From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--James H. Herbert II, the chairman and chief executive of the First Republic Bank, listed his penthouse at Trump Parc East on Central Park South, shown above, earlier this month for $38 million, nearly four times what he paid back in 2005. The listing is here.
--Real estate investor Keith Rubenstein and his wife Inga have spent $3.2 million on a two-bedroom duplex at 101 Warren Street in Tribeca. The duplex is smaller than the $20 million penthouse he had originally agreed to buy in the building. Rubenstein, his wife and their son, Keith Jr., will stay in the Warren Street apartment for about two years while their new East 62nd mansion is renovated.
--Enrique Norten paid $1.929 million for an apartment at One York Street, the building he designed in northern Tribeca.
--Pete Peterson, the co-founder and senior chairman of the Blackstone Group, and the chairman emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, has bought that organization's apartment at the Imperial House co-op on East 69th Street, paying the council $3.04 million. Peterson bought the apartment so that Leslie Gelb, the council's so-called Board Senior Fellow and its president from 1993 to 2003 could continue to live there with his family.
--An apartment belonging to hedge fund manager Vedula Murti and his wife Seema Kalia and designed by Madonna's designer, Jamie Drake is now on the market for $10.75 million. The couple bought for $7,127,750 two years ago. Check out the colorful listing here.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--The loft apartment in SoHo where Heath Ledger died in January ins now listed for $26,000 a month. The listing is here.
--Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of England's Manchester United Football Club is picking up a three-bedroom penthouse in Manhattan House, at 200 E. 66th St.
--Developer Janna Bullock has bought a brand-new apartment at the Plaza for $8.78 million.

From Newsday's Real LI:
--J.Crew chief executive Millard Drexler is in contract to buy a house in Wainscott for $17 million.
--Quarterback Chad Pennington has gone into contract on his Muttontown home. It was our estate of the day earlier this month.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--The official sale price on Tom Arnold's Tarzana home was $1.8 million which was below the list price of $2.275 million and below the amount that Tom paid for the house in late 2006.
-Actor Hamish Linklater who stars on "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and his playwright wife Jessica Goldberg have put their three-bedroom home in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles on the market for $675,000. They have picked up a new home in Los Feliz that had been listed at $1.397 million for $1.362 million. The listing for the home for sale is here.
--The estate of Heath Ledger has sold his Hollywood Hills home for $2.5 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Dallas Cowboys quarterback and Jessica Simpson's boyfriend Tony Romo has picked up a home in Irving, Texas that was listed at $699,000.
--Quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bundchen are rumored to have have paid $11.75 million for a 3.6-acre vacant lot in the same gated neighborhood in Brentwood that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lives in.
--via the San Francisco Chronicle, a penthouse in the St. Regis Residences San Francisco is being listed for $70 million. VIctor MacFarlane bought all three (unfinished) pricey penthouse units at the St. Regis back in late 2005 for a reported $30 million which set a record in San Francisco at the time. The property is around 20,000 square feet of space with four terraces and features 360 degree views.
--Rumor has it that Mel Gibson snapped up Tea Leoni and David Duchovny's Malibu mansion which was quickly on the market for $12 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Hedge-fund manager John Paulson has lowered the price on his Hamptons home by $2.6 million. It is now listed at $16.9 million. He bought it for $12.75 million in 2006. The listing is here.
--Boston Celtics player Ray Allen has lowered the price of his former Seattle-area home to $5.2 million from $6 million. It was our estate of the day on Saturday.
--Former Seattle Mariners outfielder Jay Buhner has listed his custom-built home on 80 acres for $12 million, we'll be checking that one out as Monday's estate of the day.
--Manhattan's Spence School, an all-girls, K-12 private school founded in 1892, recently closed on its purchase of a $27 million townhouse directly behind its main East Side building.


From the LA Times Hot Property:
--David Barrett, a producer and director who has worked on episodes of "Cold Case," "Smallville" and "Bionic Woman," has bought a house in Toluca Lake for $1.2 million.
--John Cleese has put another Montecito home on the market, this time for $10.75 million. The listing for his Fernald Point beach front home is here.
--Studio musician Jason Sinay has sold his six-bedroom home in the Beverly Hills flats area for $6 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--We've heard about this for a while but now it's official Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams are living in the Treehouse, a 2,000 square-foot post-and-beam house that was once the home of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi.
--Rodeo cowboy Todd Tee Tramp is selling his five-acre Lancaster ranch and moving to Missouri. The ranch is listed at $719,900.
--The Beverly Hills home of actor Jimmy Stewart was torn down in 2000 and now a mansion built on the site of his house and garden has been sold for its $25-million asking price.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Star Jones has pulled her apartment off the market.
--Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik has finally found his co-op in New York. He bought a full-floor apartment belonging to investment banker Peter Schoenfeld for its asking price of $27.5 million. Blavatnik had been turned down when he tried to buy Mary Tyler Moore's apartment at 927 Fifth Ave.
-- Stone Phillips has sold is apartment for $4.45 million.
--What price nostalgia? Garrison Keillor has bought the same apartment in the El Dorado he sold back in the 1990s for around $760,000 for the price of $3.6 million.
-- Solaria, the new 20-story building in Riverdale has constructed a white dome-shaped observatory on the rooftop equipped with a Meade telescope. All residents will get stargazing lessons as well as a free one-year membership to the Museum of Natural History, home of the Rose Center Planetarium.
--Mary Tyler Moore has sold a co-op appointment she has owned in the San Remo for $6.6 million.


From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Dan Abrams is buyingg the Greenwich Village apartment he has been renting for $2.17 million .
--Republican fundraiser Mallory Factor sold his townhouse to Perry Dean Rogers president Steven Foote.
--You can live under Barbara Walters for $18.9 million. It's our estate of the day later today. The estate belongs to the Lindemann family. Adam Lindemann recently sold an apartment that was listed at $21 million.
--A "green" townhouse on Reade Street in Tribeca has been sold for $7.7 million. The home has geothermal heating and cooling systems.
--Jonathan Grayer, the chairman and C.E.O. of test-prep company Kaplan, has sold his Upper West Side condo for $7.195 million.

We mentioned recently that Heath Ledger had put his Australian house on the market, now he has chosen a home in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. His  $4.7 million home is a 150-year-old house with four floors, a three-car garage and a ground-floor tenant. Ledger and Michelle Williams had been renting a smaller home nearby. Ledger finds Brooklyn a little less paparazzi-heavy than Sydney and according to The Daily Telegraph he's a big hit with the neighbors.

[via Gawker and Brownstoner]

If you've seen the much-nominated movie Brokeback Mountain, you know the importance of the shirts shown here. The shirts used in the movie are now up on eBay as part of Variety's  Children's Charity Auction. The auction started late last night and is set to end on February 20. Bidding is already rising quickly for the shirts.

[via Defamer]

Oscar nominee Heath Ledger is leaving Sydney, Australia for now. His home on Bronte Beach is for sale. The three-level home was bought for $4.45 million in 2004 and has four bedrooms, a home office, a 1700-bottle wine cellar, carpeted double garage and home theater. Other details include polished concrete floors, custom walnut shelving, oak paneling in the home theater, large terraces and state-of-the-art security. It is for sale for $7 million Austrailan. More pictures after the jump.

[Thanks, Charles!]