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Since the high cost of coastal real estate seems to stir up all sorts of righteous anger and moral indignation in the children, Your Mama wants to stir that pot a bit more by heading back to the glittery shores of Malee-boo where a number of rich and famous folks are foisting their oceanfront homes on the rental market after failing to sell them.

Last week, we mentioned unlikely Tinseltown Lothario David Spade who put a fat price tag of $65,000 per month on his crib La Costa beach which he unsuccessfully attempted to sell in the summer of 2007 for $16,000,000.
Also for lease on La Costa Beach is one of the two Malee-boo beach houses (above) owned by rock star Ozzy Osbourne and his impressively ambitious wifey Sharon which they've had on and off the market since at least March of 2006 when it was listed with an asking price of $14,000,000. The controversy courting couple, who have recently had their new variety show called Osbournes:Reloaded banned from airwaves coast to coast, did chop the asking price all the way down to $10,995,000. But alas, the three story house remained un-bought and in October of 2008 the property was put up for long term lease with an asking price of $25,000 per month.

Listing information shows the brick-built house on bizzy and cacophonous Pacific Coast Highway measures approximately 4,500 square feet with 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms spread over 3 floors. Vines crawl up the walls of the small and pretty front courtyard that leads to the front door which opens into the living room and dining rooms which have been done over by the Osbourne's nice gay decorator with a white on white day-core that includes white floors, white upholstered furniture, a white dining room table, white curtains and, well, you get the picture. There is a fireplace in the living room for those foggy mornings and chilly evenings and a row of three French doors open to an ocean front terrace where the never tan Osbournes probably never sunned themselves.

Behind the white dining room is a glimmering and well equipped all stainless steel kitchen that Your Mama feels quite certain would throw our sturdy-framed and despotic house gurl Svetlana into a screaming psychosis that could only be cured with six weeks of paid vacation in the Maldives.

The ocean side of the second floor is devoted entirely to the master suite which is, as expected, another study of white on white. Although the Shabby Chic meets Louis XIV (or XV or XVI whatever) day-core is not to our personal taste, we can recognize that the dark wood floors and the fireplace save the room from feeling like a damn icebox. There is also, according to listing information, a large walk in closet and a marble clad bathroom. The children will note the lace curtains behind the spa tub in the master bath which are, as y'all might imagine, an inexcusable offense to our rather delicate decorative sensibilities. Your Mama's decorating rule #691: Lace curtains are always unacceptable unless in a rural funeral home or that of a spinster shut-in whose Social Security does not afford her access to cable tee-vee or the internets where he or she could learn that lace curtains are nasty.

Also on the second floor is a paneled office/library where, much to our chagrin and dismay, the Osbournes have placed a number of exercise contraptions. We certainly understand the need for tee-vee people to stay unnaturally thin (the camera adding ten pounds and all), but we really feel a better solution for the needs of a home gym could have been come up with.

The third floor, according to listing information, is comprised of 2 ocean front bedrooms that open to a terrace where one of those horrid plug in type of hot tubs has been placed. A third bedroom/office at the front of the house offers its own not particularly peaceful private terrace with a bird's eye view of the inevitable summertime traffic snarls on the PCH.

After selling the Doheny Road house they made famous on their now defunct reality tee-vee program to make-up loving songstress Christina Aguilera in summer of 2007, Mister and Missus Osbourne decamped for the celebrity packed suburban guard gated community of Hidden Hills, CA where they reportedly plunked down around $10,000,000 for a 10,930 square foot house with a total of 6 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.
A few miles up the beach from the Osbourne beach house is one one of the three ocean front properties owned by three time Oscar nominated actor Leonardo DiCaprio, a man whose sex appeal to the cinema going masses has never been shared or understood by Your Mama.

If the children will put on their thinking caps, they'll recall that in January of 2007, Mister DiCaprio quietly purchased a cool and contemporary house on the Encinal Bluffs area of Malee-boo for what property records reveal was $6,350,000. His other two houses are located on Carbon Beach and behind the gates of the uber-exclusive Malibu Colony where rich and famous sun their buns free of the prying eyes of paps and regular people.

