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Four protesters – all part of the group Sovereign Nation – remained in and on top of a makeshift tree house at City Hall Park early this morning until the dreaded cherry picker plucked them from their perches. A fifth furry occupier was also discovered inside – a dog named Lucky. more › Read more here: Video: Dog Occupies Tree House at Occupy LA
In an effort to get back at her French boyfriend, a Temple City woman is suspected of calling authorities and suggesting the man and his companions – all of whom bear Arabic surnames – posed a threat to passengers aboard a flight leaving LAX. Go here to see the original: Temple City woman charged with fake terrorist threat at LAX
The actress/singer and hockey player husband Mike Comrie worked off their Thanksgiving meal by playing around with a small canine friend, and the expecting star was even spotted looking on while a small tot played in the sand. View original post here: Pregnant Hilary Duff Enjoys A Day At The Park
OWNER: Pam Anderson LOCATION: Malibu, CA PRICE: $20,000/week or $75,000/month SIZE: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms (plus a backyard wigwam) YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A little birdie out in the Bu came chirp-chirping along this morning to let Your Mama know that bodacious (h)actress Pam Anderson has put her recently completed ” Romantic Malibu Beach House ” up for lease on the Vacation Rental By Owner website (VRBO) at the sky-high but not unheard for Malibu rates of $20,000 per week or $75,000 per month. Back in the fall of 2009 there were scads of scandalous reports that Miz Anderson–then living in Malibu’s trendiest trailer park while her house in the Colony was under (re-)construction–had fallen on hard financial times and didn’t have the dough-re-mi to complete the multi-million dollar renovations. Miz Anderson admitted she was in dispute with a number of subcontractors who filed legal claims over unpaid bills for work they performed at the residence but denied the issue wasn’t whether she could afford to pay the bills or not, but rather whether the bills were fair and accurate. A personal note from Miz Anderson on the VRBO listing declares the curvaceous sexpot and mother of two is “willing to share her [my] masterpiece” in Malibu because she’s “traveling so much these days” and “enjoying a lot more time in her [my] native Canada.” Listing information shows the teak-sided and pet-friendly contemporary sits on the landward-side of the guard-gated and celebrity stocked Malibu Colony enclave, includes 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms and was decorated by Miz Anderson herself. Given that the listing photos are so high contrast and bizarrely blown out Your Mama’s boozy eyeballs cain’t make heads or tails of the interior spaces other than to say that white appears to be the dominant color, if white can indeed be a color. A discreet gate at the street leads to a small front courtyard where listing information states an “ultra-wide swinging door” opens to the teak-floored open-plan interior spaces that include an airy living room with fireplace, baby grand piano and massive sliding glass doors that when open obliterate the division between indoors and out. The well-equipped kitchen has high-grade appliances and push activated cabinets and drawers. A teak staircase climbs to the second floor where two guest/family bedrooms each have computer desks, flat screen HD tee-vees with surround sound and wireless Apple systems. The bedrooms share a bathroom with steam shower. The master suite, also on the second floor, has a white marble wood-burning fireplace, burled wood closet doors, a wall of sliding windows that open to a large private deck that overlooks the backyard swimming pool and mountains. The bedroom is open to the bathroom just in case anyone wants to watch their bed-mate bathe in the free standing soaking tub that’s plainly visible from the bedroom. There’s also a glass-enclosed shower, detoxifying Finnish sauna equipped with tee-vee–what wants to watch the damn news or reality television while taking a sauna?