Thursday 31 March 2011

New Krib for Kourtney Kardashian

BUYER: Kourtney Kardashian (and Scott Disick)
LOCATION: Calabasas, CA
PRICE: $1,700,000
SIZE: 5,334 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Buckle in buckaroos and pour yourselves a tall and stiff gin & tonic because?trust now?you are going to need it. We strongly recommend getting blottoed or at least a little buzzed before moving on here because much to Your Mama's own dismay and disappointment we are about to discuss the recent real estate doings of one of those krazy and ubiquitous Kardashian people. This time it's the eldest Kardashian, Kourtney, and her douche bag baby daddy Scott Disick who, we hear through the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine, recently paid $1,700,000 for a new krib in an upscale development in Calabasas, CA.

Several days ago The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial queried Your Mama about an upgraded and pricey but perfectly ordinary home in The Oaks, an upper middle class gated community in the far northwestern suburbs of Los Angeles. The Bizzy Boys were pretty sure but not 100% sure that the property in question was purchased by Miss Kourtney K. (and her ill-behaving baby daddy Scott Disick).

After taking a day or two to stomach the notion of digging up real estate dish on one of the Kardashians, Your Mama made a few requests for confirmation from a couple of our contacts who tend to know about quasi-celebrity real estate matters. It wasn't long before we heard back from a celebrity gossip industry stalwart we know who told us that his people told him that Kourtney K. and her coat tail-riding baby daddy Scott Disick have indeed moved into the krib in question as evidenced?if you will?by their high-cost whips being espied and photographed while parked in the driveway. Also, someone pointed Your Mama towards a video on the YouTube that shows Mister Kourtney Kardashian standing on the rear balcony of the house?are you read for this??encouraging folks to visit his official personal website in order to get a real idea of who he is and what his life is like. Make of that, butter beans, what you will.

The pre-Kourtney K. ownership of the property, according records we accessed, show the property has had a somewhat tumultuous past. It was sold in late June of 2007 for $3,175,000 to a non-celebrity. The following February, the fickle non-celebrity buyer(s) flipped the property back on the market with an asking price of $3,499,000. A few months later, the first of three nasty Notices of Default were recorded on the property. The asking price eventually dipped to $3,299,000 and listing information obtained with an assist from our friend and informant Babbling Babette shows the property was leased in early November 2008 for $13,500 per month.

Although the third and final Notice of Default on the property was recorded in August of 2010, the seller somehow managed to keep the property from falling into the ugly and complicated abyss of foreclosure until along came Miss Kourtney K. (and her wall-punching baby daddy Scott Disick) who, according to property records and as already mentioned above, acquired the residence?through a trust?in November of 2010 for $1,700,000. A few quick flicks of the industrious beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus shows that's less than half what the seller hoped to get when the property was first foisted on the market nearly three years earlier.

Listing information shows the house?previously used as one of the model homes for The Oaks development?measures 5,334 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. For what it's worth and for anyone who might be persnickety about these particular details, some records show the house measures 5,199 square feet and at least one listing Your Mama reviewed indicated the house actually has 5 full bathrooms. We don't know nor do we care enough to try to find out which figures are accurate.

Anyhoodles doodles, a courtyard entry features a pond and provides access to a detached room that could be utilized as an office, library, guest or staff room, sex dungeon, fitness room and/or media lounge. Inside the house, dark chocolate stained hardwood floor run through a double height entry with its surprisingly pretty staircase and in to the formal living and dining rooms. A not particularly large but well-equipped kitchen, outfitted with high-grade stainless steel appliances and fussy, cream-colored cabinetry has a snack bar, breakfast area and is open to the family room that provides access to the backyard.

The second-floor master suite includes a sitting area, fireplace, walk-in closet, large bathroom with separate soaking tub and shower and private balcony that overlooks the backyard and offers a view of the surrounding roof tops and rolling hills. Other features noted in listing information for the property from 2008 shows the house has an attached two-car garage, wine cellar, second-floor den/game room, crown molding, designer window treatments, central heat, air and vacuum systems, and a luxurious home automation system.

The slim but fully landscaped backyard includes a concrete patio that envelops a free-form swimming pool and raised spa with stone coping and boulder accents, a built-in fire pit and a small grassy area just large enough for a pooch or two to tinkle and squat.

As it turns out, is not Miss Kourtney K.'s first time at the real estate rodeo out in the suburban wilds of Calabasas. In July 2006 the reality tee-vee star coughed up $829,000 for a 2 bedroom and 3 pooper pad in a small gated enclave that wraps around an electrical substation. Miss Kourtney K. took a not insubstantial $130,000-plus wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am to her designer pocketbook in July 2010 when prop records show she sold the two-story 2,235 square foot abode for $700,000.

