rachael ray

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--As was first reported by Bob at Big Time Listings, Howard Stern has paid $15.1 million for the apartment directly below his West Side condo in order to create a massive over 8,400-square-foot penthouse. Stern's buy is a combination of three separate units. He first bought in the building in 1998 when he combined two penthouse apartments.
--Baseball player Alex Rodriguez has been spotted checking out a home at the San Remo co-op. The five-bedroom home is listed at $6.975 million, a little mdoest by A-Rod standards.
--Rachael Ray has finally closed on her Southampton home. The home on 6.2 acres had a list price of $2.9 million.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Model Isabeli Fontana just spent $3.37 million on a three-bedroom apartment in the Trump Place development on Riverside Boulevard. She already has a penthouse in a Trump condo a few doors down. Fontana, who currently fronts the H&M lingerie campaign, already has two children so perhaps she needs the extra room.
--Model Jessica Stam, who is just 21, has already bought her third New York apartment .She first sold a co-op on East 16th Street, for $510,000 in August 2004 and bought an $800,000 condo four blocks down. She sold that place for $935,000 and now has paid $1.4 million for a loft at the Petersfield on Fourth Avenue.
--DJ AM has paid $1.995 million for a 1,147-square-foot apartment at One Kenmare Square, André Balazs'condo on Lafayette Street.
--Ex-Senator George Mitchell, who recently released a report on baseball's steroids problem, has sold his 3,150-square-foot, two-unit apartment at the posh Grand Millennium condo at 1965 Broadway which was listed for $6.65 million.
--Author and motivational speaker Dr. Joy Browne has sold her four-room duplex penthouse for $3.29 million to the art publishers Martin Bondell and Juliette Galant.

Also from the Observer:
--Suze Orman and her partner Kathy Travis paid $3,610,886 and 34 cents in cash for a condo at the Plaza in New York.
--Bob Costas and his wife Jill Sutton have picked up an $11 million condo on Central Park West.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--The official price of Simpson's voice Dan Castellaneta's house sale is $3,305,000.
--A look at the real estate dealings of currently jailed actor/celebrated bad boy Keifer Sutherland. As many know he owns a large warehouse building in Silverlake with the downstairs as a recording studio and living quarters upstairs. He also owns two other L.A. area homes.
--Jack Black has sold a 2,694-square-foot house in Los Angeles' Beachwood Canyon area for $1.462 million.
--via the Wall Street Journal, Burt Reynolds has dropped the asking price of his waterfront mansion in Hobe Sound, Fla. from $12,900,000 to $10,500,000. The listing is here.
--Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have sold their four-bedroom house in Nashville for $2.36 million and picked up 36 acres in Franklin, TN for $2.45 million.
--The records have cleared on a Beverly Hills home once owned by pianist and composer Burt Bacharach. It was listed for $3,495,000 and sold on August 31 for $2,990,000.
--A home in Studio City that was once owned by actress Jane Leeves has sold for an undisclosed price after having been on the market for $2,995,000.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
A Southampton, N.Y., estate formerly owned by Martin "Marty" Richards, who produced the Oscar-winning 2002 film "Chicago" and many Broadway plays, has just gone on the market for $65 million. It is our estate of the day, later today.
--Thomas Theobald, a former chairman of Continental Bank and his wife, writer, Gigi Mahon have listed their Greenwich, Conn., mansion for $17.9 million. We covered the home as an estate of the day back in November.
--A Houston mansion originally owned by Joanne King Herring the socialite played by Julia Roberts in the movie "Charlie Wilson's War" has gone on the market for $3.5 million, shown above. Ms. Herring built the home in 1954. The exceedingly lavish home includes a ballroom with wood paneling decorated with gilded bronze cherubs, violins and lyres. The listing is here.

From the Real Estalker:
--Phil Romano, the restaurant owner responsible for Fuddruckers and Romano's Macaroni Grill has put his Dallas, Texas home on the market for $17.5 million. Wow, the wine cellar is like a retail store. Check it out at the listing here.
--As the Real Estalker predicted, Ellen DeGeneres who recently bought Max Mutchnick's freshly built Bev Hills mansion for $29 million, has also picked up the Cabrillo Drive property across the street.
--The Real Estalker Mama breaks down just how many celebs are moving into the much vaunted 15 Central Park West building in New York.
--Linda Bollea (also known as Linda Hogan, wife of Hulk Hogan) was recently renting a home in Little Holmby Hills for a rumored $18,000 per month.

From the AP:
An estate that belonged to late society photographer Lord Lichfield has been sold for more than £34 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Johnny Depp has yet to move in to the penthouse he bought in the turquoise Art Deco Eastern Columbia Building in downtown L.A. All but half a dozen lofts on the penthouse level have been sold and prices run from the high $600,000 range to $2.2 million. Other buyers include comedian Ant and Slade Smiley, who was on the TV show "The Real Housewives of Orange County."
--Alfred Villalobos, a former deputy mayor to Mayor Richard Riordan, has listed his compound in a Woodland Hills gated community at $3.6 million. The listing is here.
--A portion of the property in West Hollywood that once belong to Irvin Willat, a silent-film director, is expected to be on the market soon for around $30 million.

What could be better than food, wine and fun in South Beach? The South Beach Wine & Food Festival is a three-day celebration of food and wine indulgence February 24 – Sunday, February 26. Events include the Moët & Chandon BubbleQ with grillmaster Bobby Flay & friends, wine tasting seminars and luncheons and a special dinner to honor the grand master of quirky cuisine, Ferran Adrià that will be attended by top chefs like Emeril Lagasse, Thomas Keller and Nobu Matsuhisa and hosted by Anthony Bourdain. The dinner is followed by a dessert party and the next day dessert chef Maida Heatter receives a lifetime achievement award at a special tribute brunch. Many of the most noted food and wine personalities are attending the event and there are even cooking demonstrations for kids that will include Emeril Lagasse, Alton Brown and Rachael Ray. Weekend passes are already sold out but many of the ala carte ticket options are still available including the Celebrity Chefs Golf Invitational which costs $500 per person. The picture shown here is of Todd English at last year's festival. English will also be participating this year in the Sunday tribute brunch and Wine Spectator's Best of the Best event on Friday night.