–and a long vanity with plenty of room for perfumes and make-up applications. A private staircase accessible only through the master bedroom climbs up to a roof terrace with poured concrete fireplace, views over the Malibu Lagoon and media mogul Jerrold Perenchio’s private golf course. A deep deck with a ” green egg charcoal barbecue “extends off the rear of the residences main floor and surrounds a saltwater swimming pool with swim-up wet bar. The backyard also has a “huge tipi”–whatever that is–fig and avocado trees, a vegetable and herb garden, and a wigwam. That’s right, a wigwam. Other amenities include two-car enclosed garage, direct and nearby access to one of the most prized (and all but private) stretches of sand in all of Malibu, celebrity-style security complete with closed-circuit cameras, WiFi, an integrated home theater system and a high-tech home automation system controlled by custom remotes and iPads set into flush-mounted iPorts. The high monthly price covers housekeeping services and a vegetarian chef can be added for additional charges. listing photos: Vacation Rental By Owner Link: Pam Anderson Puts Malibu Beach House Up for Rent
OWNER: Oprah Winfrey LOCATION: Chicago, IL PRICE: $15,000/month SIZE: 4,607 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This afternoon we happily ride on the coat tails of reporter (and venerable real estate gossip) Bob Goldsborough at the Chicago Tribune who discovered and revealed this week that billionaire chat show host turned magazine tycoon turned television network owning mega-mogul Oprah Winfrey recently put a swank Chicago, IL co-operative apartment she owns up for lease at $15,000 per month. Miz Winfrey reportedly purchased the posh apartment in the urban-upscale Streeterville neighborhood in 2006 for $5,600,000. Despite securing the approval of the co-op board with a promise to make it her full-time residence, Miz Winfrey quickly had a real estate change of heart and never moved in to the 4,607 square foot apartment. From June 2008 until January 2009 Miz Winfrey had the mansion-sized apartment on the market for $6,000,000 but it did not, as far as we can tell, sell. Entered though a private elevator landing and a series of squeezy vestibules, the chunky floor-through apartment cleaves dramatically along a central spine, an enfilade that extends more than 80 feet from the bowed bay window in the lake-view formal living room clan through the reception gallery, formal dining room and solarium at the rear of the residence. The living room opens into a cozy wood-paneled and wood-floored library with fireplace wide bank of windows that afford of view through the tree tops to Lake Michigan and the popular Oak Street Beach. Extensive service quarters, tucked discreetly behind the elevator and formal dining room, include a well-equipped, galley style kitchen with antiqued white cabinetry, granite counter tops and breakfast area, separate laundry room, access to the service elevator, and a kitchen-size butler’s pantry with dark cabinets and granite counter tops. There’s also an oddly shaped home office with built-in desk and a separate wine/booze storage room with brick walls, floor-to-ceiling built-in bottle racks and a full height wine refrigerator. A guest suite has an enviably large walk-in closet, fireplace, private bathroom with window, and French doors access to a small terrace shared with the master bedroom. The approximately 1,300 square foot master suite wraps around the guest suite and stretches from the front of the apartment clear through to the back. In addition to three walk-in closets there are additional built-in storage cabinets and a substantial entertainment unit. The master includes not just one or even two but 2.5 bathrooms. Up front there is both a full bath–well, a three-quarter bathroom anyway–plus a completely separate bedside half bathroom. At the rear of the house-sized suite, in an area that was probably originally designed as a third bedroom with private bathroom, there’s another and significantly larger bathroom with jetted tub for two, separate party-sized steam shower for two or more, a private cubby for the crapper, double sinks and–harumph!–gold-plated fixtures. French doors open out to the small terrace shared with the guest suite. As far as we know, when in the Windy City, Miz Winfrey continues to occupy in her 15,000(-ish) square foot 4-unit combination duplex condominium at the mixed-use Water Tower Place complex in downtown Chicago where she’s lived since, well, we don’t know but a long time. Since she closed up shop on her long-running, hugely-successful and frighteningly-influential talk show–the eponymous Oprah Winfrey Show –Miz Winfrey has all but permanently relocated to the West Coast where her also eponymous Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) offices are located. Of course we don’t know a turnip truck from a fire hose but we none-the-less presume the still busy businesswoman and philanthropist now spends a considerable amount of time at her manicured 42-acre estate in