Momma Kris Kardashian and her Olympic gold medal winner husband Bruce Jenner live in an 8,860 square foot mansion in the guard-gated and star-studded Hidden Hills community where their neighbors include Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Melissa Etheridge, Nicolette Sheridan and Denise Richards, one of publicly dissembling actor Charlie's Sheen's three ex-wives and baby-mommas. Gluttially expansive and �ber-entrepreneurial Tinseltown gadabout Kim Kardashian paid $3,400,000 in early 2010 for a 4,500 square foot faux-Tuscan/mock-Med mansion in the Beverly Hills Post Office and younger sis Khloe and her professional dribbler Lamar Odom live in a hulking 7 bedroom and 9 pooper mansion in hot as Hades Tarzana, CA that property records indicate they bought in December of 2009 for $3,950,000.

We're not entirely sure what Mister Disick does for a living besides fight with his baby momma and look like the definition of a tool in front of a crew of reality television cameras but in a recent interview with Mister Disick in Men's Fitness he reveals that he's currently at work on a line of tanning products and supplements for men. Puh-damn-leeze. Let's just call this donkey an ass, okay? We may not know a goblet from a magnifying glass but it is Your Mama's entirely meaningless opinion that if the Kardashian name is not slapped on or, at least, part of the marketing for any product dapper but flashy Mister Disick develops the endeavor is unlikely to succeed. He's a nightclub promoter (or celebrity wrangler or some such thing) and not a goddamn skin care guru. Gawd, it just makes Your Mama want to puke.

Word on the reality tee-vee street is that Miss Kourtney K. and her bespoke-suited baby daddy Mister Disick hope to sell a reality television program of their very own and if they do succeed in that task we expect their new krib will be prominently featured. They would be far from the first high-drama quasi-celebrity couple to sell a successful show about how they raise babies and manage "fame." Just think about Hugh Hefner's ex-gal pal Kendra Whatsername. As far as Your Mama is concerned, that athletic-looking beehawtcha is about as interesting as a box of hair and yet she's all over the damn boob-toob. Not only does she have an eponymous reality show in its 3rd or 4th season but she's also doing the shuck and jive on the current season of the psychologically oppressive and utterly mortifying mega-hit Dancing With The Stars.

What, children, do these Kardashian people actually do that is so damn appealing to others that it allows them to collectively earn upwards of $65,000,0000 in 2010 with an undeniably successful and endlessly expanding empire of clothing stores, fragrances, pin-up calenders, product endorsements, sex tapes and reality television programs, all of which are built?of course?on the back of Kim K.'s behemoth backside? Women want that ass and men?well?want that ass too and, apparently, as a result of the sexed-up desirability of Miss Kim's phat fanny, millions will spend their last minimum wage dollars to buy whatever stupid thing the Kardashians are selling. For chrissakes, chickens, there were people who actually paid real money for The Kardashian Kard, a (much-maligned and now-defunct) pre-paid credit card with shockingly high and "predatory" fees. They had their own fucking credit card, people.

Welcome, giblets, to celebrity in the 21st-century. Your Mama warned y'all that you'd want a tall and stiff gin & tonic to get through this one so it's not our fault iffin any of y'all didn't heed that advice and are now suffering the consequences of reality.

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-krib-for-kourney-kardashian.html

Beyonce Winona Ryder Keanu Reeves Brad Pitt

Courteney Cox & Josh Hopkins: Are They, Aren't They?

Spending another day in paradise, Courteney Cox was alongside Josh Hopkins on the beaches of St Barts on Thursday (March 31).

The "Cougar Town" actress appeared happy and, for the most part, carefree as she was joined by daughter Coco and her TV co-star/rumored romance during the shoreside escapade.

Clearly keeping herself in proper shape, Cox flaunted a stunning bikini body as she sported a skimpy black bikini while being sure never to stray far away from Hopkins as they splashed in the St Barts waves.

During the course of the action-packed day, Courteney and Josh followed up the beach doings by taking Coco on a shopping session around the Port of Gustavia.

Last month, Cox and Hopkins, 40, were spotted holding hands after the cameras stopped rolling on set. Despite the seemingly obvious coupledom, reps for Cox have insisted she and Josh are not an item and are simply friends.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/courteney-cox/courteney-cox-josh-hopkins-are-they-arent-they-493518

Brad Pitt Angelina Jolie Dennis Quaid Shia LeBouef

Readers recommend: Mr and Mrs songs

No point acting like Mr Complicated this week ? just send us your favourite songs with Mr, Mrs or Ms in the title ...

No, nothing to do with Derek Batey. This week we'd like you to suggest some great songs whose titles contain the honorifics Mr or Mrs (or Ms ? this is the Guardian, for goodness sake).

They can be fictional (like No�l Coward's Mrs Worthington) or real (Ozzy Osbourne's Mr Crowley). And they need not have real-sounding names after the honorific (Jean Knight's Mr Big Stuff).

There you go ? simple. No point in being Mr Complicated.

The toolbox:

* This week's collaborative Spotify playlist

* The RR archive

* The Marconium (blog containing a wealth of data on RR)

* The 'Spill (blog for the RR community)

Please do:

* Post your nominations before midday on Tuesday if you wish them to be considered.

* Write a few lines advocating the merits of your choices.

But please don't:

* Post more than one third of the lyrics of any song.

* Dump lists of nominations. If you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.