For reasons entirely unknown to Your Mama or the Dr. Cooter, Mister DiCaprio flipped Encinal Bluffs property back on to the market in November of 2008 with an asking price of $8,999,000, a figure our bejeweled abacus shows was a stunningly optimistic $2,649,000 increase over what the publicity shunning actor paid for the place just about 18 months prior. After no buyer stepped up to pay that high price, the notorious ladee's man recently karate chopped the asking price to its current number of $7,999,000.

With no apparent buyers at that asking price either, in late February of 2009 Mister DiCaprio put the property out for long term lease with a monthly rent of $25,000. That number, big but not big for Malibu per se, not only buys gated privacy and stunning bluff top views of the Pacific Ocean, but a well proportioned and modestly sized 2 bedroom and 2.5 bathroom main house as well as two one-bedroom guest suites that share a kitchen and are located above the detached 4 car garage at the front of the property.

As just about everyone who cares anything about celebrity real estate already knows, Mister DiCaprio's purchased his primary residence in the Bird Street area of the Sunset Strip from Madonna which he recently finished remodeling. Additionally, Mister DiCaprio also owns the house next door to his Bird Street aerie, and reportedly purchased a New York City condo in the meant to be environmentally friendly Riverhouse building in the Battery Park neighborhood.
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The other day, the people at Page Six reported that two of gals from The Real Housewives of New York City were selling their Hamptons hideaways. That same day we discussed the East Hampton house of Kelly Bensimon, the the newest and haughtiest of the housewives. However, no one seems to care much for or about the too tan Bensimon babe because we've been inundated with requests to know a little something about self-anointed etiquette expert Countess LuAnn de Lesseps' crib in Bridgehampton, NY that was rumored reported to be listed for $9,500,000.

Well children, y'all know Your Mama has a truly unhealthy obsession with all those unsettling hausfrau and spent an embarrassing amount of time scouring the interweb looking for a listing for the dee-vorcing de Lesseps digs. We regret to inform that we came up with nothing. Well, next to nothing. Although we have no reason to disbelieve the Page Six people, as far as we can figure, the de Lesseps do not currently have their house in the Hamptons on the open market.

What we did find, thanks to listing information provided to Your Mama by Heidi in the Hamptons, is evidence that the de Lesseps have previously attempted to sell their house on Highland Terrace at least three times. The first time was in the fall of 1998 when it was listed for $3,200,000. The second time was in the fall of 2000 when it was listed at $5,500,000 and the third time, which was not a charm, in January of 2007 when it was listed with an asking price of $9,500,000. Even thought the Page Six report about the de Lesseps currently trying to shed some real estate does not appear to be accurate, given their three prior tries and selling, it would certainly not be surprising if the house popped up on the market again.

Property records indicate the Count and Countess scooped up their 2+ acre parcel back in November of 1995 for $600,000. Listing information shows the 6,500 square foot (approx.) house was built in 1996, which would indicate the French aristocrat and his American Indian wifey who desperately wishes she were a French aristocrat, custom built their house. Property records show the house has 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, but listing information from 1997 shows 6 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms. Interestingly, 2 of the bedrooms and 1 of the bathrooms are located in the finished basement, which is most likely where they stick their charwoman Rosie. In addition to the sunken tennis court, which is oddly located in the front yard, there is a 20' x 40' heated gunite pool in the backyard and an adjacent pool house with a half bath and outdoor shower.

Oddly enough, Your Mama actually knows this house because Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter have a good friend whom we'll call Poodle who used to to lease a former chicken coop turned boho beach shack every summer that's just a around the corner from the de Lesseps' spread.

It is Your Mama's understanding that in New York City the de Lesseps bed down in a narrow townhouse on East 62nd Street on the wrong side of Lexington Avenue. We've also heard through the gossip grapevine–but can not confirm–the the de Lesseps townhouse is leased rather than owned, a suggestion that is somewhat supported by our inability to find any property records that show that particular arm of the de Lesseps family as owning any real estate in Manhattan.
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We hear that Miz Mel B, aka Scary Spice aka one of Eddie Murphy's baby mommas, sold her damn house in the Mount Olympus neighborhood above L.A.'s Laurel Canyon for $3,140,000* after just 7 days on the market. That's right puppies, one week. We also heard–but can not confirm–there were multiple offers on the spicy contemporary domicile. The children will recall that she listed the property with an asking price of $2,999,999.

