Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Midweek Mish-Mash: Comedians, suicides, fashion designers, and a couple of Bradys...

Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated comedian turned talk show host turned game show host Wayne Brady shelled out $1.75 million for an recently refurbished three bedroom and 3.5 bathroom condo in Pacific Palisades (above).

For what it's worth—and it ain't worth a damn thing—the chevron pattern reclaimed white oak wood floors and the ocean view from the sky-lit great room and the sun-flooded terrace are pretty dang magnificent. (L.A. Times)

We learned from The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial that Mister Brady moved from Sherman Oaks (CA), where in late March (2013) he sold an architecturally mortifying mock-Med macmansion for $1.8 million. Unfortunately for Mister Brady, he paid $2.55 million for the five bedroom and five bathroom hillside pile back in December 2005.

listing photo (Pacific Palisades): Partners Trust
listing photo (Sherman Oaks): Rodeo Realty

Poor Olivia Newton-John. In May (2013) she and her nutritional supplement selling husband, John Easterling, listed their Jupiter Inlet (FL) house for $6.2 million. Along came frequent real estate buying and selling comedienne/actress/talk show host/magazine editor/etc. Rosie O'Donnell a who agreed to purchase the approximately 6,400 square foot water front residence (above) for around $5.5 million. A little birdie told Your Mama that Miz O'Donnell planned to raze the existing residence or, at the very least, give it a significant do over but we can't verify the veracity of that scuttlebutt. Anyways, before the deeds and documents were were signed, sealed and delivered a contractor hired to fix a few things shot himself on the property. Rosie got spooked and, despite an (alleged) spiritual cleansing organized by Miz Newton-John, has officially backed out of the purchase. It's back to square one one Miz Newton-John and Mister Easterling who put the house back on the market with a familiar $6.2 million price tag. (Gossip Extra)

listing photo: Seawind Realty

After an estimated $75 million dollars spent, Calvin Klein's brand, spanking new ocean front compound in Southampton, NY (above), is just about finished and it sounds pretty damn spectacular...if beach side glass pavilions and ocean side swimming pools  are your thing. (The New York Times)

photo: Doug Kuntz for The New York Times

Speaking of fashion designers, Phillip Lim took a short term lease at $11,000 per month for a beautifully appointed two bedroom and two bathroom apartment (above) in a boutique building in the West Village while he awaits renovations on the combination of two apartments in a boutique building in SoHo. Check the sublime leather wrapped door knobs. Yummy.

Property records show Mister Lim paid $2.285 million for one of his SoHo apartments in October 2007 and $1.85 million for the other one in December 2011. (The Real Deal)

listing photos and floor plan: Town Real Estate

The 2,500 square foot London flat that famously flamboyant fashion designer Alexander McQueen owned and was in the process of renovating when he hanged himself in 2010 has come up for sale with an asking price of £7.25 million.

The Mayfair area apartment was purchased the year after Mister McQueen's suicide by a property development company who completed the renovations, although not, it would seem, to the specifications of Mister McQueen who had much more risqué taste than the obviously high quality but somewhat generically sleek, five-star hotel-like interiors seen in listing photos.

The pedigreed property was reportedly once occupied by author P.G. Wodehouse as well as an un-named grandson of Queen Victoria. (The Daily Mail)

listing photo: Knight Frank via The Daily Mail

Country music star Brad Paisley and his actress wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, sold their three bedroom and three bathroom residence in Pacific Palisades residence for $2.5 million.

Mister and Missus Paisley also own several residences in the Nashville, TN area including a secluded mansion in the semi-rural Berrys Chapel area about half way between Nashville and Franklin. (Zillow)

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty

Although a slew of juicy photographs of Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen's Richard Landry-designed 14,000 square foot faux chateau in an exclusive gated enclave in Los Angeles were accidentally leaked by their A-list builder in early August (2013)—the photos have since been removed from the builder's website—Architectural Digest went ahead with a planned story about the deluxe, eco-minded mansion mansion. In the article the supermodel mother of two (and step-mother to another) states the jet-setting couple aimed for "simplicity and coziness." Simple? All due respect to Missus Brady but bitch, pleeze. Fer chrissakes, the driveway crosses over a small pond before it gets to motor court paved with reclaimed cobble stones and a koi-stocked moat that's crossed by a stone bridge. Simple. Right. (Architectural Digest via Curbed)

photo: Roger Davies for Architectural Digest

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

14k sq.ft.? The house looks MUCH bigger than that, and rumors had been swirling forever that it was 20k+ sq.ft. However, the construction cost regularly quoted for this house would be more in line of the cost of the lot and a 14k sq.ft. house

Preppy Empty Nester said...

Wierd story about the suicide. I adore your blog, by the way.

Anonymous said...

I don't know much for sure but I do know for sure that:

Calvin Klein's house is in Southampton not East.

Giselle has not one but two kids with Tom, and Tom has an older son from his relationship with Brigid Moynahan.

That's all.

Anonymous said...

Picturing Tom naked and lathered up in that shower and getting all tingly. The house really isn't bad..guessing they hired taste.

lil' gay boy said...

Wayne Brady: The condo? not too bad, but still right on the highway; nope. The mock Med? Yikes.

Olivia/Rosie: Frankly, if I'd have been Rosie I'd have seriously considered paying the guy to kill himself to get out of that contract; sad story, sadder house.