Cut-out-and-keep guide to the strange words used by regular RR posters:

* Dond: To second another reader's nomination. Here's how the word was coined.

* Zedded: The song has already been included in an A-list (and so convention dictates it cannot be included in another one). The songs I mentioned above are all zedded, in case you were wondering.

* Assfairy: A song that I have repeatedly failed to include in RR playlists, no doubt due to poor taste and judgment. Here are definitions offered by RR stalwarts Shoegazer and Pairubu

* More strange words in the RR glossary (courtesy of the Marconium)


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/apr/01/readers-recommend-mr-mrs-songs

Celebrity Gossip Dancing On Ice X Factor Beyonce

Behold the $90,000,000 Woolworth Mansion


SELLER: Estate of Lucille Roberts
LOCATION: New York, NY
PRICE: $90,000,000
SIZE: 18,000 (ish) square feet

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This morning while Your Mama swilled coffee in a perfectly futile attempt to shake last night's booze intake from our brain we tap danced around the internets where we came across a wee cache of photographs of the monumental New York City townhouse mansion that recently came up for sale amid much fanfare and publicity with an asking price of $90,000,000.

And, children, the photographs are mag-nih-fih-cent. Like candy for the eyes.

In 1911 five-and-dime store bazillionaire Frank Winfield Woolworth commissioned high-society architect C.P.H. Gilbert to design a 35-foot wide Neo-French Renaissance style pile for Helena Woolworth McCann, one of his three lucky lucky lucky daughters. Mister Woolworth's other two daughter's?Edna and Jessie?were also gifted slightly smaller but still tremendous 25-foot wide townhouse mansions, one one either side of their sister Helena's humongaloid house. They too were designed by C.P.H. Gilbert.

The titanic townhouse is now owned by the estate of fitness tycoon Lucille Roberts who went to meet her Great Trainer in the Sky in 2003 at the too-young age of 59. She died from lung cancer, even though she reportedly never smoked a day in her life. The fine folks at Streeteasy show that the townhouse was last sold?presumably this is the transaction related to the exercise queen?for $6,000,000 in September of 1995.

A person would have to be a boll weevil to mistake this townhouse for the home of anyone but a wildly wealthy person to whom size matters when it comes to real estate. None the less, the meticulously articulated, somber and slightly sinister limestone fa�ade belies nothing of the explosion of joyous jewel toned day-core on the inside. The approximately 18,000 square foot townhouse opens into a vast entrance hall with massive carved stone fireplace, three coat closets and a powder pooper. If the term 'architectural grandiosity' were to appear in the dictionary, it would show a picture of this room as a perfect example and Your Mama could happily spend an entire afternoon looking at and writhing around on the mosaic tile floor in there. It is just beyond, bunny-hunnies, be-yond.

One floor up on the palatial parlor floor the heavily gilded ceilings soar to fourteen feet. The ballroom-sized stair landing on the parlor floor separates the opulent living room that stretches the full 35-foot width of the townhouse and the baronial dining room large enough to feed fifty people at a sit-down dinner.

Listing information for the magnificent mansion shows it contains 7 floors?all accessible by an elevator, 8 fireplaces, at least 5 principal bedrooms and at least 7 full and 2 half bathrooms plus a two-bedroom staff on the top floor with an additional two bathrooms and a full kitchen. The full-floor master suite on the fourth floor, no doubt larger than Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's entire home, includes a behemoth bedrooms, not one but two sitting rooms, two dressing rooms and two bathrooms.

If anyone might want to test drive this puppy before plunking down ninety million bucks it's available for lease at?get yerself a nerve pill, darlins?$210,000 per month. Lord have mercy children, fewer than 2% of the people in this great U-nited States of America earn $210,000 in a whole damn year so how many folks can there really be who can cough up nearly a quarter million clams every month in rent?

As an architectural aside: At one time, Helena Woolworth McCann (and her attorney husband Charles E.F. McCann also owned the Sunken Orchard estate in Oyster Bay Cove that included a sprawling 29-room Georgian-style mansion with 11 bedrooms, at least 9 bathrooms?plus a powder room or two) and substantial staff quarters with 10 surprisingly large bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. And that, kiddaroos, does not include the three staff apartments attached to the detached 6-car garage or the 5-room caretakers apartment. More juicy information on the property can be found on the always fascinating and informative Old Long Island website.

listing photos: Brown Harris Stevens

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/03/behold-woolworth-mansion.html

Lil Wayne Movie Trailers Lady Gaga Jay Z

Seun Anikulapo Kuti and Egypt 80: From Africa With Fury: Rise ? review

(Because)

Seun Kuti has always had two problems. He has had to battle against continual comparisons with his legendary father Fela (hardly surprising, since he based his early career on a stage performance in which he looked and sounded like his late dad's clone), and he has had to watch the success of Fela's oldest son, Femi. The UK has been blitzed with Fela nostalgia in recent months, with the success of the Fela! stage show and the rerelease of all his back catalogue. Now it's Seun's turn to show whether he can take Afrobeat to a new level. He succeeds ? but with a lot of help from others. For a start, there's his band, which includes legendary Nigerians such as band leader and keyboard player Lekan Animashaun, who played with Fela. And there's the production team of John Reynolds and Brian Eno, who have updated the style with a new edge and attack, and the occasional hint of electronica. This is an album that's memorable for its slick, rousing instrumental work, which includes Seun's own saxophone contributions. His new songs attack predictable targets, but at least he is beginning to find his own voice.

