Joan Rivers Puts a Big Number on Her Penthouse

SELLER: Joan Rivers
LOCATION: East 62nd Street, New York, NY
PRICE: $25,000,000
SIZE: 5,190 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: ...The Penthouse boasts a suite of superb reception rooms, a dramatic 2-story Gallery & light-flooded Living Room with original architectural detail painstakingly restored by museum-trained artisans. These rooms are distinguished by soaring 23’ high ceilings, exquisite original boiserie, elegant parquet-de-Versailles flooring and original marble fireplace surrounds. A spacious corner paneled Library and well-proportioned Formal Dining Room featuring 18th century French panels overlook a sunny, south-facing terrace with majestic views of the city and Central Park....

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama loves us some Joan Rivers with her potty mouth, scathing humor and a face that looks like Madame. So when we heard from New York Ned and then read in the New York Times that the sassy septuagenarian had listed her Upper East Side doo-plex penthouse we just about peed our pants.

It should come as no surprise that the ballsy and brassy Miz Rivers–who is, let's be honest, thisclose to becoming a clownish caricature of herself in the same plastic surgery vein as Cher and Michael "The White Lady" Jackson–listed her 5,190 square foot penthouse on swank East 62nd Street with a ballsy, brassy and blistering $25,000,000.

Property records are a bit wacky on this one, but as best as we can tell from the people at Property Shark is that Miz Rivers purchased the 3 bedroom and 4.5 penthouse condominium in 1988 for an unknown amount of money but an amount that we would bet our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly was a fraction of the current asking price.

Listing information reveals Miz Rivers' residence sits atop a 42-foot wide limestone mansion built in 1903 by noted architect Horace Trumbauer in "the neo-French Classic style" for a ladee named Alice Troth Drexel who had married into the famous Drexel banking family of Philadelphia. Sometime later the once grand house was chopped up into 12 condominiums, at least some of which still feature original details.

Miz River's aerie, according to listing information, includes a "dramatic" gallery and living room with 23-foot ceilings, parquet de Versailles flooring, original fireplace surrounds, and original boiserie which is really a nice gay decorator word for carved paneling. Miz Rivers has had a Fort Knox worth of gilding done in the main reception room and in the larger of the two, which looks like the sort of place in which Marie Antoinette might feel comfortable, the ceiling has been painted like a clouded sky. Your Mama wonders if a system of fiber optic lighting hoo-has turns that blue day sky into a dark night sky with twinkling stars just like the ceiling does at that horrid mall at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

The dining room has much lower ceilings than the reception rooms, but is no less ornate with it's 18th century mirrored panels and gilded details. We're sort of surprised to even see a dining room in Miz Rivers' residence because we thought the crass comedian had stopped eating about 100 years ago and instead just injects herself with a combination of nutrients, Restylane and formaldehyde.

The library, with its wonderfully wacky Cheetah print carpeting includes more paneling, another original marble fireplace mantel, built in book shelves with actual books–say what you will about Miz Rivers' but at least the beehwatcha reads–and a giant dark caramel colored tufted sofa where she probably sat and watched herself on the boob-toob while she won the most recent season of that deplorable Donald Trump's Apprentice.

The dining room opens to a tiled and planted terrace which is a lovely feature but does anyone really imagine that Miz Rivers actually sits out there? She's really not a creature made for being out of doors unless it's to dash from the back of a car to the front door of a building. She's not a vampire, of course, but certainly the sun would quickly shrivel and melt the ol' gurl in 2 minutes or less.

The New York Times reported that Miz Rivers wants to sell her penthouse of old-school Upper East Side opulence in order to move to California to be closer to her daughter Melissa, who lives in Los Angeles and is the surgified spitting image of her mother.

Other showbizzy residents of Miz Rivers' building include film producer Alan Ladd Jr. and Tessa Kennedy who is the mother of actor Cary Elwes and film agent Cassian Elwes.

Miz Rivers also owns a country house north of New York City in Litchfield County, Cee-Tee.

Thursday Morning Mish Mash

We've got a few celebrity real estate items we need to get off our chest.

1.
In early March of 2009 singer/actor/songwriter Jessie McCartney listed his house in the Hills of Hollywood for lease at $4,900 per month. While Your Mama has no idea if anyone actually leased the modernized 2 bedroom and 2.5 bathroom cottage, we do know that the entertainment mini-mogul who currently appears on some program we've never heard of called GRΣΣK, recently listed the modest and comfortable looking La Granada Drive domicile for sale with an asking price of $1,199,000.

2.
Last week, Your Mama discussed the real estate melodrama facing toothy Manhattan socialite Marisa Noel Brown and her (former) financier husband Matt who bought an East 78th Street townhouse in January of 2008 for $13,500,000, gutted it, had plans drawn up for a multi-million dollar renovation and just last week flipped it back on the market with a much lower than they bought it for asking price of $12,000,000.

At the time we discussed the brouhaha, we had not seen the floor plan but since then a plan has popped up and since Your Mama knows all the children love them a little floor plan porn we figured it might be fun to peruse the plans Missus Noel Brown had for her new crib before the primary (if not sole) source of their riches–her father's failed hedge fund–went belly up.

A quick peep over the layout (below) tells Your Mama that Mister and Missus Brown hired the right architect for the job because for a somewhat narrow townhouse the floor plan appears well resolved, easily lived in and almost entirely free of the funky formations and awkward transitions too frequently seen in these skinny New York City townhouses.
Of special note is the full floor master with a generously sized sitting room that looks to Your Mama's boozy eyeballs to have two fireplaces, a bedroom that features a large if not exactly private window looking out over the wee gardens behind all the neighboring properties and a long dressing area and bath that connects the two spaces.

We would also like to point out that both the elevator and the elegantly oval staircase service all seven floors, that each of the 5 family bedrooms has a private pooper as do the 4th floor study and the garden level staff room which is, we have to say, punishingly puny. Up on the top floor we're thrilled to see not only a front facing terrace that probably has a sliver view of Central Park, but also an outdoor kitchen for summertime grillin' and chillin'.

We're sure the new owner will want to hire their own architect and put their own stamp on the design, but they might consider saving themselves a few pennies by working with the plans Mister and Missus Brown's plans because they're good. We know y'all like to sass and complain but you do gotta admit, they are good.

3.
We do not normally discuss properties featured in films because they don't generally belong to rich and famous people. However, since we have been getting dozens of emails about the glassy suburban Chicago house featured in Ferris Bueller's day off that has been listed for sale at $2,300,000, we're going to flip you over to Mister Big Time who has all the 411 anyone might want on the stunning property that is in serious need of a complete restoration/redo.

