News From Abroad (and Beverly Hills)

There's been a tremendous amount of hoopla and hoo-ha the last several days about American ex-pat superstar Johnny Depp and his French baby momma Vanessa Paradis out-bidding an Arab prince for a fixer upper villa situated directly on the scenic Grand Canal in Venice, Italy.

Turns out he did not, at least not according to Mister Depp's rep who declared definitively to peeps at E! News that her client did not buy a vacation house in the sinking city of Venice. Make of that what you will, chickens.

As far as Your Mama knows, Mister Depp's property portfolio still and currently includes (but may not be limited to) a 50-some acre farm in the South of France, a large estate just above the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, CA that once belonged to Bela Lugosi, a condo at the Kelly Wearstler decorated Eastern Columbia building in downtown L.A., and an undeveloped private island in the Bahamas.

One of the newest celebrity real estate rumors to sweep through the British tabloids and subsequently all the real estate and celebrity blogs around the world is that lounge lizard Michael Bublé and his Argentine actress fiancée Luisana Lopilato have dropped around $4,500,000 for a "smart" house in the The Webb Estate, a fancy gated community in the London suburb Purley, Surrey.

Honestly, puppies, we don't know if there's any veracity to these real estate rumors about Mister Bublé buying a house the U.K. What we do know is that back in the spring of 2009 the Canadian crooner shelled out $4,100,000 for a contempo crib high above the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, CA. The house has 3 bedrooms, 3.5 poopers, a backyard swimming pool, spa, vertigo inducing views and a few famous neighbors who include singer Robin Thicke and gossip purveyor (and former ladee-mate of Simon Cowell) Terri Seymour.

Jennifer Aniston has owned a house across the street from Mister Bublé's pad for years but perhaps the richest of Mister Buble's well-heeled neighbors in Los Angeles is Atlanta-based actor/screenwriter/playwright/producer/director/mogul/whatever Tyler Perry, a man who remains curiously outside the Hollywood film firmament but is none-the-less well on his way to being a billionaire. Mister Perry, a real estate size queen if there ever was one, put his über contemporary, 9,725 square foot pied-a-terre in Tinseltown the market in June (2010) with an asking price of $13,250,000. The house remains unsold with a lowered price tag of $11,595,000.

Your Mama was told by a Beverly Hills real estate insider that Mister Perry put his modern manse on the market because he decided to complete the build-out of a 22,000 square foot mansion in the guard gated Beverly Ridge community that he began but abandoned a number of years ago.

But we digress. Speaking of the Cotswolds...

This will likely be old celebrity real estate news to all the Limeys who care about such things but it's brand new news to Your Mama who somehow missed all the many reports from the fall of 2010 about sometimes sloppy and oft opinionated British popstar Lily Allen snatching up a £3,000,000 spread in the Cotswolds called Old Overtown House. According to our currency conversion contraption that's more than 4,500,000 in American dinero.

Miss Allen's historic three-story house in the hamlet Overtown near the village of Cranham sits on about 8 acres, dates back to the 1600s and includes six bedrooms, five poopers, three reception rooms and a separate three bedroom cottage. The grounds include a swimming pool, tennis court, croquet lawn, stone barn and a variety of gardens (kitchen, rose, parterre, water).

The bucolic Cotswolds region has become a wee bit trendy for celebs and high-profile individuals like supermodel Kate Moss, conceptual artist Jake Chapman, rom-com king Hugh Grant who all own Cotswolds retreats. Spectacle making über artist Damien Hirst owns an historic 300-room Victorian Gothic extravaganza named Toddington Manor. Of course he does.

Anyhoodles poodles, back stateside Your Mama's been receiving some strange and conflicting information about the real estate affairs of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' large-lipped Taylor Armstrong and her huzband Whatshisname. More than two people recently whispered to Your Mama that they heard through the reality show gossip grapevine that Mister and Missus Armstrong are in foreclosure on their mock-Med mini-mansion located on a lonely street high above (West Gate) Bel Air.

They are not. Your Mama dug down into the nitty gritty of the public property records, which reveals that Mister and Missus Armstrong don't even own the house they live in. Silly rabbits, they'd have to own the damn house in order to be in foreclosure.

A quick cruise through the interweb and a leg up from the always helpful Babbling Babette and Your Mama figured out that the five bedroom and 4 bathroom house in question was listed for sale in the spring of 2008 for $3,995,000. It was concurrently listed for lease at fifteen grand a month and documentation Your Mama eyeballed with our own boozy eyes clearly states that the property was leased.

Puppies, we are not making a sad attempt her to dog Mister and Missus Armstrong for shelling out massive amounts of money each month to lease a house. Lahwerd knows just about everyone Your Mama knows rents because they can't afford to buy. Your Mama just likes to help so we're merely making an effort to clear up some brewing real estate rumors before they begin to circulate. Okay?

photos: Mouse Price (Lily Allen), Deasy Penner & Partners (Taylor Armstrong)