the low key but eye-poppingly affluent coastal resort community of Montecito, CA. The OWN offices are located in Los Angeles Miracle Mile district, far to far to comfortably commute on a daily basis even by helicopter. We recently had lunch at the SoHo House in West Hollywood with gabby tattletale we’ll call Knelly Knowsathingortwo who swore to Your Mama on her seared Ahi tuna salad that Miz Winfrey is actively on the hunt for a bolt hole in Tinseltown. We have no specific intel but it makes sense. Iffin we were the betting type–and we’re not–we’d wager our long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly she’ll gravitate towards a multi-million dollar condominium. She has a long history of owning apartments in urban and semi-urban locations, after all, but has she considered Ellen Degeneres’ house nestled privately into the rugged mountains above Beverly Hills? Just a thought. listing photos and floor plan:VHT Studios for
SELLER: k.d. lang LOCATION: los angeles, ca PRICE: $1,975,000 SIZE: 2,968 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTES: much to your mama’s surprise, much lauded and deservedly applauded 4-time grammy-winning canadian-born crooner k.d. lang has long lived in a modest, rustic-modern, quasi-craftsman ranch-style residence above los angeles’ laurel canyon. it seems, however, she’s ready to move on because the thickly-treed and privately situated hillside property was listed this week with an asking price of $1,975,000. property records we peeped are a bit unclear but it appears to your mama that miz lang, an out lesbian, staunch animal right activist, and practicing buddhist who often but not always articulates the spelling of her name in all lower case letters à la idiosyncratic poet e.e. cummings, acquired her laurel canyon crib in early 1999 for an unknown amount of money. miz lang occupies the premises, as far as we know, with her also buddhist lady-mate of 10 or so years jamie price. after buying the .36 acre spread miz lang had the interiors of the cabin-ish crib worked over in the late 1990s by then l.a.- now new york- and paris-based interior designer valerie pasquiou who has also done up day-core for other tinseltowners and high profile peeps such as sitcom star lisa kudrow ( web therapy, friends ), her hollywood highness sharon stone, fashion photographer turned handbag and shoe designer monica botkier , fashion executive serge azria, design writer and editrix extraordinaire sue hostetler , well-connected french comedienne and movie star michèle laroque, and motion picture literary agent robert bookman who lives in a roland coate-designed spanish hacienda-style mansion once owned by reclusive billionaire howard hughes in los angeles’ affluent hancock park ‘hood. miz pasquiou’s own chic, cozy and all but undecorated tin-roofed loft apartment in new york city’s soho neighborhood was photographed for loft life in early 2009. miz lang’s laurel canyon hideaway was photographed for metropolitan home magazine in 2001 but listing photos suggest to your mama that some of miz pasquiou’s dee-voonly uncomplicated, kick-up-your-feet contempo-cozy day-core has since been altered or replaced, possibly but not necessarily with the assistance of miz pasquiou. listing information shows the single-level residence was originally built in 1940, measures 2,968 square feet and includes a total of 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. a row of high hedges, mature trees and other jumbled foliage comes together in a thick kerfuffle of leaves to completely shield the house from the prying eyes of paps and other passers by. A simple swinging wooden gate opens to the tree-shaded front yard where flagstone pathways criss-cross a rather anemic lawn and connect the entry gate to the front door and the gated flagstone driveway. inside the the day-core is decidedly simple and even spare but abundant natural materials used in the architecture keep it from feeling overly spartan, bare or coldly minimal. a trio of boxy, low-slung seal gray sofas sit on a rich red carpet the living room area warmed by wood floors, a massive stone fireplace and hand-hewn wood beams, doorway frames and lintels. a second stone fireplace anchors the voluminous dining room where cushioned built-in benches line one wall and a long row of wood-framed french doors open the room to the rustling tree tops and small deck peppered with clusters of potted plants. the simple but fully-equipped eat-in kitchen has mexican paver tile floor, wood-beamed ceiling, at least two dutch doors–and who does not l.o.v.e. a dutch door?