4.
In late February of 2009, Your Mama discussed the 21 terlit Bel Air behemoth that noted philanthropist and art patron Iris Cantor heaved onto the market with a toe curling asking price of $53,000,000. Turns out the ladeee has also listed a New York City penthouse (floor plan below) with an asking price of $11,900,000.
Missus Cantor, for those who do not know, is the wildly rich widow of Bernie Cantor, the founder of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald. Some of the children will recognize the Cantor (Fitzgerald) name as the company that suffered devastating human losses on 9/11 due to their location on the 101st-105th floors of One World Trade Center. Others will recognize the Cantor name from one of New York City's greatest outdoor treasures, the soo-blime Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Anyhoo, as pointed out by Mister Abelson at the NY Observer, the real story isn't that The Widda Cantor listed the 3,906 square foot co-operative at 110 Central Park South. Oh no. The juicy news is that she bought the 4 bedroom and 4.5 bathroom spread in May of 2006 for "about $15,000,000" and, as mentioned above, currently has it on the market at $11,900,000. Missus. Cantor's wizened real estate agent told Mister Abelson that Mrs. Cantor never occupied the 24th floor apartment that carries colossal monthly maintenance of $13,500.

Listing information on StreetEasy shows that Mrs. Cantor listed the 4-terrace aerie in May of 2008 with an asking price of $16,000,000. Four months later the price was hacked to $14,000,000 and just last week she had a go at the asking price again, chopping off $2,100,000 bringing the current number to $11,900,000 which is somewhere around $3,000,000 less than she paid for the place. Less!

Now surely Missus Cantor can afford to lose three million clams without having to go on the food stamps. However, Your Mama does not care how rich a person may be, it still hurts like the dickens to lose three million smackers on an ill-timed real estate purchase.

P.S. Iffin eleven and some million isn't in your budget but you still want to live up in 110 Central Park South, listing information indicates that Missus Cantor would also be willing to lease the apartment at $35,000 per month.

5.
We hear from Babbling Babette that American Idol judge and (former?) pill popper Paula Abdul is house hunting. In Tarzana, CA. It is Your Mama's understanding that she made a three million dollar offer on a house in the guard gated Mulholland Park community which was not accepted. Ugh. Yawn. Whaaaat?

6.
We also hear from a gentleman we'll call Famous Freddie that word on New York City's West 12th Street is that Scientolofreak Tom Cruise and his baby maker Katie Cruise bought a mid-block townhouse that records reveal recently sold for $15,075,000. Now children, Your Mama has zero confirmation about whether there is any truth to this real estate tale so do not go speaking on this like it's gospel. It's just rumor and gossip at this point. Besides, we always took Mister Cruise as the full-service doorman building type of guy rather than a townhouse sort of fella if only because a townhouse would put him at the mercy of doorbell ditchers and fervent fans who might think it's cute to stand out front of the building flashing their naughty bits and hollering about how much they loved Top Gun.

7.
And lastly, Your Mama received a very lovely and friendly email from a ladee named Lynne Langdon who is the listing agent (and owner) of a house in the Hollywood Hills we discussed earlier this week. She kindly asked that we correct a error regarding the listing information indicating the house is "celebrity owned." See kids, we thought the celebrity being referred to was Miz Langdon, who was indeed a bit of a star in China as it turns out. However, the celebrity Miz Langdon was referring to in the listing, she says, is her huzband, a celebrity photographer named Harry Langdon who may not be much of a household name himself but has snapped photographs of and head short for dozens of famous folks including Aretha Franklin, Tyra-nosaurus Banks, Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ryan Seacrest and Mister Missy Elliot, Halle Berry and Christina Applegate.

UPDATE: 820 Fifth Avenue

A couple of short weeks ago, Your Mama gave a thorough run down on all the ridiculously rich residents of 820 Fifth Avenue, one of New York City's most exclusive apartment houses where the famously fussy and fearsome board has been known to reject purchase applications of big name and big money buyers like mono-monikered stitch bitch Valentino, bald billionaire Ron Perelman, casino tycoon Steve Wynn, oil heir Freddie Koch and pharmaceutical heiress Libbet Johnson who was reportedly cleared to purchase one apartment but nixed when she inquired about buying both the fourth and the fifth floors in order to create a monumentally massive duplex situation.

In our little discussion, Your Mama discussed the 4th floor spread currently owned by real estate magnate Ara Hovnanian and his abstract ar-teest wifey Rachel. According to New York City real estate tattler Max Abelson at the NY Observer, the Hovnanians recently and quietly floated their full floor apartment on the market with a heart stopping asking price of $36,000,000.

Shortly after Mister Abelson let the Hovnanian real estate cat out of the bag, Miss Beeswax whispered to Your Mama that the Hovnanians had already secured a contract to sell the apartment to an unknown buyer and all that remained to seal the deal was for the wannabe resident of 820 to pass muster with the iron-fisted board and more specifically with the 3rd floor resident, high society doyenne Jayne Wrightsman who is rumored to hold the keys of the Golden Kingdom at 820 even though she does not technically sit on the board.

This week, Mister Abelson came right out and identified the wannabe resident of 820 as 40-something year old real estate wunderkind Jeff Blau and his nutrition nut wifey Lisa. Mister Blau, the head honcho at the real estate juggernaut Related Companies, reportedly offered thirty one million smackers for the Hovnanian apartment but, according to one of Mister Abelson's seemingly very well placed sources, before Mister Blau could write that big check he received word from the board that "it would not be appropriate to go forward with the application." Oh, ouch. The market may be down but apparently the boards of New York's most difficult to access buildings are going to maintain a stiff upper lip and adhere to their stringent (and arcane) standards for gaining entry. It's a weird world ain't it children?

Before anyone throws a real estate pity party for Mister and Missus Blau remember that just last year the deep pocketed pair forked over $21,000,000 for Scott Bommer's full floor apartment at tony 1040 Fifth Avenue which is, of course, the same building Jackie-O called home for about a thousand years before her death.

UPDATE: Sheree Whitfield

Listen puppies, y'all know Your Mama does not like to dance on the real estate grave of anybody. However, sometimes we just can't help it. Egotastic Atlanta Housewife Sheree Whitfield presented herself as an arrogant, selfish and myopic ladee who play-acted that she was richer, more stylish and possessed more class than all the other ladees on The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Pleeze. It wasn't just the damn editing by Bravo's cunning and crafty editors that made Miz She By Sheree look like a damn fool, beehawtcha didn't display an ounce of humility on The Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion show neither and now, Miss High and Mighty result has been pushed off her pedestal.