Although the sale price is a bit higher than the $3,000,000 she paid for the place in August of 2007, she's still losing a giant wad of money if you believe what we heard about Miz B dropping 800,000 or a million clams on renovations.

Your Mama's gonna keep our usually loose lips sealed on this one and let all the real estate agents and Chicken Littles throw down with each other about what a sale like this might indicate about the real estate market.

3.2.1. Go!

*Your Mama also heard through the gossip grapevine the sale price was $3,200,000, so we don't really know what the buyer has agreed to pay. We'll just have to wait until the transfer records hit the interwaves before we know for sure.

SELLER: Milla Jovovich
LOCATION: Greenwich Avenue, New York, NY
PRICE: $7,000,000
SIZE: 4 bedrooms, 2 full and 2 half bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: ...Stunning Greek Revival 4 bedroom residential townhouse give you easy access to Greenwich Village's charming shops and transportation. Entering the foyer, you find yourself in a lovely restored home...

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama's first memory of supermodel/actress Milla Jovovich is from the mid 1980s when she was snapped by famous photographer Richard Avedon for the pages of Interview Magazine. She was undeniably striking, but she was also just twelve years old and tarted up like one of those little girls that get dressed up in satins and sequins and paraded around by their usually hefty and homely mommies at child beauty pageants. (Sorry babies, we don't mean to be mean, but those practically pornographic child pageants get our blood up.)

Anyhoo, Miss Jovovich is one of the few moving mannequins who successfully made the transition from the catwalk to the sound stage. Although we don't think we've ever seen Miss Jovovich on celluloid, she's got a resume of gun-toting hottie roles about as long as Your Mama's arm.

Miss Jovovich, whose fiancee and baby daddy is director Paul W.S. Anderson (not to be confused with Paul Thomas Anderson, thank you very much), shuttles back and forth between New York City and Los Angeles where she has recently listed two of her homes for sale.

In Los Angeles, she shacks up in a desperately in need of a redo John Woolf designed house in the Beverly Hills Post Office that is currently listed with an asking price of $3,299,000. Okay, we confess, Your Mama does not really know if Miss Jovovich occupies the Woolf house when she's in L.A. because property records show that she owns another house up in the much maligned Mount Olympus neighborhood and her baby daddy owns a house on Alto Cedro Drive, also in the Bev Hills Post Office so it's not like she lacks for a place to lay her pretty head at night.

The informative Streeteasy website shows that Miss Jovovich purchased her Manhattan townhouse in February of 2005 for $6,375,000. Miss Jovovich first listed her downtown digs in May of 2008 with an asking price of $8,750,000. Since then, the asking price has been hacked to $7,000,000 and just a couple of weeks ago she also floated the house out as a rental with a monthly lease price of $20,000.

Listing information indicates the four floor and four bedroom house has 3.5 bathrooms, but Your Mama's boozy and beady little eyes count 2 full and 2 half bathrooms on the floor plan. Whatever the case, there are four terlits, one per floor.

The front door opens to a small foyer that leads to a petite parlor and a guest terlit. Your Mama is quite fond of this set up because it keeps the Chinese food delivery man from being able to peek inside your private quarters.

French doors swing open to a larger living room at the back of the house which is, balcony like, open to the floor below where the dining room and gore-may kitchen are located. The two floors are connected by a staircase with intricate wrought iron balustrades and mahogany banisters and the kitchen/dining room have stone floors warmed with radiant heat, a feature every one's tootsies appreciate in the freezing winter months.

The third floors is devoted entirely to Miss Jovovich's private boo-dwar and includes a large dressing area with a cedar lined walk in closet, a bedroom with a wood burning fireplace and French doors that open to a small terrace with antique cement balustrades, another walk in closet lined with mirrored French doors, a small atrium, a large bathroom (with a bee-day the children will note) and a laundry room.

