leona lewis

The Fashion Statement: Body Art

No longer content with rockin' the usual cocktail dress and stilettos on the red carpet, celebrities have turned to body art. Body painting is having a moment at press events, concerts, in magazines and on TV.

A few weeks ago, Ke$ha started tongues wagging about her glow-in-the-dark neon body paint and Native American headdress she wore on Saturday Night Live. Not many were getting the tribal-warrior-in-space thing. Critics complained of sensory overload, noting that the visual mayhem distracted from her mediocre performance (maybe that was the point).

Back in March, British singer Leona Lewis (pictured above) sported an eye patch at Perez Hilton's birthday bash. No doubt just following the dress code for the carnival-themed party, nymag.com poked fun at her for wearing a clown collar and a lace eye patch.

In February Soccer players WAGS (wives and girlfriends in British slang) Sarah Brander, Abbey Clancy, Bethany Dempsey and Melissa Satta were photographed in body paint by Joanne Gair for the Sports Illustrated 2010 swimsuit issue. Gair is the body paint guru having painted models for the swimsuit issue 12 years. Most of you probably know her work from the Demi Moore's Birthday Suit cover for Vanity Fair back in the '90s.

And, of course, what would a Hugh Hefner Playboy party be without nude bunnies running around in painted-on bikinis and corsets? And, last year, a Carnival queen in Sao Paulo grabbed headlines for painting President Barack Obama's face on her left thigh.

Gallery: The Fashion Statement:Body Paint

Tags: body paint, BodyPaint, Kesha, Leona Lewis, LeonaLewis, Maori, Playboy bunnies, PlayboyBunnies, Rodarte, WAGS

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Sunday Real Estate Round-Up, 11/29/09

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the Real Estalker:
--Actor Oliver Hudson has listed his West Hollywood home, shown above, at $1.035 million. The listing is here.
--Singer Leona Lewis has picked up a Hollywood home for $1.85 million.
--Christina Ricci has listed a two-bedroom home in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. The listing is here.
From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Movie executive Peter Guber has sold his Kauai home for $28 million.
--Tennis player Mats Wilander has dropped the price of his home in Sun Valley, Idaho to $5.95 million. It was listed at $7.9 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day.

Gallery: Cove Meadow

--Retired New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan has listed his loft in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood for $1.5 million. The listing is here.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--The Soho loft that Josh Hartnett lived in until recently has been sold for $2.030 million.
--via the NY Observer, Samuel I. Newhouse IV, the grandson of Condé Nast chief Si Newhouse is moving to Tribeca and paid $2.465 million for a loft.
--via Curbed, Hedge fund mogul Bill Ackman has found a buyer for his 3,000-square-foot co-op at the Majestic. The three-bedroom apartment, which went on the market for $10 million in April, was listed for $7.9 million when it went into contract earlier this month.
--Beverly Kerzner, the daughter of South African gambling magnate Sol Kerzner, has dropped the price of her triplex at 213 West 23rd Street.It was listed at $15 million but is now for sale for $9.495 million.
--via the NY Post, Samuel L. Jackson is reportedly the mystery buyer behind the purchase of a condo at 76 Crosby Street. The second-floor apartment was most recently listed for $4.35 million but Jackson is reportedly picking it up for just under $4.1 million. Check out the listing here.
--Joseph Betesh, president of the Dr. Jay's chain of clothing stores, has put his 28th-floor condo at 15 Central Park West on the market for $12.9 million. The listing is here.
--via Newsday, billionaire tycoon Ira Rennert is about to get a new neighbor. The 5,000-square-foot mansion next door to Rennert's estate in Sagaponack has gone into contract to sell, less than two months after it went on the market for $11.5 million.
--via Curbed, music video director Ed Steinberg has put his duplex at 60 Broadway in South Williamsburg on the market for $1.3495 million. The listing is here.
--via Curbed, art historian Hugh Crean has put his Victorian townhouse on the market for $1.595 million. The listing is here.
--via the NY Observer, Dr. Hilel Lewis, an ophthalmologist and the former head of the Cleveland Clinic's Cole Eye Institute, has put his three-bedroom condo at the Time Warner Center on the market for $14.9 million, $8.9 million more than he paid for it in 2007. The listing is here.
--via the NY Observer, Harper's Bazaar publisher Valerie Salembier and her husband, former Revlon president Paul Block, have paid $2.55 million for a three-bedroom apartment at 860 United National Plaza.
--Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and his wife Laura have cut the price on their five-bedroom co-op at 941 Park Avenue to $13.5 million. The listing is here.

From Homes and Property UK:
--Comedian and novelist Ben Elton won't be selling his £4 million London home even thouse he is moving to Australia.
--Film producer and former BAFTA chairman Simon Relph is selling The Old Malthouse, his eight-bedroom Wiltshire home near Bath, for £1.25 million through Savills. The listing is here.
--Gardener Clare Cooke is selling Little West Barn Farm, her Grade-II listed, six-bedroom Georgian home in Somerset, for £2.75 million. The listing is here.

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
--Actor Robert Conrad and his wife, LaVelda, have listed their equestrian property in Thousand Oaks for $2.25 million. The listing is here.
--Film and TV producer David Niven Jr. has sold his Sunset Strip-area home for $5 million.

Tags: celebrity real estate, CelebrityRealEstate, josh hartnett, JoshHartnett, leona lewis, LeonaLewis, mats wilander, MatsWilander, oliver hudson, OliverHudson, peter guber, PeterGuber

Leona Lewis Sings At Billionaire's Request

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

British billionaire John Caudwell made his daughter very happy for her 21st birthday. He paid singer Leona Lewis £1 million to sing at his daughter Libby's birthday party. The singer, famous for her song "Bleeding Love" performed seven songs in front of 200 partygoers. The Sun has a couple of camera phone pics of the event. Lewis is reportedly on a month's holiday and has been taking a break from performing until next year while she concentrates on her second album. She made an exception for this event.

Apparently Caudwell does this sort of thing on a regular basis. He flew in Diana Ross to serenade his girlfriend Claire Johnson on her 40th birthday at his mansion in January and last last year he paid Whitney Houston £1.7 million to sing at a charity event. He's planning to have Rod Stewart sing at a private fundraising party in London's Battersea Park in May.

John Caudwell is #450 on the Forbes billionaire list for 2009. He sold his stake in the Caudwell Group, the U.K. mobile phone giant best known for its Phones4U brand in 2006. He spends much of his time raising money for his Caudwell Children charity.

Source

Tags: john caudwell, JohnCaudwell, leona lewis, LeonaLewis, meet the billionaires, MeetTheBillionaires