First there were mad rumors hurtling down the gossip grapevine that she was bouncing checks for cakes and private investigators. Then, as Your Mama discussed in late December of 2008, egotastic Atlanta Housewife Miz She By Sheree Whitfield, listed her 8,903 square foot Sandy Springs, GA mansion with an asking price of $2,850,000.

The high price (and the bad juju Miz She By Sheree left behind) kept buyers away and eventually the asking price dipped to around $2,400,000 before it was ripped off the market and seized by the bank in foreclosure. That's right children, Miz She By Sheree's real estate pride and joy was taken by the bank. As we understand, Miz She By Sheree was actually booted from the Sandy Springs crib by her ex-huzband who was awarded the house in the dee-vorce. So technically, it was Mister Whitfield who allowed the house to go into foreclosure. This seems an odd choice for a rich man, but one probably designed to stick a stake into the heart of his ex-wife at the expense and comfort of his children.

Anyhoo, soon the bank-owned property on Long Island Drive in Suburban Atlanta was re-listed with an asking price of just $959,000. After only 9 days on the market, the house went to contract and sold for what listing information shows was $1,100,000. The children will note that Miz She By Sheree (or somebody) took the kitchen appliances when the premises were vacated.

Do we even want to know where Miz Thing has landed her 747 of an ego? We're not sure our weak heart could handle the humiliation by proxy, but wouldn't it just be dee-lishus if Miz She By Sheree was shacked up in NeNe's basement? Oh lawhd, now that would be some damn fine poetic justice.

Kirsten Dunst Lists Nichols Canyon Crib

SELLER: Kirsten Dunst
LOCATION: Nichols Canyon Road, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,700,000
SIZE: 2,062 square feet, 3 bedrooms 2.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: An inviting Mid-Century home awaits atop the much desired Nichols Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills. Behind massive gates and a state of the art security system sits a home updated by Brian Murphy and designed by Hallworth Designs. This celebrity retreat comes complete with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The living room hints at just a few of the luxuries of this home with heated floors, a pitched ceiling and exposed beams. Curl up with a book in front of the fireplace in the reading nook adjacent

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This morning, while swilling sugared up coffee and waiting for our afternoon appointment to roll around, we absent mindedly perused all the new listings around the dog friendly Runyan Canyon area–where Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter often walk our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly–and came across a modest if not cheap Nichols Canyon property listed at $1,700,000 that we immediately identified as being owned by actress Kristen Dunst who, for some reason, Your Mama likes to call Little Miss Kiki.

Along with her long and impressive list of film credits (The Virgin Suicides, Bring It On, Mona Lisa Smile, Marie Antoinette and, of course the Spider-Man franchise), Little Miss Kiki also has a long and impressive list of hook-ups, romantic liaisons and relationships with high profile males including but not limited to Drew Barrymore's on and off again boytoy Justin Long, actors Josh Hartnett, Ryan Gosling, Orlando Bloom, Andy Samberg, Zach Braff and Tobey Maguire, rock stars Johnny Borrell , Fabrizio Moretti and Adam Levine. But then again, what single Hollywood acktress of note hasn't Mister Levine laid?

Anyoo, property records show that Miss Dunst purchased her Nichols Canyon Road residence in December of 2003 for $1,250,000. This was back when Little Miss Kiki was paired up with up an up and coming superstar named Jake Gyllenhaal, who reportedly lived in sin with out Little Miss Kiki in this very house.

Listing information and property records indicate the modest house measures 2,062 square feet with 3 bedroom and 2.5 bathroom. The house hides behind solidly impressive gates and up a curving driveway to a small motor court with a small front facing two car garage where Little Miss Kiki and her current male companion–whomever that may be–can enter and exit without being snapped by the paps. Listing information also reveals the property is protected by a state of the art security system so any of you idiots who think it might be cute to go ringing up on Little Miss Kiki's bell should expect to be electrocuted, sprayed with mace, hosed down with boiling water and/or even worse.

For a small house, the the front entrance hall is large and is separated from the sunken formal living room by a pretty pair of capiz shell curtains painstakingly made by the lightening quick hands of a gal named Gwen who happens to be one of Your Mama's good pals back in the En-Why-Cee. The living room appears to have heated terrazzo floors, a peaked and beamed ceiling painted an airy white, navy walls (which sounds awful but does not look nearly as horrid as we might imagine), and a paned sliding glass door that opens to a large multi-level entertainment deck sitting in the tree tops at the front of the property.

The dining room sports glossy white floors, an even more shiny dining room table surrounded six dining room chairs and two wing back chairs on the ends, and the rear wall has been fitted with custom cabintery which makes for perfect storage for things like linens, board games and bongs. We're not saying Little Miss Kiki stores her bongs there, we're just saying that if she did have bongs to store, this would be an excellent spot for them.

The glossy white floors continue into the all stainless steel and marble kitchen which already has our imperious house gurl Svetlana turning cartwheels with conniption and looks nice if you don't have small children with filthy hands or canines with wet noses. A sky lit and all white breakfast area would feel a little bit surgical suite if it were not for the large teak table and chairs that provide a welcome relief to all the blinding stainless steel, glistening white floors and sleek white cabinetry.

In the family room, an entire wall has been custom fitted with gorgeous wood cabinetry that hides all the electronics and one of the Little Miss Kiki's many wing back chairs sits in the corner by the paned slider that opens to the front deck.

The high-gloss and slippery looking white wood floor is continued into the master bedroom where Little Miss Kiki and her team of nice gay decorators have kept in clean with just an over-sized upholstered headboard, heavy ivory curtains with a navy blue palm tree patten and another of wing back chair from Little Miss Kiki's collection. A secluded court yard area off the master bedroom has a patch of lawn for and an in ground spa for romantical evenings with whatever man-friend Little Miss Kiki currently fancies.

Property records and previous reports indicate that Miss Dunst will go far from homeless once someone snatched up her Nichols Canyon hideaway. In 2001 Miss Dunst purchased a 4,333 square foot house on Toluca Lake Avenue which we believe is occupied by her family. On the east coast, records show that in July of 2007 she forked over three million Spider Man dollars for an 8th floor co-operative crib in the same Canal Street building where rock star Michael Stipe forked over $5,750,000 for Casey Affleck's 8th floor unit in January of 2007.