The fourth floor consists of two smallish bedrooms overlooking the rear gardens, a large bedroom at the front with a fireplace and a single pooper for all three rooms. Since the kitchen is three lung busting flights down, someone has thoughtfully installed a handy dandy and much appreciated kitchenette on this floor. According to the floor plan, the roof top deck appears to have an outdoor shower, but don't nobody quote Your Mama on that because we're not certain of that.

Given that Miss Jovovich and Mister W.S. Anderson recently had a child they named Ever, it's not so surprising to Your Mama that she's selling off a couple of her houses. Birthing a baby is one of the many reasons real estate fickle famous folks sell and buy property. Our admittedly unscientific research shows other reasons include (but are not limited to) breaking up with a boyfriend, completing a multi-million dollar renovation, getting a big paycheck, and having a bad hair day.
OWNER: David Spade
LOCATION: Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA
PRICE: $65,000/month
SIZE: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Amazing architectural beach house on sandy La Costa beach with a beautiful pool and private patios available for seasonal rental. Unmatched design and comfort at the beach!

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Spring has sprung and all those people who still have money to burn on summer rentals have started to scour the streets and shores of Malee-boo and the Hamptons. Given the rather rough state of the economy, Your Mama imagines renters will be asking for some seriously steep discounts.

But that isn't stopping home owners from asking for big numbers. For example, itty bitty comedian David Spade (who reportedly gets all the ladees with his not so itty bitty spade) has put his ocean front crib on sandy La Costa beach up for a summer lease with an asking price of $65,000 per month.

It's perhaps not surprising given that Mister Spade wants to let out his daintily decorated beach house given that he had the place up for sale in the summer of 2007 with an exuberant asking price of $16,000,000.

Listing information reveals that in addition to 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, sixty-five grand a month in Malee-boo gets a rich renter garage parking for two cars, 4 fireplaces, a small swimming pool on the highway side of the house, a spa and a sauna for sweating out the booze toxins, a glassed in sun porch, an open plan living, dining and kitchen area with high ceilings, Shabby Chic day-core, wide-plank wood floors, a big daddy Viking range and French doors that open to a large deck facing the roiling Pacific Ocean.
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BUYER: Hank Azaria
LOCATION: Perugia Way, Bel Air, CA
PRICE: last listed at $13,975,000
SIZE: 8,434 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Bel Air traditional in move-in condition. Master with his & hers and 4 additional bedroom/ bath up. Large living room opens to patio. Huge flat lawn and large pool. City and golf course views. New addition has family room, craft room, plus 2 bedroom and gym. Large gazebo by pool with fireplace and bath.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Not too long ago we were settin' around on the back patio sipping a gin and tonic and shooting the shit with our beloved bean spiller Nelly Knowsitall who, among other tidbits, informed Your Mama that Emmy winning actor Hank Azaria (The Simpsons, Huff, The Birdcage and etc.) purchased a new crib on posh Perugia Way in Bel Air.

As soon as ol' Nelly slid her boney I-haven't-eaten-solid-food-in-years backside into her black big body Mercedes Benz, we hopped on the interweb to see what we could find. It took some time to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, but records show the house Miz Knowsitall swears Mister Azaria and his baby momma Katie Wright bought is an 8,434 square foot mansion on that was last listed at $13,975,000. We don't know what Mister Azaria paid, so don't bother asking us because we are in a mood and we're likely to give you a verbal tail whipping.

The hedged, gated and secured traditionally designed house sort of resembles a Monterey Colonial (minus the adobe walls) and, according to listing information, includes 7 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms including a master suite with dual bathrooms. Each of the other four family bedrooms on the second floor have their own private pooper and there are two additional bedrooms in the recently added two floor extension that was somewhat haphazardly tacked on to the back of the house.

The architecturally wonky addition, according to listing information, includes a craft room, a gym, the two above mentioned bedrooms and a family room with views towards the Bel Air Country Club where according to their website, it may amuse the children to know, cell phones, dungarees, tank tops, shorts of any kind, swim wear, warm up suits and all sorts of other casual ensembles are strictly verboton on the golf course, in the clubhouse and, yes, even in the damn parking lot.