–tile counter tops, and raised panel wood cabinetry with glass uppers. the surprisingly spacious master suite boasts a third, massive stacked stone fireplace, a heavy-beamed wood ceiling, and a wide bank of french doors that lead out to a secluded cobblestone terrace laid in a zen-like pattern of concentric circles. the attached bathroom has concrete walls, double sinks, wood-beams across the ceiling, a jetted tub and an over-sized shower stall with built-in bench, barrel vaulted ceiling and we, four-pane window for proper moisture ventilation. in addition to the master bedroom, two small but adequately sized guest rooms–one with deep window seat and the other with knotty pine paneled walls and ceiling–share a single bathroom. a shrubbery shrouded stone staircase leads down from the house to a free-form swimming pool and raised spa surrounded by flagstone terracing and a wide wood deck that sets sunbathers into the tree tops. tree shaded lounging areas offer respite from the almost always shining and often scorching southern california sunshine. the house was reportedly once owned by hunky (and closeted) homosexual matinee idol rock hudson and later by oscar-nominated lyricist gerry goffin ( the loco-motion, (you make be feel like) a natural woman, one fine day, saving all my love for you, theme from mahogany: do you know where you’re going to? ). miz lang’s current celebrity (and “celebrity) neighbors are many: nepotistic young actress rumer willis bought the house next door in june 2010 for $971,500, soo-blime stockard channing is a couple doors down from there, musician paul doucette (matchbox 20) and the original valley girl moon unit zappa live across the street, and box office superstar comedian will ferrell owns a sprawling hillside compound just down the road he bought back in 2006 from comedienne/chat show host ellen degeneres listing photos: p rudential california realty View post: k.d. lang lists long time laurel canyon crib
SELLER: David Schwimmer LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA PRICE: $10,700,000 SIZE: 11,336 square feet, 9 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTES: There are three–make that four–main reasons why celebrities, high profile people and others with the ducats to indulge their multi-million dollar real estate whims: death, marriage, divorce and/or the birth of a child. Since former Friends actor David Schwimmer got married last year in an all-but-secret ceremony and then pushed out a baby in May 2011 it’s really not such a surprise to any of us real estate gossips that he and his new missus-mommy Zoe Buckman–a former waitress and part-time photographer from London–recently heaved his long-time bachelor pad in Los Angeles’ hoity-toity Hancock Park area on the market with an asking price of $10,700,000. Since Friends went off the air in 2005 Mister Schwimmer hasn’t been very busy in front of the camera instead preferring a recurring voice over role in the Madagascar animated film franchise and directing a few things here and there including live studio segments for the long ago canceled Little Britain USA , a short-lived sketch comedy series that starred the deliciously campy, button-pushing British actor/comedians David Walliams and Matt Lucas, who recently snatched up his own house in Los Angeles. Property records show Mister Schwimmer acquired his gated and high-hedged Hancock Park spread way back in May 2001 when he paid $5,600,000 for the 1-plus acre estate located in the fancy heart of one of the better pockets of the historic, affluent, and celebrity-friendly Hancock Park ‘hood. Listing information indicates Mister Schwimmer’s massive two-story Mediterranean mansion was built in 1926, measures 11,000 square feet–the L.A. County Tax Man shows it’s 11,336 square feet–and contains 9 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms and 5 fireplaces. We’re not sure if those bedroom and bathroom counts include the detached guest house, located above the detached 3-car garage and described in listing materials as “a modern loft experience,”that has its own living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. Current listing photos are few and limited only to exterior shots of the house and grounds but listing information does indicate the interior spaces include formal living and dining rooms, a wood paneled library, stone-walled den, and a newly-installed state-of-the-art screening room. While the house was largely remodeled when Mister Schwimmer acquired it he did do over the back yard, install new heating and air conditioning systems and restored the windows, doors and hardwood floors.
