mary j blige

Sunday Real Estate Round-Up, 03/06/11

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the LA Times:
--A legendary Hollywood Hills party house owned by English photographer Richard Franklin is listed at $7.5 million. The home has been rented to a variety of entertainment figures and is a bachelor pad and photo studio with a two-story disco, a theater with a floor-to-ceiling movie screen, a casino, a gym a grotto with a hot tub, a pool and a canopied deck. The listing is here.
--The childhood home of Oscar-winning actress and singer Judy Garland has sold in Bel-Air for $5.2 million. The 1938 two-story house designed by Wallace Neff went on the market at $5.5 million just a few weeks ago.

From the Real Estalker:
--The listing for Jennifer Aniston's $42 million Beverly Hills mansion is now live with Jade Mills.

From the NY Post:
--An apartment at 15 Central Park West once rented by Mark Wahlberg has just closed $16.5 million in an all-cash deal.
--Actress Judith Light (she was on "Who's the Boss?" and "Ugly Betty") was spotted apartment hunting at 136 E. 64th St., where she visited a $2.15 million, two-bedroom unit.
--Mary J. Blige has just listed her 25-room Saddle River, New Jersey mansion for $13.9 million. She paid about $12 million for it in 2008.The listing is here (no photos yet).
Rachel Uchitel nearly nabbed Chris Noth as a buyer for her three-bedroom unit at 77 Park Ave., which is listed for $1.95 million. But Noth opted for something closer to the CBS Studio.
-- Alec Baldwin was spotted touring the $12.95 million penthouse at 22 Mercer St..
--Former American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar has rented two-bedroom unit on East 63rd Street while he's in the city.
--Carmelo Anthony checked out Zydrunas Ilgauskas' $37,500-a-month townhouse at 24 Thompson St.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Charlie Sheen is in escrow to a buy home in the Beverly Hills, California neighborhood he already lives in for $7.5 million. The home is currently owned by Mike Medavoy, chief executive of Phoenix Pictures who bought the home several months ago for $6 million. See pictures here.
--Trees Ranch, a 2,070-acre ranch in Utah has hit the market for $30 million. The property is partly owned by the heirs of the late Jim Trees, CEO of New York investment firm Fischer, Francis, Trees & Watts. The listing is here.
--Diego Arria, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, recently sold his Roxbury, Conn., home for $7.75 million.

Tags: alec baldwin, celebrity real estate, jennifer aniston, judith light, julianne moore, mary j blige, tom brady

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Sunday Real Estate Round-Up, 12/19/10

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

From Curbed:
--Metropolitan Home Magazine's 2009 House of the Year in Berkeley, California, shown above, has hit the market for $1.595 million. The property website is here.

From the Miami Daily Business Review:
--Former Miami Heat star Rony Seikaly has sold a custom-built Miami Beach mansion for $11.5 million. He paid $2.15 million for the 0.6-acre 2060 N. Bay Road property in April 2002, tore down the existing home and constructed a nine-bedroom, 10-bathroom mansion in 2005.

From the Real Deal:
--NBA star Zydrunas Ilgauskas and his wife Jennifer have listed their home, Soho's 24 Thompson Street, for rent for $37,500. The home was built by the Novogratzes, stars of Bravo reality show "9 by Design." The Ilgauskases bought the home for for $6.95 million.

From the NY Post:
--Usher has been apartment shopping in New York City at 20 Pine. He checked out an 1,832-square-foot loft penthouse listed for $2.75 million, which is now in contract with Jonathan Reed, the CEO of Spec Entertainment and also looked at a 1,829-square-foot, two-bedroom penthouse that is not yet officially on the market but is quietly being shopped around for $3.1 million. The condo building, designed by Armani/Casa, has been on the market for around five years.
-- Mary J. Blige has also been looking for a New York apartment. She looked at the same $25,000-a-month, three-bedroom rental at 55 Thompson St. that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner looking at last week.
--Trump and Kushner also recently looked at an eight-bedroom Upper East Side spread on Park Avenue that's priced around $5 million.
--David Garrett, the world's fastest violinist, is hoping for speed has listed his one-bedroom condo at 254 Park Ave. South for $1.35 million. The listing is here.
--Internet entrepreneur Sam Hamadeh is putting his Gramercy loft, at 225 E. 24th St., on the market for $5.5 million. The three-bedroom loft is 3,715 square feet and has been on "Gossip Girl" and "Law & Order." The listing is here.
--Gayle King has moved out of the penthouse at 207 E. 57th St. and recently checked out apartments at 535 West End Ave. in the $9 million to $19 million range.
--Hamptons developer Joe Farrell is looking for a pied-a-terre in the city for his family and wants to trade one of the homes he's building on the East End, in the $3 million to $6 million range, for a Manhattan apartment.
--Recording artist Ivan Wilzig, also known as Sir Ivan, looked at Miami's new $60 million 3 Indian Creek mansion.

From the LA Times:
Movie producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall have dropped the price on their vacation home in Telluride, Colorado. It is listed at $19.75 million but was at $22 million when it was our estate of the day last year.

Gallery: Benchmark Drive

--Fashion designer Max Azria and his wife, Lubov, have sold their home in the flats of Beverly Hills to Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos and his wife, ambassador Nicole Avant, for $5.41 million.
--Actor Tom Bresnahan and his wife, Elizabeth French, have sold their Paul Williams-designed home in Silver Lake for $2.1 million.