Rating: 4/5


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/31/seun-kuti-cd-review

Dennis Quaid Shia LeBouef Bruno Mars Thierry Henry

Forbes Family Lightens Real Estate Load in London

SELLER: Forbes family
LOCATION: London, U.K.
PRICE: �12,000,000
SIZE: Big

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Listing pictures are slim but, as first reported in the Financial Times last week, the U.S.-based Forbes family have put Old Battersea House, their historic and dignified outpost in London's Battersea, on the market with an asking price of �12,000,000. A quick consult with our currency conversion contraption shows that amounts to $19,413,500US at today's rates.

The Forbes family's considerable fortune is largely derived from publishing and they are best known for their eponymous magazine that publishes fascinating lists of the world's wealthiest individuals and other financial information both important and trivial.

The sprawling Forbes clan has opted to unload Old Battersea House as part of the family's planning to ensure the family's wealth is secure for future generations. Listing information shows that the Grade II listed mansion sits right on the Thames Rivers?or at least, right across the road from the Thames?and includes a baroque hallway, wide staircase, 5 reception rooms that include a paneled drawing room or two, oak doors and floors, a modernized kitchen and a total of 10 double bedrooms and an unknown number of terliting and bathing facilities, at least one of which is equipped with a spa tub and sauna.

Malcolm Forbes, a man known for his glittery lifestyle, jet-setting friends and down-low homosexual proclivities, acquired the walled and gated property in the early 1970s. It was in a serious state of disrepair having empty for five long years during which part of the roof fell in. The Forbes family hired architect Vernon Gibberd who spent four years rescuing and restoring the gorgeous Georgian-style manor house that was built in the late 17th century on Tudor foundations.

Over the years the wealthy Forbes family hosted a slew of dinners and parties attended by dignitaries (Margaret Thatcher, Ronald and Nancy Reagan), financiers (Warren Buffet) celebrities (Elizabeth Taylor) and various members of the royal family.

In addition of their desire to divest their portfolio of Old Battersea House, the Forbes family also plans to sell off a well-regarded collection of British artworks housed in Old Battersea House that includes works by Thomas Gainsborough and a collection of Royal memorabilia that includes a number of portraits of Royals and a pair of Queen Victoria's under panties.

Although Your Mama is far from an expert on the London property market, Old Battersea House seems to be in a slightly less than desirable location for someone with twenty million bucks to lay out for a 10 bedroom manor house. Although Battersea Park is cycling distance and the London Heliport is walking distance, the property is surrounded by apartment houses where perfectly ordinary one and two bedroom flats can be had for well under �300,000, around $500,000US. That's hardly chopped liver but it is not, Your Mama thinks we can all agree, even on the same real estate playing field as Old Battersea House.

listing photos: Savills

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/03/forbes-family-lightens-real-estate-load.html

Bruno Mars Thierry Henry Cheryl Cole Simon Cowell

New music: Bluebell ? Normal Heights

Softly cooing vocals and DIY symphonic pop from this duo ... now with added risque video

We don't know too much about Bluebell other than that they're a duo and that the singer, Annabel Jones, used to be in a band called Lady and the Lost Boys. Oh, and that she's from Hampshire. Normal Heights, the song, emerged online a few weeks ago ? all softly cooing vocals and DIY symphonic pop gorgeousness ? and the accompanying, mildly NSFW video arrived over the weekend. Incorporating what looks like other people's holiday videos and private snapshots and editing them together to create a weirdly nostalgic home movie, it's the perfect visual accompaniment to a song that somehow brings to mind lost summer romances.


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/mar/29/bluebell-normal-heights

Celebrity Gossip Pop Music Movie News Lil Wayne

New music: Flaming Lips and Neon Indian - Is David Bowie Dying?

It's hardly commercial and it doesn't exactly answer the titular question over David Bowie's wellbeing ? but it's always nice to have the Flaming Lips around

It's been mooted for a while but confirmation has finally arrived, in typically irregular fashion, of a collaboration between the Flaming Lips and chillwave supremo Neon Indian. Flaming Lips singer Wayne Coyne tweeted last week that he was dropping off boxes of the untitled EP to two record shops in Oklahoma and Dallas and, lo and behold, here's the lead single, Is David Bowie Dying?

At six minutes long and featuring big chunks of distorted guitars, rudimentary beatboxing and layers of sonic squiggles, it's hardly chart-bound, but as the song unfolds it manages to mesh the more hypnotic end of the Flaming Lips' work with Neon Indian's dreaminess. The second track on the EP is Alan's Theremin, which we can only assume is the big hit single.