UPDATE: Nicole Kidman

Thanks to a number of cobbers Down Under, Your Mama has learned that Australian actress Nicole Kidman Cruise Urban has finally sold her Darling Point digs which she quietly listed in the spring of 2008 with a rumored asking price of $20,000,000 (AUS). Recent reports identified the new owner of the Yarranabbé Road property overlooking sensational Sydney Harbor as an Australian born, Monaco based former stockbroker who coughed up $13,200,000 (AUS)–or $10,337,052 US bucks at today's rates–for the 3 story and 4 bedroom villa that is reported to measure a whopping 1,068 square meters, a number or trusty currency conversion thingamabob reveals is around 11,500 square feet.

Miz Kidman, who reportedly sold off the villa because there was very little outdoor space for baby Urban, has not given up her Aussie real estate roots altogether. Sometime in the summer of 2008, porcelain skinned and puffy lipped Mis Kidman and her country music crooning huzband Keith Urban splashed out around $6,500,000 for a 110 acre spread called Bunya Hill in the Southern Highland area about 1.5 hours outside Sydney.

Back in the United States, Miz Kidman and Mister Urban own a couple of properties in the Nashville, TN area including a big house in a gated suburban Nashville community for which they dumped $3,470,000 in April of 2008 so they would have a place to shack up while building new digs on a 36 acre farm in nearby Franklin, TN.

Also in the summer of 2008, Mrs. Tall and Mister Short forked over $4,700,000 for a contemporary 5 bedroom house in the same Beverly Hills Post Office neighborhood that Jessica Simpson, music maverick Guy Oseary, tee-vee titan Tom Freston, and bling queen Kimora Lee Simmons own homes.

For a number of years, Miz Kidman apartment hopped around Manhattan luxury rental apartments (including a large unit in the same Chelsea building Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter once called home), but she's long owned a glassy condo at one of the Richard Meier designed towers on the West Side Highway which we hear through the nice gay decorator's gossip grapevine is getting a little touch up to the day-core.

photo: Fiona-Lee Quimby for Sydney Morning Herald

Lynne Langdon Is Looking for a Commission

SELLER: Lynne Langdon
LOCATION: Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,395,000
SIZE: 1,338 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: MOTIVATED SELLER. Celebrity owned. Million dollar views. Hip, contemporary, inspiring home, an entertainer's dream. In the heart of the action. Nice parking spaces, too! Room for a pool, and additional rooms.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Only in Tinseltown would a virtually unknown ack-tress/producer turned real estate agent list her own house above the Sunset Strip with an asking price of $1,395,000 and then market the property as "celebrity owned," which is exactly what a ladee named Lynne Langdon has done. Now children, seriously, what is not to love about that?**

According to our brief and admittedly unscientific spin through the interweb we discovered that Miz Langdon was once upon a time a bit of a star in China which is why she speaks conversational Mandarin Chinese. She was once rumored to have been involved with action movie stud Jean Claude van Damme and has had a number of bit parts in programs like Desperate Housewives, That 80s Show and The Guardian. She is also, according to her re-zoo-may, the writer, producer, director and co-star of a film called Weather Girls which features a bunch of other actors and actresses we've never heard of before.

Property records show Miz Langdon paid $595,000 when she purchased the 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom hillside house on Franklin Avenue in August of 2001. A gate opens from the street into a small courtyard where Miz Langdon has place a couple of wicker chaise lounges. But for the difficult to access land below the back of the house, this pocket-sized courtyard would appear to be the only easily accessible outdoor space, which is a real pity because it would be awfully nice to have a deck run along the rear of the house where Your Mama could lay about with a pitcher of gin and tonics and watch the lights of Los Angeles flicker on as the day turns to night.

The glassy open plan interior spaces have very light wood floors, white walls and all sorts of white, chrome and glass furniture that looks like it was shipped in from the 1980s. The kitchen has white-washed wood cabinetry, stainless steel appliances and an unholy combination of granite and tile counter tops and back splashes. The Master bedroom has very pale beige wall to wall carpeting and a beige tiled bathroom with double sinks and a large soaking tub.

Listing information indicates there is room for a pool and since Miz Langdon the listing agent owns the property we're going to taker her word for it. Listing information also shows Miz Langdon is motivated so any of the children with a desire to live in the hills above the Sunset Strip should get on the horn with Miz Langdon and see how low she will go.

**See #8 here for a bit of a correction regarding this celebrity owned issue.

UPDATE: Dick Fuld

Earlier, while Your Mama was rolling around in the real estate misfortunes of Park Avenue banker name Ramesh Singh, we mentioned that the almost universally loathed ex-CEO of Lehman Brothers Dick Fuld Jr. had quietly placed his posh Park Avenue co-op apartment on the market with an asking price of $32,000,000.

Well, apparently, Mister Fuld and the Missus have decided against selling their 6,200 square foot, 16 room spread at 640 Park Avenue after all. Or at least that's what his p.r. people (or perhaps the real estate agent charged with quietly getting the place sold) are telling the the real estate gossips at the Wall Street Journal.

Hmm. Does anyone else smell something fishy?

A Big Buy on the Beach in La Jolla

BUYER: Gary Barber
LOCATION: Camino de la Costa, La Jolla, CA
PRICE: $17,350,613
SIZE: 9,800 square feet (approx.), 7 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms (approx.)
DESCRIPTION: A truly rare offering...a stunning oceanfront compound with direct access to a secluded sandy beach. Impossible to duplicate today, this magnificent 6BR/9BA gated residence was recently remodeled to perfection. Your buyer will think he is visiting a Four Seasons Resort with all the finest finishes and amenities.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: While many of Wall Street's formerly rich financiers get increasingly eager (and desperate) to unload their lavish, high maintenance homes, a few entertainment tycoons are shopping up a storm. Thanks to Beachfront Billy Your Mama was directed to a recent article in the La Jolla Light with a headline that screams, "Celebrity Pays $17M for LJ Home." Some people brake for deer, dogs and old ladees; Your Mama comes to a screeching halt for headlines like that.

The article did not identify the buyer who paid a not very recession-like $17,350,613 for the recently rehabbed oceanfront mansion on swank Camino de la Costa, but public property records clearly show the new owner isn't so much a "celebrity" as a super producer named Gary Barber who along with Roger Birnbaum, his bizness partner at Spyglass Entertainment, have produced cinematic cash cows including (but far from limited to) The Love Guru, 27 Dresses, Evan Almighty, Seabiscuit, and the Ace Ventura film franchise.

