los Feliz for about its $4.5-million asking price.
--For the first time in 50 years, the Shavelson estate in Studio City has come on the market. The home belonged to directpr and producer Melville Shavelson, who worked on films starring Lucille Ball, James Cagney and Frank Sinatra. The home is a four-bedroom 1930s traditional listed at $4.795 million. The listing is here.

It's been an interesting week for Louis Vuitton lawsuits. The company received the results of two lawsuits and ended up winning one and losing one. Louis Vuitton claimed a Las Vegas company, Huate Diggity Dog, infringed on their trademark with its furry "Chewy Vuiton" dog toys, plush toys that resemble the handbag company's posh purses. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an earlier ruling that the toys represent a parody, one which is made clear by the fact that the company also makes produces such as the "Furcedes" and "Chewnel No. 5."

Louis Vuitton did better with a lawsuit regarding a Britney Spears video that was found to be violating counterfeiting laws. The beleaguered popstar used a pink Vuitton-upholstered dashboard in a music video. A Paris civil court ordered Sony BMG and MTV to stop showing the video for "Do Something" and handed down a fine of $117,000 apiece. Spears herself was not found guilty but the ruling said that the video said that the use of the Vuitton fabric in the video constituted an attack on the brand and its luxury image.

From Bill Gaynor of Legacy Properties:
--Rock and roll impresarios Janet and Jack Boyle recently purchased a 5500 sq ft ocean front home in Kennebunkport for $3.55 million.
Dr. Neil Warren of E-harmony.com fame recently moved into another Kennebunkport estate. Neil and Marilyn Warren completed the construction of his 12,000 sq ft home that they paid $3,000,000 for in and is said to have invested another $3 million in the finish work.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Rumor has it that Britney Spears has been looking for a West Village loft in the $9 million price range.
Jessica Simpson has also been spotted touring New York listings including one on West 17th Street with a $3.99 million price tag.
--The co-op apartment that served as the office of late historian Arthur Schlesinger has already gone to contract after only two weeks on the market. The two-bedroom apartment had a $1.5 million asking price.
--After selling the townhouse on East 62nd Street that he owned for 20 years, director Martin Scorcese has bought another vintage home just two blocks away. He paid $12.5 million for a six-bedroom townhouse.

From US Weekly:
--Parents-to-be Nicole Richie and Joel Madden recently made an offer on a home in a gated Southern California community only to be denied by their potential neighbors over fears of the swarm of paparazzi that follow the couple.

From Berg Properties Celebrity Big Time Listings:
--Singer Michelle Branch has sold her five-bedroom, 5,296-square-foot house in Calabasas, Calif. for $2,940,000.
--Is Nicole Scherzinger, formerly of the Pussycat Dolls, the owner of the house that Daisy Fuentes sold last year in the Hollywood Hills?

From The Insider:
Earlier this week I mentioned that Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch had entered the early stages of foreclosure but his representative says that he is just in the middle of refinancing.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Bruce Willis has bought the three-bedroom apartment of Donald Trump enemy Eugenia Kaye at Trump Place's 220 Riverside Boulevard for $4.26 million. Willis was reportedly renting a condo at Trump International on Central Park West for around $50,000 a month.
--Even though Mark Rachesky, the chairman of Leap Wireless, paid $20 million last year for an 18-room apartment at 998 Fifth Avenue, he and his wife, Jill, have now paid $33,444,500 for a duplex at 834 Fifth Avenue, where Rupert Murdoch owns a triplex penthouse. The couple haven't listed their 988 Fifth Avenue co-op yet. Billionaire Len Blavatnik, who we mentioned earlier this week for his possible $125 million apartment purchase, also bought an apartment there last year for $27.5 million.
Acotr/writer Peter Masterson and his wife Carlin Glynn have sold their penthouse duplex at 1165 Fifth Avenue for $10.875 million to hedge-fund star Brenda Earl.
--Mariska Hargatay spent $7 million last month for a a penthouse at the block-long O'Neill Building in the Flatiron District. Rock manager Cliff Burnstein and Sabra Turnbull also recently bought in the building, taking the second top-floor penthouse, for $7,215,000.

From the Real Estalker:
--The Real Estalker Mama does some digging and unearths the fact that Will Ferrell is the owner of one of the homes formerly owned by serial real estate lover and leaver Ellen DeGeneres. His home in the Hollywood Hills was listed at $9,900,000.
--Cinematographer Lance Accord has listed his gorgeously secluded home in the Beachwood Canyon area for $2.325 million (that's the pool, shown above). This one is amazing, check out the property website here.
-- Hillary Swank is looking for a place in New York and may have picked up a two bedroom unit in "Superior Ink" building in the far West Village (via NY Mag).
--Kanye West has relisted his home in Beverly Hills. He bought in February for $7,150,000 and has now relisted at $8,699,000. The property is in tear-down condition but does include plans for a two-story contemporary home. As the Real Estalker aptly notes, that's a whole lotta money for some plans.
--Star stylist Rachel Zoe has put her home on the market, it's our estate of the day later today.
--Robert C. Wright, the chairman and CEO of NBC Universal has put his penthouse at The Heritage at Trump Place" on the market for $14.75 million. Wright and his wife bought the nine-room residence in March 2007 for $10,695,000.
--Mariel Hemingway and Stephen Crisman have put their six-bedroom home in Westlake Village on the market for $3.199 million. The listing is here.
--Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis have purchased a 150-year-old mansion in Somerset, England.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Beck and his wife Marissa Ribisi have bought a home on the Estside for $7 million.
--Former hockey star Luc Robitaille and his family have bought a home in Santa Monica which was priced at slightly more than $4.6 million. Their house in Holmby Hills is still on the market for $3.849 million. The property webiste is here.
--Actor Malcolm Gets has listed his home in Los Feliz for $1.099 million. The listing is here.
--Michael Schur, Emmy-winning co-executive producer and writer on NBC's "The Office," and his wife, J.J. Philbin, co-executive producer and writer on NBC's "Heroes," have put their Miracle Mile home on the market at $1.649 million. The property website is here.