The latest architectural project to be shelved due to the economic crisis is the planned U2 Tower in Dublin, Ireland. The tower which has been in the planning stages for several years, was to have been the tallest building in Ireland. The Dublin Docklands Development Authority has said they are still committed to the project and are just putting it on hold until monetary conditions improve. The tower was supposed to have a recording studio for U2 at the top of the building as well as 180 apartments priced at over one million euros each, a price that now seems unreasonable as Ireland faces recession.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is selling a massive 8-ft. wide Jean-Michel Basquiat painting at Christie's in New York on Nov. 12, where it's expected to fetch about $12 million. Untitled (Boxer) (above), painted in 1982, is an important "proxy self-portrait,'' Brett Gorvy, Christie's international co-head of postwar and contemporary art, tells Bloomberg. "The black artist as defiant hero.'" In 2002, Ulrich, a noted collector, sold Basquiat's 1982 Profit I at Christie's for $5.5 million. In July, Irish rock band U2 sold the artist's Untitled (Pecho/Oreja) for $10.1 million at Sotheby's in London. The auction record for a Basquiat work was set at Sotheby's in New York last year with the $14.6 million sale of 1981's Untitled.

Last week the Belfast Telegraph and other sources reported that Bono had bought the 140-foot Cyan yacht. Now it turns out that the purchaser was a different member of U2, The Edge. Edge told the Irish Independent that he bought the £12m luxury yacht and that his wife Morleigh Steinberg has spent the past few months in the south of France redecorating the yacht. He says it was a dream to own a yacht and that he and a few friends chipped in to purchase the Cyan but that Bono doesn't have anything to do with. In fact, he is quoted as saying "Bono doesn't know a thing about boats."

Not to be outdone by archrival Christie's, Sotheby's is staging its own major Contemporary Art auction in London on July 1st. With total pre-sale estimates topping $130 million, the event is being billed as "the highest value summer sale of contemporary art ever held by Sotheby's in Europe." The untitled Jean-Michel Basquiat painting belonging to Irish rockers U2 that my colleague Deidre Woollard mentioned earlier this month is a top draw in the auction, with an estimate of $8 - $12 million.

Other highlights include two important works by Francis Bacon: Figure Turning, painted 1962, est. $20 - $30 million, and Study for Head of George Dyer, painted in 1967, est. at over $16 million. Rounding out the other notable big-ticket items are Richard Prince's Overseas Nurse, 2002, est. at $8 - $12 million - more than the current Prince auction record; and Andy Warhol's 1964 Large Campbell's Soup Can (pictured right), est. $5 - $7 million. Also of interest: tennis great John McEnroe is selling his 1986 Warhol portrait with ex Tatum O'Neal, est. only $500,000 - $700,000. See the gallery for images.

Celebrities often buy and sell art, (as Hugh Grant did last year when he parted with his Warhol) but it's rarer that the painting belongs to a band. The piece above, a powerful painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat belonging to rock band U2, will be auctioned July 1 at Sotheby's London. Untitled (Pecho/Oreja), completed in 1983, is estimated to sell for £4-6 million ($7.775-11.662 million) but could go higher.

U2 bassist Adam Clayton first spotted the painting, which is acrylic, oil stick and paper collage on canvas, and the band bought it way back in 1989, a year after Basqiat's untimely death. It has hung in their Dublin studio ever since. The painting, which was begun when Basquiat was just 22 features some of his popular motifs including the stylized, skull-like face, the small crown and his use of words and scrawled lines to invoke an urgent chaos. BBC News reports that the current auction record for a Basquiat work stands at $14.6 million.

U2 singer and activist, Bono, is auctioning off his Ducati 916 motorcycle on December 2nd at the International Motorcycle and Scooter Show in Birmingham, UK. This bike was also previously owned by the late INXS singer Michael Hutchence and another U2 member, Adam Clayton. Quite the special ride! The proceeds from this auction will support Riders for Health, a self-funded organization that carries out its healthcare mission in Africa by using motorcycles to reach remote locations. So if you are looking for a new ride that has a celebrity history and connections to a great cause bid on December 2nd at the Black Horse Stage in the Arai Entertainment zone at 12:00. Best of luck!