Anyhoo, a lovely if low ceilinged entrance hall leads to the large living room that features one of the property's four fireplaces, ebonized wood floors and a row of French doors opening to a rear terrace. Other rooms, according to listing information, include a dining room, a wood paneled library, a gore-may kitchen all did up with white cabinets and Carrara marble counter tops, a breakfast area, an office, den, a dance studio, an art studio, and a petite driveway leading to garage parking for three automobiles.

Outdoor amenities include a large flat lawn, a sport court, what appears to be a children's play house, a rectangular swimming pool and a circular spa. The flagstone terracing that surrounds the pool continues into the adjacent gazebo/pavilion where there is an outdoor living and dining area warmed by a fireplace and a blessed with a terlit, which is a good thing because it's a bit of a schlep from the pool deck to the house iffin you've got a bladder full of gin and tonics screaming to get out.

Mister Azaria and his baby momma's nearby neighbors include entertainment bigwig Robert Daly and his legendary songwriter wife Carole Bayer Sager who have a three parcel compound that property records show encompasses an 11,635 square foot main house, a 3,245 square foot guest house. Next door is philanthropist and children's rights do-gooder Nancy Daly Riordan (the former wife of the former mayor of Los Angeles) who was real estate gossip catnip back in the spring of 2008 when it was widely rumored and falsely reported that she sold her huge Malee-boo beach house for $68,000,000.

This is, apparently, not the only house in Mister Azaria's real estate portfolio. The likable actor has long owned a modest modern house on Bryn Mawr Drive in the Hollywood Dell neighborhood and, according to usually spot on Lucy Spillerguts, he also owns a 4 bedroom and 4 bathroom house in Beverly Hills that backs up to Franklin Canyon and sits across the street from the compound that kooky Sharon Stone bought back in 2006, never moved into, flipped back on to the market, tried to sell for an eternity and then, we hear from Our Fairy Godmother in Beverly Hills, leased to some rich guy.

P.S. Sorry for the delay today. We had things to do.
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SELLER: Kelly Bensimon
LOCATION: Further Lane, East Hampton, NY
PRICE: reported to be $10,900,000
SIZE: 5,800 square feet 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms (as per listing)
DESCRIPTION: ...On 1.2 glorious acres close to the ocean and surrounded by historic estate. Four bedrooms, four and one half baths, plus maid's quarters. Large living room with fireplace, country eat-in kitchen with attached family area and fireplace, large playroom, and master bedroom with fireplace and luxurious master bath. Grounds feature sunny, open law area and heated gunite pool. There is also a two car garage and a full basement.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: For better or worse, those damn Real Housewives of New York City can't seem to keep themselves out of the dishy pages of all the tabs and gossip glossies. First we heard that new housewife Kelly Bensimon–whose claim to fame and money comes courtesy of her ex-husband, the wildly successful fashion photographer Gilles Bensimon–beat up on her sexy (and younger looking) boyfriend. Then we heard that the passively snide Countess Luann de Lesseps is being kicked to the curbed by her much older Euro-huzband who's reportedly trading her in for an Ethiopian beehawtcha in Geneva. Next we learned that Ramona–or Ramoner as our sassy gal pal at Scented Glossy Magazines calls her–is being black-balled by some of the concerned parents at her daughter Avery's private parochial school who do not wish to be associated by proxy to the tawdry reality program. And let's not even get started on the chimera that is Alex and Simon who, bless their little Becky Thatcher hearts, are blissfully ignorant of their intolerable pretensions and disturbing delusions of grandeur.

All of which is fascinating stuff if you watch the wild and wonderful reality program that is The Real Housewives of New York City but, of course, has zip to do with real estate. Well hold your horses children because the real estate gossip is starting to roll and this morning, thanks to the fine folks at Page Six in the NY Post, Your Mama learned that former model turned writer/gal about town Kelly Bensimon is looking to unload her house in East Hampton, NY. The NY Post reports an asking price of $10,900,000 for the South of the Highway cedar shingled cottage while listing information shows "Price Upon Request."