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/mar/28/flaming-lips-neon-indian-david-bowie

Dancing On Ice X Factor Beyonce Winona Ryder

Has Sucker Punch ruined Zack Snyder's Superman chances?

With the critics savaging Sucker Punch, it's possible for Warner Bros to promote Christopher Nolan, demote Zack Snyder and still use his mainly visual gifts

Can one film ruin a career? Maybe it can, if that film is Sucker Punch. Speculation has been rife this week that Zack Snyder might find himself out of the Superman hotseat due to the critical drubbing and poor US box-office bow for his salacious new action fantasy. MTV News even quotes a number of critics willing to bet their last greenback that the US film-maker is about to be unceremoniously dumped in favour of another director.

At first glance, this all seems a bit farfetched. Snyder was only handed the job of reviving the Man of Steel in October, and Warner Bros executives will rest comfortable in the knowledge that they have producer Christopher Nolan above him in the film-making hierarchy as the project's "godfather". On the other hand, anyone who has seen Sucker Punch will easily be able to understand why it might prove to be the director's kryptonite.

Horribly misconceived, puerile, distasteful and hugely wasteful of the talent involved, Snyder's latest release is Coyote Ugly for the fanboy brigade ? or Girl, Interrupted, had Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie been forced to spend the entire film shooting things while tarted up to the nines in stockings and suspenders. Quite what Snyder was thinking is anyone's guess, but one can only assume he was given free reign to indulge his cinematic vision following the relative box-office successes of 300 and Watchmen (and promptly fluffed his lines).

Snyder's vision, such as it is, seems to be that of a 15-year-old video-game junkie. Sucker Punch is all hotpants and uzis, scantily clad babes blowing the bejesus out of hordes of zombie Nazi troopers and bazookaing dragons and giant robots to kingdom come. It's even compartmentalised into game-style, task-orientated segments which must be completed to allow our high-kicking heroines to escape the nuthouse-cum-whorehouse where they have been incarcerated.

One can only imagine somebody somewhere thought this might appeal to adolescent males in the same way the similarly vacuous Twilight movies have drooling teenage girls flocking to cinemas. I am pleased to report that somebody somewhere got it very wrong indeed. I am less pleased to admit that, earlier this year, I thought Sucker Punch might just be one of this year's fantasy highlights, based on Snyder's excellent efforts on Watchmen. If he does remain in charge of Superman, we can only hope that results will improve when he is once again working from somebody else's screenplay, which in the latter film's case is a much-hyped David S Goyer/Nolan creation.

The other big news this week on a Warner/DC tip (the studio owns the screen rights to all the comic book publisher's major titles) is head honcho Jeff Robinov's LA Times interview, in which he reveals two things. Firstly, Nolan will be in charge of rebooting Batman in a producer's role once he has finished work on The Dark Knight Rises, and secondly, there are proposals in the works to revive the long-awaited (albeit with some degree of trepidation) plan for a Justice League movie, uniting the caped crusader with Superman, Wonder Woman and other characters in one feature.

What this means is that Warner are basically counting on Nolan to oversee both their major superhero "franchises" for the foreseable future. What it does not mean, apparently, is that the British film-maker will also be taking charge of a Justice League film. Speaking on the red carpet at the London premiere of Sucker Punch, Snyder said there were no plans to link his iteration of Superman or either Nolan version of Batman (either the current series or the planned post-Dark Knight Rises reboot) with Justice League.

"It doesn't [connect]," Snyder said. "Like what Chris Nolan is doing and what I'm doing with Superman, what they'll do with Justice League will be its own thing with its own Batman and own Superman. We'll be over here with our movie and they'll kind of get to do it twice, which is kind of cool."

Except, of course, that it isn't. The most recent attempt to bring Justice League to the big screen failed precisely because executives feared putting parallel iterations of Batman and Superman on the screen at the same time. Why they have changed their minds now, beyond the potential for generating extra revenue, is somewhat open to question.

Without tie-ins to the more grown-up solo series (the Snyder-Nolan Superman is being pitched as a more realistic take than previous versions, in line with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight), Justice League looks likely to be a rather insipid affair, since none of its main protagonists will have more than a small portion of screen time to establish themselves.

So here's a solution: give Snyder Justice League. The film-maker has an unquestionable gift for visual flourishes which might just paper over the cracks of what would likely be a prosaic storyline, even if it didn't quite work for Sucker Punch. Then give Superman to someone else, or better still hold off bringing the Man of Steel back to the big screen until Nolan himself has the time and inclination to take on the project as director. Mr Robinov, I'll expect my cheque in the next post.


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/mar/31/zack-snyder-justice-league-christopher-nolan-superman

Lady Gaga Jay Z Movie News Celebrity Gossip

Watch Justin Bieber Sing Rebecca Black?s ?Friday? & Britney Spears? ?Baby?

Oh, Justin Bieber you’re such a tease! The 17-year-old singer was asking his fans what song he should sing for them and ended up singing a little bit of Rebecca Black’s “Friday” in the process.
OK! NEWS: REBECCA BLACK HAS A “MINI SHRINE” OF JUSTIN BIEBER IN HER ROOM ? “I’M SO DORKY”
We hope Rebecca hasn’t [...]