Calvin Klein: This is what modern Hampton's architecture is all about -- a stunning culmination of an almost century-long saga of Henry F. duPont's Chesterton House, before being transformed into the truly horrific Dragon's Lair; nobody mourned the passing of that.

Phillip Lim: Yummy, indeed -- never been much of a leatherman, but those doorknobs have me thinking...

;-)

Alexander McQueen: Lovely, bland, intriguing provenance. Is it haunted house week?

Brad Paisley: Who?

Tom Brady: Another Landry abortion; perhaps some right-to-lifers should form an architectural committee...

Anonymous said...

LGB take some fiber dear..for a Landry, its not like Adrienne Maloof bad.

I am guessing the cleansing was Olivia serenading Rosie with "Have you never been Mellow". Obviously it didn't work

Sandpiper said...

I'm all for feng shui, sage and yoga, but ... spiritual cleansing? Biting my tongue so as not to offend anyone that takes this *#@% seriously. It's me, not you...

The London flat ... wow.

Swooning on the Klein home ... and it's on the beach. Hope he's giddy as a little kid about this. It's pure joy.

T. Brady's place was inspired by something I saw on an Epcot map.

Is that a photoshop joke out front at Mister W. Brady's Sherman Oaks place? That prankster.

This is a funny one, Mama.

Anonymous said...

Right-to-lifers? What are those?

Anonymous said...

God, Calvin Kleins house is so beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Tom and Giselle's mansion looks like a cheaper version of the Gores' Beverly Park house.

Anonymous said...

Big and tacky house, just like Tom & Giselle themselves.

Anonymous said...

I never knew Gisele and Tom had shares in the Pottery Barn.

Anonymous said...

Where ever did Mama come up with that 14 K sq ft for the Brady place? Right there in the Robb Report it says:

"The home spans 22,000 square feet of living space with eight bedrooms, a wine cellar, personal gym, two wings connected by a bridge, a state-of-the art nursery, lagoon-style pool and a parking facility for six cars. Also, check out all those solar panels! I guess it makes sense considering Gisele is the UN Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme."

Pretty clear cut, don't you think? Also, the thought of a 22 K sq ft house being the residence of "the UN Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme" just makes my day. Maybe she'll win the Nobel Peace Prize next, just like Al Gore!

Anonymous said...

How much does a Landry project cost?

Anonymous said...

The Rabbi sees the influences of Mies van der Rohe (Farmsworth House, Plano IL) and Philip Johnson (Glass House, New Canaan CT) in Calvin Klein's new home.

Messr Landry would do well to study the mansards of the Louvre (possibly the first extant mansard), various authentic chateaus, the Second Empire urban reform of Paris, and the Addams family home.

The Rabbi wishes Mama, Dr. Cooter, the Kinderlach, and the entire velt a gut voch und a gut yor!

Rabbi Hedda LaCasa

Anonymous said...

Rabbi, not to mention the mansard roof of Zsa Zsa's house :-)

Sandpiper said...

Dear Rabbi, not to switch religions on you but you're singin' to the choir! Mies van de Rohe set the bar. I mostly know his Lafayette Park (Detroit). Sweet little co-ops can be had for $130-ish. But even with those, my problem has always been ground floor glass in Detroit...unfortunately... pass.

Green with envy said...

Olivia / Rosie I do like the renovated home. .just a little bit masculine for what you'd think of Olivia living in, NO LESS IN FLORIDA? . Rosie is so caustic, I think a dead body left in the yard next door would be a preferrable choice than living next door to O'Donnell. Rosie's been continually shooting her mouth off about the suicide. I think if the shoe were on the other foot, Rosie would have physically bound and gagged Olivia from saying a word :-). And I don't think having a Catholic priest bless the joint qualifies s an excorcism?
Odd, Rosie's cake hole is disproportionately, (distractingly), small in relation to her head, but it's always open wide. Slamming Olivia and the situation - what a heart. I don't care for Trump or that Elizabeth UBER Republican chick, but Rosie is more negative than the two of them combined OR a suicide any day.

That shark that Ro' had hanging in her entry hall of her recently unloaded ugly "castle" on "star" Island would have stood out much better/GRANDER in the smaller Olivia house. Funny, a gal who decorates homes with slaughtered animals is offput by a suicide? Yes, a slight distaste for Rosie, well it goes back to her horning on and on that she is the ONLY who lost thier mother at a young age. ONLY Rosie has experienced this, only Rosie.
I have no reference for FLA. property prices, but the house seemed large, airy, lovely and lushly manicured. AND, after all, it was sprinkled with lovely Olivia dust ♡... which must have added $ value. With a small redesign, the house should sell just fine. An unfortunate sitiution, but a narrow escape for the surrounding "would've been" neighbors of Miss O'D, who is louder than the jet skis that she's always revving around, (and might I add, half clad) on. Who'd want that daily assault on their senses! Good luck Olivia and much more good luck to Ro' , who needs not only to find a home but seemingly, a heart. Thanks mamma.

Anonymous said...

The architectural digest article is the one that said 14k sqft. I laughed right after reading it - there are hundreds of 10k sqft houses in the surrounding area that look like little dots compared to that place on google earth. It's min 20k sqft, probably 25k...

Also had to laugh that the article claims the entire house is run off the solar panels - unless they are hiding a field of panels in a nearby lot, there is no way those panels can fully power that house.

To me that's nothing to be embarrassed about but they obviously felt the need to under represent the size of the house and over represent the solar benefits.