Property records indicate that Mister Bensimon purchased this property in August of 1994 for just $750,000. As far as we know from a brief crawl through the interweb, three times wed Mister Bensimon did not couple up with Miz Bensimon until sometime in 1996, so it would seem Miz Bensimon either got the property in their 2006 dee-vorce, or that the couple continues to share usage. Whatever the case, the Bensimon digs sit on 1.2 acres on one of East Hampton's most moneyed lanes.

We're sure some of the children are going piss and moan about how $10,900,000 is far to much for a house like this and that this house would cost about twelve bucks if it was in Nebraska or Alabama or Michigan (or anywhere else besides the Hamptons). Blah blah blah. The fact is, it is located in the high fallutin' Hamptons where the rich and wish they were rich come to bake their booties in the summer sun and plunk down $100 per pound for the legendary lobster salad at Loaves and Fishes in Sagaponack.

None the less, as high as the asking price for this house may be, the Bensimon beach house is, by far, one of the lesser residential lights on the pastorally gliztzy Further Lane where neighbors include Coach CEO Reed Krakoff who recently plunked down $24,000,000 for an historic estate called Lasata and who reportedly floated his recently rehabbed Manhattan townhouse quietly on the market for $52,000,000. Other high profile peeps on the block include hedge hogs Steve Cohen and James Chanos, residual rich comedian Jerry Seinfeld who is reported to have paid piano man Billy Joel around 32 million clams for his ocean front estate, art dealing honcho Larry Gagosian, and lavish living mutual fund financier Ron Baron who reportedly coughed up a rumored, reported, record breaking and wrist wringing $103,000,000 for a 40 acre ocean front property long owned by oil heiress and art patron Adelaide de Menil. Mister Baron, who also owned another Further Lane property for which he paid $23,000,000, was launched into the gossip glossy limelight back in 2003 when he hired private security to keep the gays from cruising in the dunes behind his house.

Anyhoo, listing information indicates Miz Bensimon's residence measures 5,800 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathroom plus "maid's quarters," a term we wish real estate agents would retire for something more generic and less demeaning sounding like staff quarters.

The exterior of the Bensimon crib was built to fit in with the architectural vernacular of the Hamptons, but the airy interiors are decidedly contemporary with glossily ebonized hardwood floors and a stainless steel kitchen that would have our imperious house gurl Svetlana screaming for a full time assistant whose only job would be to keep all that metal free of fingerprints and dog nose streaks.

In addition to formal living with its row of Palladian style French doors, listing information reveals indicates there is also an eat-in kitchen that flows into a family room with a vaulted ceiling and a brick fireplace, a play room and a first floor master suite with a third fireplace, French doors opening the rear deck, and a large bathroom with what appears to be black marble tile accents.

Although Your Mama finds Miz Bensimon to be impossibly dull, arrogant, childish, and all but inarticulate on The Real Housewives of New York City, we confess that we rather like her kooky taste in day-core. Whether she hauled her too tan booty around to all the good shops in New York or whether she sent out a well paid nice gay decorator to pick out the colossal cowhide ottoman and the big crazy shark that's mounted over the fireplace in the formal living room, we appreciate whimsy and casual sophistication of the the place. This kind of contemporay ain't for everyone, but Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter are sick for white walls and bursts of bright colors in the furniture, art and accessories.

Records and reports indicate Miz Bensimon lives in a 6th floor unit in the fabulous people friendly Police Building on Centre Street in New York City while her ex-huzband occupies a separate apartment on the fourth floor. We're sure this set up is great for the ex-couple's kiddies, but it can't be so great when they run into each other and their respective "dates" in the magnificent lobby of the building.

Real estate in the Hamptons has sort of fallen off a cliff in the last several months due to the economic melt down and financial fracas on Wall Street, so it remains to be seen whether there is a buyer for Miz Bensimon's house who is willing to pay anywhere near her asking price. We shall see.

In other real estate news about those crazy housewives, the soon to be single Countess Luann de Lesseps has also listed her Hamptons hideaway for sale, reportedly with an asking price of $9,500,000.