Source: http://www.okmagazine.com/2011/03/watch-justin-bieber-sing-rebecca-blacks-friday-britney-spears-baby/

X Factor Beyonce Winona Ryder Keanu Reeves

Victoria's Secret Angels: Swim 2011 Launch Sexy

Looking sexy in their swimsuits, Victoria Secret Angels Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio and Candice Swanepoel strutted their stuff at the launch of Swim 2011 campaign in Los Angeles earlier today (March 30).

The seductively statuesque ladies wore a variety of body-baring black two piece bikini's from this year's swim collection as we gear up for the much-awaited swimsuit season to get underway.

Contrary to public opinion that a model's life is as easy as it gets, the super-svelte models put in the long hours - as they were getting ready for the sexy shoot since the wee hours of the morning.

Making for quite the early rise n' shine, Angel Alessandra tweeted: "It's 6AM and VS Angels @AngelAlessandra + Candice Swanepoel are already in hair & makeup."

As for the Swim 2011 Collection, the latest pieces are already beginning to make their way to stores and the web.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/victorias-secret-models/victorias-secret-angels-swim-2011-launch-sexy-492770

Shia LeBouef Bruno Mars Thierry Henry Cheryl Cole

Kelsey Grammer Lists Colorado Ski Crib

SELLER: Kelsey and Camille Grammer
LOCATION: Avon, CO
PRICE: $7,900,000
SIZE: 8,230 square feet 6 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Now that the dee-vorce of Kelsey and Camille Grammer is complete?and 56-year old Mister Grammer has already hitched his much-married wagon to a 29-year old woman?the great Grammer real estate sell off can begin.

Since the late 1990s and until he moved to New York semi-permanently in 2010, Kelse and Cammy's primary home was a sprawling compound in the barefooty but very posh Serra Retreat in Malibu, CA that they bought in 1998 for $4,500,000. As far as Your Mama knows?and we really know so very little?ex-Missus Grammer remains in residence with their two young children on the compound in Malibu.

In September of 2007 Kelse and Camille dropped a not-insubstantial $13,700,000 for a 7 bedroom and 9 pooper property in the hoity-toity Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles. It's not clear to Your Mama if the former lovebirds' original intention was to make us of the 10,000+ square foot mansion as an "in-town" residence or if their intent was to flip the property at a profit. Whatever the case, less than a year after buying the house, they heaved it back on the market with an asking price of $19,900,000, a breathtaking increase to be sure. The property no longer appears on the open market but it does still appear on the website of their agent Mauricio Umansky with an asking price of $18,900,000.

Word now comes slip-sliding down the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine that Kelse and Camille have just this weak (re)hoisted their super-luxe ski-house in Avon, CO on the market with an asking price of $7,900,000. This is not, however, the first time Mister and ex-Missus Grammer have tried to ride the bull at this particular real estate rodeo; At some point not too long ago they had their faux-rustic stone, glass and wood parkitecture-style ski chalet listed for $9,500,000.

Property records indicate that Mister and ex-Missus Grammer acquired their Colorado ski house in May of 2002 through a real estate trust known by any real estate gossip worth the spit in his or her mouth to be connected to Mister Grammer. Records reveal the house, sitting on a 1.67 acre lot in the Bachelor Gulch community, was purchased $5,350,000.

Current listing information shows the the three-story ski-in/ski-out chalet measures 8,500 square feet?property records are more specific at 8,230 square feet?and includes 6 bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms. Older listing information Your Mama sweet talked out of the interweb shows the large house contains commodious reception rooms with stone fireplaces and vaulted and wood-beamed ceilings, a family/recreation room, gourmet kitchen, two complete master suites, nanny accommodations and a circular stair that descends down through a stone turret to a lower level wine gallery and tasting room.

According to a June 2004 article in Architectural Digest Mister and ex-Missus Grammer had the spec-built house worked over by local decorators Eddy Doumas and Dana Hugo of Worth Interiors who, thank heavens, didn't do the place up in that cliche rich-person rustic theme seen in far too many of upscale vacation homes in rugged states like Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.

Listen kids, Your Mama is 49-kinds of frazzled today. We've got people in doing some loud renovations and the din is, despite the ear plugs and nerve pills, deafening and distracting. Therefore, we're going to be uncharacteristically brief in our assessment of the architecture and day-core. We think it's all lovely and colorful and benignly correct in the manner as many luxury hotels; It's all very posh, pretty, luxurious and even comfortable but it's also all so placid and unoffensive and generic that it lacks a soul. Whatever one thinks of the details, its soulessness is not really the fault of the decorators but rather the simple and sad fact that these well-dressed rooms look like no one really lives in them. And, in fact, no one really does. Probably Mister and ex-Missus Grammer visited their five million dollar ski house on Colorado?what??maybe two or possibly four weeks a year? This house looks in photographs like what it essentially is: an extraordinarily high-priced and over-sized hotel suite.

