britneyspears

Digital art innovator Laurence Gartel has had his work exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art among others and is known for creating custom pieces for the likes of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears.

His latest "masterpiece," however is rather abominable -- the world's ugliest Ferrari. And he claims it's worth $1 million.

We don't think Gartel, whose work is in the permanent collection of Smithsonian's Museum of American History, set out to make the luxury car unattractive. He transformed a $300,000 Ferrari F430 Scuderia into a moving canvas using every color imaginable in a nightmarish combination, apparently commissioned by "art social network," Artfellas.

Check out a video of the emetic supercar above, but be forewarned -- Ferrari lovers might cry, and the rest of you will probably need a bucket.

The Kardashians seem to be everywhere lately. Just the past few months have given us one Kardashian (Khloe) at the White House with her basketball player husband and another Kardashian (Kim) at the Super Bowl with her football player boyfriend. And then there are the reality television shows and the commercials. And it's not over yet. Kim Kardashian has produced mini-documentary titled The Spindustry about the promotion for Sugar Factory's luxury lollipops with Kardashian friend Jonathan Cheban of Command PR.

Kim Kardashian has her own line of lollipops with the company. The pops each have crystal-covered sticks and interchangeable color-coordinated heads. Former Spice Girl Mel B also has a line of the pops. The Pussycat Dolls and Britney Spears had lines of the lollipops to support their most recent tours. The Couture Pops cost $25 each and additional heads are $12 for three.

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]

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.

As part of the triumvirate of Hollywood bad girls that includes Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, Britney Spears has not had great luck with cars. Her most recent white Mercedes has been involved in all sorts of minor scrapes and paparazzi incidents. It's no surprise that the free-spending popwreck opted for a new car, and why not go for an upgrade, a brand new Mercedes SL65. After all, a girl who makes over $700,000 a month can afford a $200,000 car. But why the same color, white, as the one before? And, considering her own bad vehicle luck why would she opt for the very same type of car that Lindsay Lohan got her DUI in? Personally I'd like to see Britney in a Lexus hybrid, nice and safe for the kids and a bit kinder to the environment, considering the girl is always on the move, yet still high end enough for a big spender. What kind of car do you think Britney should drive?

Star Magazine is reporting that Britney Spears has bought this Mediterranean villa in Beverly Hills listed. The six-bedroom home is listed $7.2 million and the listing currently shows "sale pending" at the agent listing. Star reports that Britney looked at it on December 7 and stayed in the house for five hours, even getting ready for her evening out there.

The home was built in 2001 and has over 7400 square feet, of space including a double-height living room, office, media room and attached maid's quarters. Our friend Zillow reports that it was sold in 2002 for $2,650,000. Overall it's not a bad house, it's posh and spacious if perhaps a bit unremarkable. Sounds perfect for her.