usher

Last month Penfolds became the first wine brand to partner with (PRODUCT)RED, the commerce-driven initiative to raise money to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. Now Belvedere has joined the fight, announcing a partnership with (RED) and the launch of a special edition bottle to raise proceeds for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 50% of profits from the global sale of the special edition will be donated. The bottle will be available in late summer 2011 but it is being unveiled at a pre-Grammy party in Los Angeles on February 10, 2011 with a live performance announcing musician Usher as the brand's new celebrity ambassador. Usher joins a host of celebrity liquor salespeople, a group that includes everyone from Bruce Willis to P. Diddy and Dan Aykroyd.

Hip-hop musical artist Usher commissioned a special one of a kind watch from New York based jeweler and watch maker Tiret. The Usher watch has an oblong oval shaped case (in an undisclosed material that is likely gold) with a diamond designed portrait of Usher on the dial. Containing two Swiss ETA chronograph quartz movements, the watch technically can tell the time in two places. Given the lack of indicators the chronograph mechanisms are more or less worthless, but the point of this pieces is giving Usher the ability to look at himself as though he were made up of diamonds. How many people really get that privilege?

Using all natural stones, the watch has almost 10 carats of diamonds on it and 1106 stones all over the watch. Look at the size of the diamonds on the bezel! Diamonds include white as well as naturally yellow diamonds. Tiret says that the watch was recently featured in a diamond exhibit at the Natural History Museum in London - where other high-end diamond decorated watches were displayed. While not mechanically complex, the special Tired watch for Usher is an interesting look into the life of Usher, and at the types of products that Tiret makes. According to them, the brand only makes custom timepieces and jewelry at this time. Usher is said to have paid $250,000 for the bespoke timepiece.

Usher, a known owner of several watches, does not claim to be a serious watch enthusiast. He prefers the showiness of timepieces as well as the jewelry component. Actually, given many of the watches that Usher has, this Tiret is of the most showy. Usher seems to prefer more classic mechanical timepieces with a masculine edge to them. The box that Tired supplied the Usher watch in doubles as a humidor for 78 cigars and also has a motif of Usher's face on it.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.

An Oscar is to film and a Tony is to Broadway what a FIFI Award is to fragrance.

On June 10, the 38th Annual FIFI Awards commandeered New York's Downtown Armory, adding a sniff of glamour to the behemoth brick Army post. Kim Kardashian appeared vacuum-packed into a gown by Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad. The double breasted scoop in the front, with six large buttons, added gravity-defying lift to Kardashian's ample cleavage. Like everyone at the event, she spoke Fragrancese. "It's basically all my favorite memories in a bottle," said the reality-show star of her eponymous scent, aptly subtitled in the sexy ads, "The voluptuous new fragrance."

"The gardenia [note] is for the family vacations with my dad in Hawaii," she said. "Tuberose reminds me of my mom. All my favorite scents happen to be white florals. I added a bit of orange blossom for citrus," she told Luxist.

Usher, honored as the FIFI's 2010 Fragrance Celebrity of the Year, wore a padded black waistcoat by Alexander McQueen that resembled fencing garb. He called his move into fragrance "the branding of Usher," and speaking of his scent "VIP," he told Luxist, "This will be my fifth fragrance. I wanted intelligence; I wanted elegance. If you look at the advertisements, the weight of the bottle, the essence, it's all top-shelf."

"When everything else comes off," he quipped, "the fragrance stays on."

"I was happy to find my new love, new passion, which is fragrance," he said, then posing with a soldier in fatigues.

One of the basic tenets of keeping yourself and your belongings safe is to not keep valuables in your car. Apparently singer Usher didn't get the memo. Atlanta police are reporting that more than a million dollars in jewelry and electronics were stolen from the singer on December 14 across from Atlanta's Lenox Mall. Usher and another man told police that the car was broken into when they stopped at an AT&T store. The vehicle in question is a black GMC Yukon and in addition to jewelry, $50,000 in furs and clothing and about $20,000 in cash were stolen. At witness saw a Chevy Impala with tinted windows drive up to the SUV and open the door. The investigation is ongoing.

The singer is famous for his love for fashion and his extensive shoe collection. It also bears mentioning that his Alpharetta, Georgia home remains on the market for $1.95 million.