Anyhoodles poodles, in addition to the compound in Malibu, CA where?as far as Your Mama knows?Cammie remains in residence, the erstwhile couple own a number of other deluxe digs around the United States including at least one house in Hawaii and a nearly 8,000 square foot shingled mansion in Bridgehampton, NY that they bought in early 2006 for $8,517,000 and have had on and off the market since early 2008 when they first listed it with an asking price of $16,100,000.

Mister Grammer has all but relocated to New York City where the local celebrity real estate gossips have kept Your Mama and the children abreast of Mister and new Missus Grammer's ongoing quest for a new crib in Manhattan.

listing photos: Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/03/kelsey-grammer-lists-colorado-ski-crib.html

Thierry Henry Cheryl Cole Simon Cowell David Beckham

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Pyongyang goes pop: Jarvis Cocker unites the divided

It's the final part of our pop adventures in North Korea ... and what better way to end than playing the locals some 'communist pop' (ie Pulp's Common People)

Despite there being no internet access in North Korea outside the offices of the few western companies (you can count them on one hand), Pyongyang's embassy enclosure and a couple of very high-up officials, digital materials still have ways of spreading.

The state runs a nationwide intranet for the exchange of sanctioned material, while USB drives and CD-Rs are becoming more and more common among college and middle school students. It is through these means that the trade in illicit and anti-state media such as the sexy Wangjaesan girls in hot pants is exchanged and passed on, while the ever-growing traffic between North Korea and China has increased opportunities for the cross-border smuggling of pirated films and music from Hollywood and Seoul.

Although these outside cultural influences can be spotted in small doses here and there, North Koreans are understandably loth to admit it. The high-end Japanese-built tourist tour buses shuttling foreigners around Pyongyang are aeons more advanced than the rusting hulks North Korea has been using for average citizens since the 1970s. But ask most Koreans and you'll find that they are not Japanese. Until they break down, that is, when they become "shitty imperial Japanese technology".

Given this push/pull attitude to things from the outside, it's perhaps no surprise that western pop songs penned in a more "communist" vein can ease the North Korean listener into a new state of openness and ease inter-cultural tension. By pop in a communist vein I do, of course mean, Jarvis Cocker.

North Koreans find Pulp's Common People very, very funny. When one 24-year-old of wealthy descent living in Pyongyang heard the song, he creased up in hysterics as he tried to understand why rich people would pretend to be poor because they thought it was cool. He did concede, however, that he was happy such a song could be so popular, as it suggested people in the west could appreciate the revolutionary spirit of communism after all. You can kind of see what he was getting at.

On hearing about the Rage Against the Machine Christmas No 1 story, the same North Korean said he felt "proud and overjoyed that a socialist band could be the greatest force for good in the British nation," despite him not quite grasping the concept of record sales or The X Factor or the fact the band is American. He didn't particularly like Killing in the Name, either.

At times throughout my travels in North Korea, I'm sure I've been misunderstood by the locals. Likewise, I have no doubt misunderstood the motivations and explanations that locals brought to the table when I confronted them with pop as the world gives it to us. But the process itself of discussing pop has always eased the initial standoff that North Koreans are trained to have set as their autopilot, and reminded me of the humanity of the people held in the grip of the government's ongoing tyranny. So, if you find yourself caught up in the regime any time soon, for your sake and theirs, find out what their verdict on the new Kanye record is, won't you?


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/mar/29/pyongyang-goes-pop-north-korea

Pop Music Movie News Lil Wayne Movie Trailers

One step beyond

Katy B cut her teeth on London's dubstep scene ? but now the charts and breakfast TV are calling. The 21-year-old tells Rebecca Nicholson why she'll always be a raver at heart

In skinny jeans, red jumper and Vans trainers, her freshly dyed red hair pulled back, South London's Katy B is a different kind of pop star. Somehow she's got all bases covered, juggling white label, pirate-station authenticity and one-of-us, we-could-be-mates appeal. While the media still hypes indie bands, it's an increasingly desperate endeavour: this week, the entire top 40 features just one ? Noah and the Whale at No 19. Just as they have for the past two years, pop, dance and R&B continue to reign supreme, and Katy B, whose irresistible pop-dubstep single Katy on a Mission hit the top five last summer, is the current sound of both the clubs and the charts.

At the east London headquarters of Rinse FM, the pirate station turned legit broadcaster which has been pushing the dubstep, grime and UK funky of London's underground since its inception, Katy is busy attending to the business of being a pop star, choosing clothes for TV appearances and planning rehearsals for the live show she's about to take on the road. Rinse is also home to her record label and management, and she spends her mornings here, working and hanging out. Today, she drops into the Grimey Breakfast Show, broadcasting from the studio next door, to mess around on air with host Scratcha. She gets her hair and makeup done for a series of photoshoots, gossips with her stylist about celeb-mag favourites Peter Andre and "new love" Elen Rivas, and fills me in on the EastEnders baby-swap storyline. It's like going to the hairdresser, if the hairdresser had a healthy interest in the state of dubstep as well as holidays in Turkey with her mates.