On a side note, Mister Birnbaum's beatific Beverly Hills house–which Your Mama discussed in mid-April of 2009–is currently on the market with an asking price of $16,000,000.

Mister Barber's new beach house, according to listing information we were able to scare up off the interweb, shows the dignified Spanish Colonial style casa built in the 1920s wraps around an interior courtyard where a gurgling fountain hints at the sound of the crashing waves at the back of the property. The multi-winged manse measures approximately 9,800 square feet.

There seems to be some discrepancy regarding the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. The news reports all say there are 7 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, while listing information indicates there are 6 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. Some other thingymabab we pulled up showed 9 furll and 2 half bathroms. Whatever the case, there are enough sleeping chambers and poop rooms to keep at least one house gurl making hospital corners and scrubbing terlits several hours a day. Your Mama surmises the difference may have something to do with the bit of square footage atop the garage that overlooks the swimming pool which may (or may not) be guest quarters that would account for the extra bedroom and terlit shown in the press reports.

Anyhoo, a little more poking around on the internets turned up some photographs which clearly show Mister Barber's new beach house is far from a cozy little surf shack. The front door opens to a rotunda-like entrance hall with a curving staircase, swooping wrought iron details and an over the top glittering golden chandelier. The impress the guests foyer as well as the formal living and dining rooms have what appears to be inlaid marble floors, fancy mill work lining the archways in between the rooms and floor to ceiling windows that frame views of the Pacific Ocean. A den or media room has carved paneling, built in shelves for pricey and fussy gewgaws and a trio of arched windows looking out over, you guessed it, the Pacific Ocean. The master suite has another fireplace, access to an oceanfront balcony, a bathroom Marie Antoinette could love and custom fitted closets and dressing rooms.

A small but adequately sized swimming pool is tucked into an ell formed by two wings of the house. a wide terrace runs the full width of the property and a sunbathing terrace with a stone balustrade hangs over the ocean below. The property offers private access to a sandy beach, a surprising rarity on all theses insanely expensive La Jolla houses that do not have direct beach access because they sit high atop vertical cliffs that drop down to the craggy coastline.

While every Mercedes driving real estate agent in La Jolla would probably like to think this high-priced property transaction means the worst of the economic troubles are over. Your Mama would not hold our breath or bet our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly that is the case because it just might get worse before it gets better, particularly in California where a behemoth budget crisis threatens to bankrupt the state, a situation that surely makes all you California haters salivate with real estate righteousness.

On a lighter note, records would indicate that Mister Barber also owns a 4,270 square foot penthouse apartment with 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms in a posh high-rise on Wilshire Boo-lay-vard which he and the wifey picked up in December of 2003 for an undisclosed amount of money.

How the Mighty–and the Children of the Mighty–Sometimes Fall

SELLERS: Marisa Noel Brown
LOCATION: East 78th Street, New York, NY
PRICE: $12,000,000
SIZE: to be 7,800 square feet with 8 bedrooms
DESCRIPTION: Perfectly situated just off Fifth Avenue on one of the city’s most prized townhouse blocks, this stunning 20’ wide brownstone has approved plans from the Department of Buildings and the Landmark Preservation Commission for the addition of a 6th floor, an 8 foot expansion on all floors towards the garden, and the excavation of the basement. The approved plans also include vast windows on the back of the house, bringing additional light and garden views into the 7,800 square foot home....

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama does not mean to be callous and we do feel a teeny bit bad about not feeling very badly about the misfortune of some of the highest of financial flyers and their hyper-consuming progeny whose wings were clipped when Wall Street went to hell in a hand basket on the back of credit default swaps, mortgage backed securities and all those other failed financial instruments that no one really understands. However, just like our finest friend Fiona Trambeau who relishes schadenfreude the way Madonna revels in the spotlight, like metal to a magnet Your Mama is also drawn to all the news about how far the formerly financially mighty are falling in the aftermath of the recent economic tsunami. We know, it's ugly and unseemly and in utter bad taste to delight in the downfall of others, but we just can't help our self sometimes.

Which is why, yesterday, when real estate gossip Mister Max Abelson at the NY Observer announced that toothy New York City gal about town Marisa Noel Brown and her huzband Matt Brown finally did what what all the Manhattan real estate watchers knew they were eventually going to have to do–list their Indiana limestone faced townhouse on East 78th Street–Your Mama got all goose-pimpled and sweaty.

For those children who do not know, Missus Noel Brown is one of several daughters sired by much maligned hedge hog Walter Noel, the founder of the Fairfield Greenwich Group which famously funneled some 7.5 billion client dollars into the bottomless pit that was Bernie Madoff's sixty-five billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Missus Noel Brown's huzband Matt had been a well paid managing director at F.G.G., but is now, of course, unemployed.

Property records and bazillions of previous reports reveal that Mister and Missus Brown bought the 20-foot wide townhouse on East 78th Street in January of 2008 for $13,500,000. The couple reportedly took a nine million dollar mortgage, hired the fab folks at Steven Harris Architects and planned a multi-million dollar renovation that listing information indicates included adding a sixth story to the five already there and adding a glassy eight feet to rear end of the townhouse which would would have brought the total square footage to around 7,800.

The townhouse sits just half a block from Central Park and a few more blocks from the venerable Metropolitan Museum of Art, the unauthorized history of which can be read in Michael Gross's dee-voonly salacious and scandalous new book Rogues' Gallery. Listing information indicates the interior spaces of townhouse have already been gutted and made ready for a massive, multi-million dollar renovation tha, presumably, Mister and Missus Brown can no longer afford to make since they no longer have an income or access to her daddy's formerly fat bank account.

The plans, according to listing information, included "dramatic" interior spaces, a roof deck, a "sophisticated" master suite plus seven additional bedrooms, 4 fireplaces, a "soaring" staircase and an elevator for the old, the infirm and the lazy. It's just too back the once publicity seeking Browns ran out of luck and money because we're quite sure they would have had magnificent photographs taken of the place so it could be published in one of the better shelter publications.

The comely couple have chosen to list their townhouse with an asking price of $12,000,000 a figure our bejeweled abacus reveals is a staggering one-point-five million clams less than they paid for the place just over 1 year ago...and that's not counting the architect fees, cost of demolishing the interiors and the staggering carrying costs of the $9,000,000 mortgage and the $46,450 yearly tax bill. Even worse for Mister and Missus Brown is that more than one real estate insider is whispering to the press and anyone else who will listen that word on the real estate street is that the cash-strapped couple will take much less than twelve million dollar asking price. Oh dear.