Tags: celebrity real estate, david garrett, frank marshall, gayle king, kathleen kennedy, mary j blige, max azria, tom bresnahan

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Beyonce Launches Lorraine Schwartz "2BHappy Collection" at Lavo

by Jeffrey Slonim (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Events

On occasion, we've all felt beaten down by a demanding business trip. But, believe it or not, one low travel moment inspired a sparkling new line of jewelry from designer-to-the-stars Lorraine Schwartz. "I was out of the country one day, working really hard," Schwartz recently told Luxist. "I was bitching . . . and all of a sudden, I thought, 'Lorraine, you need to be happy!'"

The epiphany sparked a line of jewelry crafted with diamonds. The bracelet is made of back-to-back capital Bs, "2Be" or "To Be"; a happy face, "Happy"; and a repeat of the Bs, or "To Be Happy to Be," explained Schwartz.

The designer's friend Beyoncé Knowles, known as Queen B to friends and family, was enamored of the double-B concept. "She's B-squared," said Schwartz. In fact, Monday, Knowles, right, hosted the launch of the new Schwartz line at Lavo, Manhattan's hottest new club, on East 58th Street off Madison.

"Lorraine is the most generous, wonderful, talented jewelry designers I know," designer Tina Knowles, Beyoncé's mother, told RSVIP on her way into the soiree. "She can come up with a concept and put it together . . . like that."

Tags: beyonce, Blake Lively, lorraine schwartz, mary j blige, rsvip, tina knowles

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RSVIP: Jewelry Scion Evan Yurman Shines at Glittering Sloan-Kettering Gala

by Jeffrey Slonim (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Events, Celebrity Shopping

While classic jewelry purveyor David Yurman sponsored The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering spring gala in New York on Tuesday, his son Evan carried the torch in person with New York's sparkling social set.

America may find the vacuous catfights between Bravo's "The Real Housewives of New York City" entertaining, but meanwhile, the true socials of New York quietly continue fund-raising for worthy causes such as The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. On May 18, in the ballroom at the Pierre Hotel, they did so with great style, brightened by considerable gems.In fact, the hosts of this third annual gala, designer Tory Burch and her close pal Jamie Tisch, proved so popular that the event sold out before invitations were posted in the mail. Wearing chunky, rosy-red Rubellite chandelier earrings, sunny blonde co-chair Shelley Carr spoke of Yurman's support. "He started as a sculptor, and now his son Evan just helped to open a fabulous townhouse store on Madison," she offered. "I told them I was wearing blue, so they wanted to go with pink Rubellite earrings and ring and bracelets from Yurman's new lattice series."

Evan Yurman, who loaned the statement jewelry, acted like a star magnet in the ballroom. "I studied Italian Renaissance literature and photography," said Yurman's strapping son, also trained as a blacksmith, filling in for Dad that night. The artisan with reddish facial scruff, a skinny straight black tie, and unruly natural curls, told Luxist, "I love analyzing the historic apparel of decadent eras, the wants of jewelry patrons. Rubellite can come from the U.S., Nigeria, and Afghanistan, depending on the different colors of pink that you're looking for . . . [designing with them] can be like painting."

According to young Yurman, co-chair Heather Leeds had on "Prasiolite drop earrings. . . part of our couture collection." Leeds kept her hair up that night to reveal the luminous stones. "I was trying to pick jewelry created with our spring ball colors, either green or purple," she said. "And there were so many beautiful choices."

Mary J. Blige, who performed at the event, wore her golden hair freshly snipped into a honey-striped bob. According to Evan, Blige had on a Yurman's signature Albion ring that matched her hair. "She owns that one," he said of the ring. "She's one of our greatest clients."

"I have a lot of David Yurman chains and rings that I bought at Neiman Marcus," added Blige. And she enjoys mixing in the work of other jewelers; she also had on large cuff with a flower created in sparkling stones, by her friend Lorraine Schwartz.

Tags: david yurman, evan yurman, mary j blige, pierre hotel, rsvip, Sloan-Kettering

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Mary J. Blige To Sell Perfume on HSN

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

Singer Mary J. Blige will become the latest celebrity with a fragrance when her scent 'My Life' debuts this summer. The name of the scent comes from her well-regarded 1994 album. Blige who is an ambassador for and investor in the beauty brand Carol's Daughter is creating her fragrance with the company. The scent won't appear in stores but will be sold through the Home Shopping Network beginning July 31.Carol's Daughter's products have appeared on HSN before and have been a huge hit. HSN is also filming vignettes of Blige's life that will be part of the HSN sales pitch.

The fragrance is described as having top notes of gardenia petals, Bartlett pear and white freesia with a heart of tuberose, blooming jasmine, gold lily and apricot flower and base notes of cashmere woods, praline, sesame and incense. It will sell for $46 for 1.7 ounces and will be sold with a clutch purse. One dollar from every bottle sale will go to her foundation, the Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now. After the jump check out an interview with Blige done by WWD that includes information on her plans to create a fashion line.

Tags: carols daughter, celebrity fragrance, celebrity fragrance line, Celebrity Fragrances, HSUPA, mary j blige, mary j. blige

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