photo: Google OWNER: Warren Beatty and Annette Bening LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA PRICE: $27,500 per month SIZE: 10,594 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTE: It appears that long-married Hollywood honchos Warren Beatty and Annette Bening may have, at long last, moved back to the Beverly Hills (Post Office), CA estate they moved from after the 1994 Northridge earthquake rendered their 9,401 square foot mansion uninhabitable. In 1996, with their third bun in Miz Bening’s oven, they moved about two miles west to a privately situated Mediterranean-style mansion where they lived for 10 or 15 years but recently made available for lease at $27,500 per month. During the late sixties and throughout the 1970s Mister Beatty was at the electric apex of his movie stardom with Oscar nominated roles in Bonnie and Clyde (1968), Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1979). It was during this time the devastatingly handsome Mister Beatty solidified his place among the pantheon of legendary Hollywood actors and notorious Tinseltown cocksman . It was also then, in 1972, that an unmarried Mister Beatty dropped $193,000 on a 3.4 acre celebrity-style estate set above Mulholland Drive with views that stretch–on a clear day–downtown Tinseltown to the Pacific Ocean. A house existed on the property at the time he bought it but at some point Mister Beatty replaced the original residence from 1938 with what has been described at a ” white glass house . By the time the 1994 Northridge quake rocked and knocked Los Angeles to its knees the longtime Lothario, then in mid-fifties, had a few years earlier made an honest woman of Annette Bening, an Oscar nominated actress ( The Grifters , 1991) who would go on to earn three more Oscar nominations ( American Beauty in 1999, Being Julia in 2005 and The Kids Are All Right in 2011) and bear Mister Beatty a total four children. We’re not sure where the Beatty-Benings moved immediately after their Mulholland Drive mansion met it’s quaking fate in 1994 but property records do show that in the months afterward they spent $510,000 to acquire an adjacent 1.107 acre parcel with an existing 1,798 square foot house. Maybe they shacked up there, maybe they didn’t, we don’t know. In February of the following year the Beatty-Benings spent another $175,000 to purchase a second adjacent but vacant 1.205 acre parcel. That brings us back to May 1996 when Mister Beatty and Miz Benning bought the large Mediterranean mansion now up for lease–in Real Estate Speak– at twenty-seven-five per month. The online listing does not provide many juicy details of the house nor any photographs of the house, grounds or interior spaces. What listing information does describe is a large, two-story Mediterranean mansion with 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms plus various grandly scaled rooms with high ceilings and “great flow for large scale entertaining.” French doors and windows throughout the house bathe and flood the interior spaces with light. Well, okay, Your Mama don’t know the light actually bathes or floods in, but listing information does state the inside of the house is “Very light.” There’s a sizable motor court at the front of the house, broad tree-ringed lawns that surround it and a swimming pool and spa. Unlike their old (and now new again) estate less than two miles away, this property does not sport a tennis court. photo: Google In April 2004, long after they’d done decamped to the Mediterranean manse they now have up for lease, the Beatty-Benings unexpectedly expanded their former Mulholland Drive compound. Records show they couple paid $2,200,000 for an adjacent, exactly one acre mini-estate that then had and still appears to have a 3,104 square foot house with its own long, gated driveway, detached two-car garage, San Fernando Valley views, and a swimming pool and spa. photo: Google Since 2004 there has been some parcel merging going on at the Mulholland Drive compound, which is way too banal to parse here. Suffice that Mister Beatty and Miz Bening’s old but newly improved Mulholland Drive compound encompasses 6.712 ridge line acres and contains a total of three separate residences including a newly built, V-shaped Mediterranean-style mansion of unknown proportions, swimming pool and tennis court. For all we know the Beatty-Benings have been living up in their new house on their old property above Mulholland Drive for a long time. Whatever the case, we’d like to offer them a housewarming gift and we promise it won’t be a weirdly ironic collection of endangered species erasers or an even more deeply disturbing door draft stopper in the shape of Santa Claus doing the splits . Read the original: Warren Beatty and Annette Bening Put Bev Hills Mansion Up for Lease
An hour-long police pursuit of a stolen car ended with the arrest of four suspects Sunday night. Photo Credit: The rest is here: Police Arrest Four After Stolen Car Pursuit
An 18-year-old man was found dead in a bed at a UCLA fraternity house Saturday afternoon. The Manhattan Beach man has been identified as Glen Parrish, and the cause of death is under investigation. Parrish was not a UCLA student. See the article here: Death At UCLA Frat House