No matter what price the townhouse eventually sells, Your Mama seriously doubts we'll soon see Missus Noel Brown schlepping her Balenciaga clad booty and Jimmy Choo shod feet onto a cross-town bus with all the MetroCard carrying plebes. However, given the sharp-toothed and vicious social culture of the Upper East Side new money hoity-toities, we don't imagine she'll be hanging on to her vaunted position among all the young and well maintained ladees who lunch and shop and order the maid around while their huzbands and fathers pay the bills.

A Beverly Park Land Deal

SELLER: Robert Bisno
BUYER: Mark Wahlberg
LOCATION: Beverly Park Terrace, Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $8,250,000
SIZE: 6+ acres
DESCRIPTION: One of the last lots available!!! In prestigious Beverly Park, this huge lot, just over 6 acres (per owner) with approximately 2 level acres. Plans available for a 30,000 sq. ft. Mediterranean Villa. This is an absolutely incredible opportunity to build your own masterpiece. Easy to show, Fantastic!!!

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Just like many of the financiers and Wall Street wizards on the East Coast, West Coast based real estate developer Robert Bisno has real estate woes. Not only is beleaguered Mister Bisno reviled by many who might be at the mercy of his (alleged) slash and burn development tactics, he's had a devil of a time trying to sell a couple of properties in the guard gated land of mega-mansions known as Beverly Park where, poor lamb, he didn't seem to make many friends either.

See puppies, in 2002 a lawsuit was filed against Mister Bisno and the Missus by the North Beverly Park Home Owners Association regarding a sizable sculpture they mounted in the motor court of their massive mansion that some of the other Bev Park residents thought was sexually suggestive–even lewd–and in violation of the community's strict bylaws about how you can trim trees and silly crap like that. Before the suit was settled in a court of law–the Bisnos lost–there was, according to the Missus Bisno, some alleged harassment by other Bev Parkers and even, bizarrely, a mysterious terlit papering of the Bisno property. Imagine that children, a band of terlit paper tossing marauders slinking around Beverly Park in the middle of the damn night!

Anyhoo, in late November of 2008 and amid a flurry of rumors about financial difficulties, Mister and Missus Bisno heaved their 5+ acre estate on Beverly Park Terrace onto the open market with an asking price of $29,500,000. The asking price for the 16,800 square foot house with 5 bedrooms and 9 poopers has since been chopped to a still knee buckling $22,500,000.

For what it's worth, public records reveal that the Bisnos borrowed heavily against the property, including as recently as March of 2009. Although it appears to Your Mama's untrained eye that all of the several loans and mortgages on the property are currently in good standing, the records also show that two Notices of Default were filed on the property, one in 2007 and another 2008. In fact, in February of 2008 the property was scheduled to be auctioned off to the highest bidder but, somehow, Mister Bisno pulled a pecuniary hare out of a hat because he and the Missus continue to own the estate.

Going back to April of 2006, when real estate developers were still living fat on ever escalating property values, Mister and Missus Bisno purchased a 6+ acre vacant lot across the street. It's unclear what the Bisnos paid for the vacant lot, but based on listing information we've seen, we'd say it was somewhere between 8 and 10 million smackers. A fascinating New York Times article from that time reports that Mister and Missus Bisno bought the land in order to build a new, bigger and better Beverly Park Dream House for themselves because, apparently, 17,000 square feet was simply not large enough for a couple of fifty-something year old empty nesters.

But alas, in January of 2008, after never breaking ground on the new lot and having borrowed vast sums of money against it–including an unknown amount of cash from fellow Beverly Park resident George Santopietro who happens to be the ex-huzband of letter turner Vanna White–Mister Bisno flipped the 6+ acre parcel on the market with an outlandishly optimistic asking price of $18,000,000. That's right, eighteen million dollars. Eventually, after more than a year on the market and several swings of the price cutting machete, the asking price, not surprisingly, stood at $9,950,000.

About the time Mister Bisno was putting his big ol' Beverly Park manse on the market in late 2008, rapper/underwear model turned Oscar nominated actor (The Departed, Boogie Nights, The Basketball Diaries) and tee-vee producer Mark Wahlberg (Entourage and the magnificent In Treatment) also hoisted his Oak Pass Road estate in the Beverly Hills Post Office on to the market with an asking price of $15,900,000. (The children will note the Wahlberg spread is no longer on the open market although it does not appear to have been sold.)

Soon after 2008 turned to 2009, rumors started sliding down the gossip grapevine and into Your Mama's big bucket of scuttlebutt that the wildly rich Mister Wahlberg and his baby momma Rhea Durham were poking around Beverly Park for new über-deluxe digs. We first heard from Babbling Babette who whispered that she heard Mister Wahlberg was interested in the Bev Park palace everyone thought British pop start Robbie Williams was going to–but did not–buy and, although we don't know this for sure, another of Your Mama's bean spillers whispered in our greedy ear that Mister Wahlberg made a (low ball) offer on Mister and Missus Bisno's estate, which was rejected.

Then the lines went silent until mid-April of 2009 when Your Mama received covert communiques from Our Fairy Godmother in Beverly Hills and the above mentioned bean spiller whom we'll call Whispering Willie who both passed along the 411 that the Bisno's Bev Park parcel was in escrow. Then, early in the days of May, we received additional covert communiques from O.F.G.I.B.H. and Whispering Willie who informed Your Mama that the Bisno lot closed and sold for just $8,250,000.

Of course, eight and a quarter million clams is a sensational sum of money by any standard. However, a few flicks of the well worn beads of Your Mama's bejeweled abacus shows that purchase price is a humbling (and maybe even humiliating) 45% of the original asking price. Naturally, upon receiving word of a sale, Your Mama fired up the interweb in order to peer into the property records which indicate the buyer of the bare land is–you got it–none other than Mister Mark Wahlberg. Of course, the prop records are somewhat obscured so Your Mama can't say with 100% certainty that the buyer is Mister Wahlberg, but all signs point towards him so we'll say we're 98.9% sure.

Whether the buyer is Marky Mark and his funky bunch family or some other entertainment tycoon, a gigantic house needs to be erected and a couple of acres of over-manicured landscaping will need to be installed before anyone has their mail forwarded to their new addy in Beverly Park. By that time, perhaps the topsy-turvy real estate world will have stabilized and the new owner will be able to flip the property at a profit, because let's face, rich people are fickle when it comes to real estate and prone to selling houses shortly after they spend millions building them.