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
-- Icelandic businessman Jon Asgeir Johannesson will be combining the $16 million penthouse he bought for $10 million at Ian Schrager's 50 Gramercy Park North with a $10.175 million unit he bought in December on the floor directly below. His new triplex will be nearly 8,000 square feet.
--Ethel Kennedy has lowered the price of her Hickory Hill home in the Washington D.C. suburbs to $12.5 million, It first hit the market for $25 million. Check out the home here.
-David Bouley has bought new-construction loft above his restaurant for $3.15 million.
--House & Garden has pulled out of having a Hamptons decorator show house, leaving only the Hamptons Cottages & Gardens Idea House, located in Amagansett which will be open to the public July 13.
--The Southampton summer home of the late Patricia Kennedy Lawford is on the market for $12 million. The listing for the 10-bedroom mansion is here.
--Esquire magazine will create the next version of the "Ultimate Bachelor Pad" in Harlem. A full-floor penthouse apartment at the nearly completed 111 Central Park North will be get the full decorator treatment.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Actor Harry Anderson is selling his properties in New Orleans. He has sold the New Orleans building where he and his wife had lived. Anderson sold his house at 828 Chartres Street for $895,000. The building that he converted into a nightclub knows as Oswald's Speakeasy is listed at $1.795 million. The listing is here. Anderson and his wife have bought a new house for $570,000 in Asheville, N.C.
--Alexis Carson, the widow of talk-show legend Johnny Carson sold the couple's 4-acre oceanfront Malibu estate for between $38 million and $40 million, has sold a 17th-floor unit in Los Angeles' Westwood neighborhood for $3,995,000, and last summer paid $14.5 million for a 13,623-square-foot house above Beverly Hills.
--Dave Evans, U2's Edge has bought a loft penthouse in New York City's TriBeCa area a while back for $4,276,650.
--Nicolas Cage has paid $3,450,000 for a the LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans' French Quarter.

From the Real Estalker:
--Michael Skloff and Marta Kauffman, the creators of Friends, have listed a pair of parcels on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu for $20 million. There is a three-bedroom home and plans for a 7,565 square ft. main home and guest home on separate legal parcel. Check out pics at the listing here.
--Posh and Becks, a.k.a. Victoria and David Beckham have bought somewhere in Beverly Hills. The Real Estalker Mama knows the address but alas, she's not telling except to say that it is not far from David Geffen's estate and the Saperstein mansion.
--Designer Xorin Balbes has a gorgeous flip in the "Birds" streets. The six-bedroom modern is listed at $6.8 million. If you love modern design sit through the flash tour, it's definitely worth it.
--Producer Brian Grazer and author Gigi Levangie Grazer have listed their Pacific Palisades home for $27.5 million. The large nine-bedroom Cliff May Ranch has been renovated and redesigned. The listing for the big gorgeous home is here.
--Joseph and Justine Simmons other wise known as Rev. Run and his wife have listed their home in Saddle River, New Jersey for $5.5 million. It's not as ostentatious as his brother Russell's house but it's still lavish. You can check out the listing here.
--Lisa Gores, who was married to billionaire Alec Gores, is selling her Beverly Hills home for $3.895 million.
--Singer Natalie Imbruglia has listed her Los Angeles home for $4.5 million. The five-bedroom home is a charming and luxe Mediterranean villa with all sorts of glamorous details. Check out the listing here.


From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Lee Marvin's widow Pamela Marvin is asking $6 million for a Tucson, Ariz., home she shared with her late husband, Academy Award-winning actor Lee Marvin. The five-bedroom home sits on 12 acres and was built in 1936. Check out the listing to see one giant marlin on the wall.
--Film producer and Gateway Inc. co-founder Norman Waitt Jr. has cut more than $2 million off the price of the Montecito mansion he built but never moved into. The home known as Belle Epoque is now listed at $22.5 million. What does $22.5 million get you in Montecito? We'll find out later, it's our estate of the day.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--U2's longtime manager, Paul McGuinness, and his wife Kathy have bought a fifth-floor, six-room apartment at 40 East 62nd for $3.25 million.
--Keith Olbermann has bought a 40th-floor apartment in an Upper East Side Trump condominium for $4.2 million.
--Lawyer Howard Yaruss has paid $3.56 million for the dilapidated 16th-floor co-op at 80 Central Park West that belonged to the late Ralph Ginzburg.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Actor Brad Garrett has put his Hidden Hills home on the market at $9,495,000. The six-bedroom home is big but it's not very pretty. The listing is here.
--Gary Anthony Williams, who plays the transvestite legal secretary Clarence/Clarice Bell in the ABC series "Boston Legal," and his wife, Leslie, have bought in Sherman Oaks for about $1.5 million.

The band U2 is behind a plan to build the tallest tower in Ireland. The Irish Times reports that the plans for the U2 Tower on Dublin's south Docklands has been lodged with the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. The twisting tower will be 130 meters (427 feet) tall and will be topped by a recording suite for U2 in a penthouse to replace U2's existing studios which are set to be demolished. The project is expected to be completed in the next couple of years and will contain 182 one, two and three bedroom apartments which should sell at prices starting around 1 million euros. The tower twists as it rises so that the last floor is rotated 45 degrees from the first floor. The project has been the source of some controversy and the project has been repeatedly delayed but hopefully it will proceed as planned now.

This new special edition iPod is a tribute to the band U2. The casing is black and it has a black steel back, which is engraved with the signatures of the band members. Differentiating it from other black iPods is the distinctive red click wheel. The iPod has 30GB of storage, with room for up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 photos, or 75 hours of videos. The black U2 iPod is $329. Included with purchase is an exclusive 30-minute U2 video from iTunes.