[via E Online]

Usually when we hear about a celebrity shoe fetish it's about a woman. But singer Usher could give any Manolo-loving fashionista a run for her money. It has been reported that his collection spans over 10,000 pairs of kicks. He calls his shoe addiction "ridiculous' but says he can't help himself. His shoe collection spans from Timberlands and collectible Nikes to high fashion brands like Balenciega and Lanvin. Usher also confesses to a collection of 80 watches and a love of designer suits. He does say that since he had children he is thinking more about his future and his finances and toning down his spending. The fashion confessions came as part of his fashion shoot for Uptown Life magazine. Check out a video from Uptown Life with Usher after the jump.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--A home in the Hollywood Hills, shown above, that once belonged to Bette Davis has been listed for $2.295 million. The listing is here
--Libertarian radio and TV talk show host Larry Elder has put Hollywood Hills home on the market for $4.175 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--David LaChapelle has listed his Sunset Strip home for $1.65 million. We looked at this one on Friday.
The 1928 Spanish-style home of "Gossip Girl" producer Josh Schwartz and his wife, Jill in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles on the market for $2.395 million. The listing is here.
--Nicole Murphy, ex-wife of Eddie Murphy, has put her Calabasas home back on the market. We took a closer look on Saturday.
--Phoenix Pictures chairman and cofounder Mike Medavoy has taken his Beverly Park mansion off the market. It was most recently listed at $19.995 million but it was at $23.5 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Disney heiress Abigail Disney and her husband, Pierre Hauser, are paying $12.16 million for a 16th-floor apartment at 15 Madison Square North.
--Writer/director John Ridley paid $6.65 million for a condo at 15 Central Park West in July 2008, relisted it a few days later for $13 million and has cut the prices several times since then. It is currently listed for $8.5 million.
--via the NY Times, London-based investment manager Franck Ruimy has picked up five apartments since March through limited liability corporations, including four units at 400 East 67th Street, purchased for a combined $11.5 million.
--Hedge fund exec Apostolos Peristeris and his wife Alicia have sold their two-bedroom condo at 207 East 57th Street for $1.65 million.
--As we mentioned earlier this week, Leona Helmsley's former estate in Greenwich is now available for just $75 million. It was still listed at $125 million when it was our estate of the day last June.
--John Legend has reduced the price on his New York City apartment. We checked this one out earlier in the week.
--New York Observer publisher and Ivanka Trump snuggle buddy Jared Kushner has paid $3.225 million for a two-bedroom, seventh-floor condo at 21 Astor Place.
--New York Mortgage Trust founder Steven Schnall and his wife Sherri have put their townhouse at 2 North Moore Streeton the market for $33 million. Check out a video from The Real Deal here.
--Tina Fey has picked up a new apartment for $3.4 million, we checked it out earlier this week.
--Lily Lee Lee Wong has cut $4.6 million off the price of her 115-year-old townhouse at 21 East 84th Street. She bought the home for $12.1 million in June 2007 and re-listed for $24.5 million just a month later. The 22-foot wide home is now on the market for $19.9 million.
--Real estate agent Raphael De Niro, the son of Robert De Niro, and his wife Claudine paid $2.9 million for a three-bedroom condo at 497 Greenwich Street.

From the Real Estalker:
--One of our former estate of the day properties, 40 Beverly Park in Beverly Hills has been sold. It was last listed at $31.5 million but was at $39.9 million when we checked it out last November. The buyer is said to be Oksana Borzina, a real estate investor/flipper who owns several other properties in the area.
--Usher has been spotted checking out real estate on the Sunset Strip. His Atlanta home remains on the market.
--Nicolas Cage has another home in New Orleans on the market, we checked it out earlier this week.
--Producer Brad Grey has picked up a Bel Air home for a reported $22 million.
A Los Angeles home that once belonged to Dermot Mulroney and Catherine Keener is back on the market. Mulroney and Keener sold to an entity linked to a charitable organization in North Carolina that belongs to Dave Matthews (it may have belonged to Dave Matthews Band saxophonist the late LeRoi Moore). The home is now listed at $3.199 million. The listing is here.
--Serial house flipper Jeff Lewis hasn't been having great luck lately. He listed a house on Valley Oak Drive with an asking price of $3.195 million last May, it was reduced to $2.595 million and then went into contact but it has popped back up on the market for $2.695 million.

Usually our estate of the day celebrity Sundays take us to Los Angeles or New York but today there are two reasons to discuss Alpharetta, Georgia. The first bit of news comes from Celebrity Big Time Listings which reported that Whitney Houston sold her home in Alpharetta. She bought the home in 2003 for $1,388,888 and the home was on the market for $1,349,000. The home, which was used in the TV show "Being Bobby Brown" was sold in May at a loss.

Also looking to sell in Alpharetta is musician Usher. Usher, who recently married his soon-to-be baby mama who has three children already is probably in need of more space than this five bedroom, 8,022 square foot home can provide. The home is located in the Country Club of the South, a private golf course community. The Real Estalker reports that Usher paid $1,200,000 in December of 1998, buying the home from L.A. Reid. A story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that when Usher was a 13-year-old new face that he vowed one day the house would belong to him. The house has also been featured on MTV Cribs. The home itself has the necessary musician requirements such as a hair salon, an exercise room for working those famous abs, a hair salon and a billiard room. The pics are few and a wee bit bland. The Real Estalker Mama already commented on the foible in wood that is the cabinet in the living room. It's not a bad house, just a bit tame. The home is listed at $1.95 million. Will Usher get that price? I wouldn't bet on it but hopefully he will do better than Whitney did.