Your Mama Hears...

...That prolific ack-tor and comedic hot-dogger Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder, Night at the Museum, Zoolander, Meet the Parents and etc.) is getting ready to put his three property compound in the Outpost Estates area of Los Angeles on the market with an asking price somewhere around $12,500,000.

Records show Mister Stiller began piecing together his three parcel compound in November of 1999 when he paid paid $1,825,000 for a 5,334 square foot Spanish style house which records indicate as having 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. Previous owners of the property, according to records, were ack-tor Lou Diamond Phillips and his then wife Julie Cypher who left him for rock star Melissa Etheridge and who after 12 years and a couple of kids kicked Miz Etheridge to the curb making the jaw-dropping claim that she is not nor never was a lesbian. Well alright then, I guess that even though it walks like a duck it very well may be a horse. Or a goat. Or whatever...

Anyhoo, we digress. In October of 2001 Mister Stiller and his newish bride Christine Taylor completed their compound when they bought an adjacent two-parcel property for $1,825,000. Records show one of the parcels had (and still has) a 4,062 square foot Spanish style residence with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. The second parcel, which sits in between the two houses, was vacant at the time of the purchase but records show the Stillers added a motor court and a 1,161 square foot structure with automobile garaging and a single bathroom in 2003.

The Stiller's day-core was done up in fine style by the folks at Roman and Williams who have also worked over homes for Kate Hudson and Gynnie Paltrow. Mister and Missus Stiller also allowed their Hollywood Hills home to be photographed for Elle Decor not too long ago, so we're sure there are some snaps floating about the interweb, but honestly chickens, we're running late and simply don't have time to track them down right now. Sorry darlins.

Property records also show that in August of 2006 Mister Stiller picked up a 1,608 square foot casa on Canton Way in Studio City, CA for which he paid $1,100,000 and reports from September of 2008 reveal that Mister and Missus Stiller forked over a whopping $10,000,000 for doo-plex digs on the Upper West Side of Manhattan which happens to be in the very same Riverside Drive building where his comedic legend parents Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara live.

Does this mean Mister Stiller might be giving up the California ghost and moving permanently back to the Upper West Side where he grew up? Your Mama certainly don't know apples from carburetors, but time will tell hunnies, time will tell...

Portrait of a Park Avenue Banker Stuck on the Real Estate Ropes

As much as we don't like seeing anyone in a real estate pickle and try as we might, Your Mama has a tough time feeling any real sympathy–or empathy–for all the wizards of Wall Street who made mountains of money with wildly complicated and high risk financial instruments who are now having to cope with reduced circumstances due to the unraveling and implosion of the very same funky financial instruments that made them exceedingly wealthy.

With that in mind, today we're going to participate in a little real estate schadenfreude at the expense of a New York City based banker named Ramesh Singh who once upon a time not so long ago was sitting pretty at the tippy-top of Wall Street's financial heap but is now deeply mired in a Park Avenue property melodrama that will cost him millions when all is said and done.

For many years, our Mister Singh made beau coup bucks as a bigwig at Swiss banking juggernaut UBS where he last headed up the global operations of UBS's real estate and securitized products divisions. The bundled debt obligations known as mortgage backed securities is just one of the new-fangled financial instruments Mister Singh and his minions at UBS used for many years to great monetary gain but in the end aided in the near collapse of credit markets and economies around the world.

In November of 2008, just a few short weeks after UBS took more than $46,000,000,000 in sub-prime write downs and other losses, Mister Singh left his job. A internal UBS memo stated Mister Singh was leaving in order to spend more time with his family and pursue other career opportunities. Oh pleeze. Like we don't know what "pursue other career opportunities" really means. Mister Singh has not been publicly pilloried like Dick Fuld from Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns' Jimmy Cayne who was reportedly playing Bridge when his company went belly up. However, as a result of being one of the many bakers of Wall Street's poison pie, Mister Singh isn't exactly one of Joe Public's favorite people right now which is why at least some of the children will delight in his current real estate woes.

Mister Singh's real estate troubles started way back in 2004 when he and his wife Farida Khan made the fateful decision to sell their co-operative apartment at 941 Park Avenue in New York City. Although our high society gal pal The Social Butterfly insists 941 Park Avenue is, "Not for anyone important," records show that in September of 2004 the Singhs received an important $6,155,000 for their doo-plex domicile which occupied portions of the 15th and 16th floors.

From 941 Park Avenue, the couple schlepped their furniture, jewelry, art and cash stash just 4 blocks south where property records reveal that in August of 2004 they paid $6,876,250 for a full floor co-operative apartment on the fifth floor of 860 Park Avenue. Listing information, property records and the floor plan (below) reveal that the Singh's new nest at 860 measures 4,225 square feet and includes 3 large bedrooms and 2 smaller sleeping chambers all of which claim private poopers. The corner living room stretches to 28-feet with a fireplace and windows looking down Park Avenue. There's also a square, or square-ish, dining room and a modestly sized library with floor to ceiling book shelves and a second fireplace. Other features include a private elevator landing, a generous but not baronial entrance gallery with guest terlit, 15 closets including one ceder-lined dealywop plus a dressing room attached to one of the smaller bedrooms, a private laundry room, an eat in kitchen and small adjacent office which leads to the service entrance.
The Singh's stay at 860 Park Avenue was short lived. In April of 2007, the couple went house hunting and signed contracts to purchase two posh pads (one on top of the other) a few blocks south at 823 Park Avenue, a pretty if undistinguished pre-war building undergoing a complete over-haul and being sold off as high-priced condominiums. This purchase, my puppies, was the Singh's fatal real estate error as y'all will soon see.

In May of 2007, shortly after the Singhs went to contract for their apartment at 823 Park Avenue, they listed their full floor cooperative unit at 860 Park Avenue with an asking price of $13,400,000, roughly twice what they paid. Records we peeped and perused on the always entertaining and informative StreetEasy indicate that just a few months later their apartment at 860 Park Avenue went to contract. However, before the Singhs could pop a celebration cork on a $3000 bottle of sham-pag-nee, the deal withered and died and the apartment was taken off the market.

The Singh spread at 860 Park was re-listed in November of 2007 at the original asking price of $13,400,000 where it languished un-wanted. In late February of 2008, the asking price was chopped to $12,750,000. Another $800,000 reduction came just two weeks later and then in late May of 2008 another $955,000 was hacked off the asking price bringing it to $10,995,000.

In July of 2008, after a more than a year on the market, nearly $2,500,000 in price chops and completing the toe curling $20,000,000 purchase of their new digs at 823 Park Avenue, Your Mama imagines the Singhs were all kinds of aggro. The apartment at 860 was removed from the market in July of 2008 and re-listed in early October with a different real estate agent and a new (much lower) asking price of $9,500,000. According to Streeteasy, it wasn't long before a deal was brokered with a bargain hunting buyer who records show closed on the Singh spread at 860 Park Avenue in late February of 2009 for...are you ready kids...drum roll please...seven million dollars. That's right. Seven. Million. Dollars. Can the children say, "Ouch?"

It gets worse. Oh yes, it gets much worse and more complicated so pay attention puppies.

Property records show that although the Singhs signed contracts for their colossal new crib at 823 Park Avenue in April of 2007, they did not close on the sprawling unit(s) until the end of June in 2008. Records show the high-flying couple forked over $20,000,000 for a single story ground floor maisonette unit and the full floor simplex unit just above it for a combined 7,234 square feet of Park Avenue duplexity (below).

However, just six weeks later and perhaps due to the fact that their apartment at 860 Park Avenue had yet to sell after more than a year on the market, Mister and Missus Singh had a real estate change of heart and hoisted their new, 15-room condominium at 823 Park Avenue back on the market with an asking price of $24,750,000. Your Mama is not sure who advised the Singhs that it was wise to re-list the apartment(s) just six weeks after closing with a flabbergasting $4,750,000 price increase, but they did.

Even as the Singh spread at 823 Park Avenue was on the market, listing information and the floor plan indicate the two apartments were combined into a rambling and poorly resolved doo-plex connected by a swooping staircase tucked back into an odd corner of the bedroom wings. The primary living spaces, located on the second floor of the combined unit, include a 32-foot long living room and a cozy corner library that both face Park Avenue, a dining room and eat in kitchen with bizarre blue counter tops.

There are 4 principal bedrooms and 2 smaller bedrooms all with private poopers, a guest suite comprised of a sitting room, bedroom and terlit room carved out of what was originally the living room and library of the maisonette unit, and a single staff room that appears to share a pooper with one of the larger bedrooms on the second floor, a situation our very private and notoriously imperious house gurl Svetlana would not stand for.

The chopped up ground floor also includes an over-sized second foyer that opens directly into the Greek Revival style building lobby, a small, impractically located study that must be passed through to get to the guest quarters, and an entertaining kitchen slammed between two bedrooms which opens to the 300 square foot terrace.

It may come as no surprise to any of the children that after six months on the market, the asking price of the Singh's doo-lex digs at 823 Park Avenue had been slashed to $19,950,000. That would be fifty thousand bucks less than they paid, a bitter pill to swallow for sure. Then, on the very same February day in 2009 on which they closed on the bargain basement sale of their apartment at 860 Park Avenue, the doo-plex at 823 Park Avenue was removed from the open market.

The apartment did not stay gone for long. Just six weeks later, in mid-March of 2009 Mister and Missus Singh's doo-plex at 823 Park Avenue reappeared on the market with a new listing agent and a shocking new asking price of $16,750,000 which our bejeweled abacus reveals is a staggering $3,250,000 less than the couple paid for the place a just year before. But hold on to your britches children because it gets even more chilling to the bone. On the 14th of May, according to the peeps at StreetEasy, the asking price was once again lowered. But children, it was not just pruned or pared, it was sliced, diced, hacked, chopped, whacked, slashed, lopped and hewn in one stupefying $2,250,000 swoop bringing it to its current asking price of $14,500,000.

What this means for Mister and Missus Singh, as all you mathematics whizzes already know, is that even in the unlikely event they find someone willing to fork over the full $14,500,000 asking price, they'll still lose a hair raising $5,500,000 (plus considerable renovation costs) on their Park Avenue dream house turned Nightmare on Park Avenue.

A quick spin through property records reveals that Mister and Missus Singh also own a house at on Dune Road in Westhampton Beach which the bought in November of 2001 for $3,730,000. Records show the couple also own a 3 bedroom and 3.5 bathroom condo in Aventura, FL which they picked up in March of 2004 for $1,450,000. No word on whether these properties will soon be for sale or not but Your Mama would not bet our long bodied bitches they are long for the Singh's real estate portfolio.

Mister Singh is hardly the only Wall Street heavy weight dealing with "reduced circumstances" who is looking to scare up some cash and lighten his real estate load. Max Abelson at the NY Observer reported today in his Manhattan Transfers column that Lehman Brothers' demonized former CEO Dick Fuld has quietly floated his 16-room, 6,200 square foot cooperative apartment at 640 Park Avenue on the market with a blistering asking price of $32,000,000. Soon after the Fulds learned the Mister would be fired from Lehman's without severance, Mrs. Fuld (in)famously sold off a slew of postwar drawings and Christie's which put more than a few million dollars of runaround money into her Birkin Bag. Even more whackadoodle is that in December of 2008, Mrs. Fuld was widely reported to have requested a plain bag to tote home newly purchased items from the Hermes shop on Madison Avenue. She did this, we assume, so that in the after math of the economic meltdown which her dear huzband helped to create she would not be seen or photographed conspicuously consuming this and thats from one of the pricest boo-teeks in all of Manhattan. Of course, the issue Mrs. Fuld grappled with apparently wasn't whether to conspicuously consume or not, but rather how to appear not be be a conspicuous consumer. Jeezis.

Also in a hurry to unload some real estate is former Lehman Brothers executive Joe Gregory who listed his 8 bedroom and 8.5 bathroom ocean front getaway in Bridgehampton, NY in September of 2008 with an asking price of $32,500,000, a number that was recently reduced to a still immodest $27,900,000

Another financier and former Lehman Brothers executive by the name of Jack L. Rivkin recently listed his Hamptons house for sale with an asking price of $31,000,000. Mister Rivkin's 1.86 acre estate on Amagansett's hoity toity Further Lane includes a 7,000 square foot house with 6 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, three fireplaces, a swimming pool and pool house, gym, a bowling alley (WHAT?) and a 365 year old barn brought over from England.

While so many houses in the Hamptons are being sold at rock-bottom prices, it's a bit unnerving for Your Mama to see such unrealistic asking prices on properties owned by folks who clearly need to sell them because, let's be honest, if these guys did not need to sell these houses, surely they would not be trying to sell them in the quicksand that is the current Hamptons real estate market. The desperation is getting ugly. Stay tuned children, because it's probably going to get worse before it gets better.