UPDATE: Two years later this home is still listed at $1.95 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Al Jean, an executive producer of "The Simpsons" has listed his home in Beverly Hills for $2.95 million. The four-bedroom house was built in 1933 and once belonged to actress Carroll Baker. It's even listed by a celebrity turned real estate agent, actress Leah Lail of the Brill Group. The listing is here.
--The Beverly Hills site of a home designed by John Woolf for Lauritz Melchior, a renowned Wagnerian tenor, has been sold for $9 million. The Woolf house was also home to actress Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan, and novelist Judith Krantz. A newer home was built on the site in 1988.
--A hilltop site once owned by Merv Griffin may be snapped up by a group of developers who will pay more than $100 million for the property and then resell it in smaller parcels.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--A fashion change-up, Pierre Berge, the longtime partner of Yves Saint-Laurent, has sold his Fifth Avenue apartment to Valentino's lifetime partner, Giancarlo Giametti, for a $7.5 million. it was our estate of the day in December last year, check out pictures here.
--Heather Mills rented Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi's six-bedroom home in Georgica Pond area of East Hampton in August for $200,000.
--Greg Norman's estranged wife, Laura, has closed on a recently built two-story home on Moses Lane in Southampton with a $4.35 million asking price.
--Mark Messier, sold his Upper West Side apartment for just more than $3 million last year and has just sold a one-bedroom apartment at the venerable Osborne building at 205 W. 57th St. for $580,000.

Also from Braden Keil of the NY Post:
--Tony Randall's co-op home has found a buyer. The home, which was listed for $17.5 million was bought by the late Mr. Randall in the '80s for less than $900,000.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Whitney Houston has sold her five-bedroom, 8,022-square-foot house in Alpharetta, Ga. for $1,190,000, just months after it was headed for foreclosure.
CNN's Miles O'Brien sold a 1,975-square-foot unit at 222 Riverside Drive in New York, for $3.7 million (which was $200,000 above the asking price). He bought the unit in 2005 for $3,200,000 from actor Chris Meloni.
--The official sale price for Jason Priestley's Hollywood Hills home was $1.902 million.
--Actor Gary Anthony Williams of "Boston Legal" has sold his house in North Hollywood for $578,000 and purchased a home in Sherman Oaks for $1.4 million.
--TV director James Burrows has sold his Georgian-style mansion in Los Angeles' Bel-Air area for $10,500,000.
--Actress Anne Heche's Tudor-style house in Hancock Park area appears to have gone to contract after having been listed for $3,795,000.
--Matt LeBlanc has sold his six-bedroom mansion in Hidden Hills. for an undisclosed price after it had been on the market for $10,295,000.
--Actress Linda Fiorentino has sold her one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper West side for her $1,225,000 asking price.


From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The father of the governor of New York, Bernard Spitzer donated 11 apartments to the American Museum of Natural History in 2004 and 2005, many of the apartments have been flipped and have yielded $6,255,000 for the natural historians.
--New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has paid around $40 million for 1014 Madison Avenue, next to a home he bought last year for $45 million for his foundation. The two buildings can be combines as long as the facades remain the same.
--CNN talking head Nancy Grace has bought a third apartment on a high floor of The Revere condo on East 54th Street for $925,000. She needs the room, she recently married and is expecting twins.
--Actress and Hyatt heiress Liesel Pritzker, who sued her father and other powerful family members over pillaged trust funds in 2002 and won a reported $500 million settlement has spent $6.2 million on a 4,146-square-foot apartment at 455 Central Park West.

From the Real Estalker:
--Is Faye Dunaway renting her two-bedroom Hollywood home on Craigslist?
--Rumors are flying that David Geffen has been quietly shopping his famous 9.4-acre Los Angeles estate for $100 million.
--Usher has listed his home in Alpharetta, Georgia for $1.95 million. We will be looking at this home later as our estate of the day.
--Newly married Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer have bought a stately brick home in Hancock Park for $11 million.
--Billy Baldwin and Chynna Phillips are renting a home in Beverly Hills for $14 million.
--Another person related to "The Simpsons," Dan Castellanata, the voice of Homer Simpson is selling his Santa Monica house. It is listed at $3.295 million. Explore the gorgeousness at the property website here.


From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--It's official, Paris Hilton has bought a nearly 7,500-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion in Mulholland Estates for $5.9 million. According to her uncle and broker, Mauricio Umansky of Hilton & Hyland she plans to convert the fitness room into a shoe closet.
--Former Arizona Diamondback player Matt Williams and his wife are asking $12.7 million for a not-yet-completed eight-bedroom home in the Phoenix area. They decided that the over 15,000 square foot home would be too large. The listing is with Walt Danley and can be found here (it is listed at $12.6 million). The purchase price includes the cost of finishing the home.
--A trust of the family of Los Angeles developer Richard Meruelo paid $18 million for a 1.6-acre oceanfront parcel listed at $24.9 million in Golden Beach, Florida in what is believed to be the biggest sale in the Miami area this year. The property was first listed for $26.6 million just over a year ago.