Born Kathleen Brien ("the most Irish name ever") to a plumber father and postwoman mother, Katy grew up in Peckham, south-east London and learned her trade as a vocalist on the underground dance scene. She appeared as Baby Katy on DJ NG's Tell Me when she was just 16, working mostly with bedroom producers whose records got picked up by pirate radio stations across the capital. In the four years since then, she has criss-crossed genres, singing over drum'n'bass, house, dubstep and its latest mutation UK funky, finally coming up with a debut album, On a Mission, that mixes up those styles into something both credible and accessible.

There are mixed-up elements in Katy herself, too. She finished a degree in popular music at Goldsmiths university last year, at around the same time as she filmed her first music video. Her course involved writing an essay about UK funky, "the social elements around it and how it developed and stuff", which she probably knew more about than the person marking her. Although her relationship with Rinse was well underway, she did the degree regardless: "I just wanted to learn more about music and I didn't want to fall into getting a job and not pursuing it, so I thought it would keep me on that path." And though she found her way into music through club nights and on pirate stations, she's been a performer looking to turn pro since she was a child, auditioning for Annie in the West End when she was eight. "That was the first time I had to sing. I auditioned to be Hermione in Harry Potter as well. They were like, 'Have you read the book?' I was like, 'No.' 'Next!'"

When she was 14, she went to the Brit school for performing arts in Croydon, where she was in the year below Adele and Jessie J. "If people think it's all singing, dancing and acting, well that's what I wanted, do you know what I mean?" she says, insisting that going to stage school didn't earn her any stick from the hipper-than-thou dance community. "I met all my best friends and I loved it," she says, before summing up her overground/underground appeal completely. "But I didn't make my music there, I did it outside. The first tune that I released, I did with my friend's brother."

Katy's first taste of dance music came from performing at clubs before she was old enough to go to them. "I was 16 when I had my first vinyl out and I did PAs. I wasn't really supposed to be in clubs." By the time she was old enough to go out legally, she had already attracted the attentions of Rinse FM's boss Geeneus, who had heard her tracks across the capital's pirate stations and became her manager. As well as kickstarting her career properly, he got her on to the guestlists of clubs she wanted to go to. "I was 18, so that was the time when you do first start raving. It was wicked. They put on loads of raves, and I could get all my mates in for free. Literally, we just went off on one. I went to FWD [Rinse's legendary dubstep/grime night in east London] every single week. But I had work the next day, so I'd be the first one there at 10, on my own, then I'd leave at 12 to get the night bus home." Where were you working? "In Lewisham, in JD Sports. But it was alright. I didn't even have a hangover, 'cos I couldn't afford to drink."

It's odd, then, given how much of a fantastic jumble she is, that Katy has been described as "queen of dubstep". When I mention it, she flinches. "I wouldn't say that's a good thing to say," she explains, cautiously, of the tag that's followed her around since last summer's big hit. "I don't think I represent all things dubstep. I just like clubbing, so those are the sounds I've chosen to work with." She says she has more of a relationship with "clubbing in general" than any sort of dubstep scene. "All my friends were into funky," she explains, of the UK house-garage hybrid, "like all the girls and stuff, 'cos that's more a glamorous scene. When I first started raving I was doing that kind of thing."

Dubstep is history

Geeneus, who's around all morning, cracking jokes and making plans, cuts in. "I mean dubstep to us is fucking ancient. We're like: 'Dubstep, again. Another dubstep conversation.' But the rest of the world is jumping on dubstep right now. Normally when it gets to that stage, it means we're nearly done with it. Like Katy says, funky is newer than dubstep. And that's where she actually comes from. Her first big hit that crossed over was a dubstep tune, but her first four tracks were garage and funky influenced. So the album's a hybrid of sound that's all of the underground, rather than a genre."

Geeneus produced most of Katy's album, along with drum'n'bass producer Zinc (dubstep stars Benga and Magnetic Man contributed too, though on fewer tracks), and has been so involved since he signed her that he claims, with a grin, he could do her makeup and styling if he had to. His Rinse business model, with Katy as its big-name star, is brilliantly optimistic. "We don't take it that serious," he says. "We just make a song, crack on, and hope for the best. If Katy on a Mission had sold 100 copies, we'd have been happy. Even now if Katy dropped out the charts tomorrow and was not selling to this pop audience, we like the music, so we'd carry on doing it. That's the way we are."

But Katy B is selling to a pop audience. Katy on a Mission and the follow-up, Lights On, were top five hits without much promotion, press or hype behind them, selling because people had heard them on a night out and liked them. The day we meet, Katy is preparing to perform her new single, Broken Record, on the ITV breakfast show Daybreak. Geeneus admits they were surprised she hit the mainstream, but says it didn't quite come out of nowhere. "We've done a year of her singing over my set when I was DJing, she's done a year of [club nights] FWD and Rinse. She's done drum'n'bass tunes with Zinc. So Katy on a Mission was the final thing. The timing for everything was great. As everyone looked and said, 'What's dubstep?' Katy's there with this track. It was mainly good timing."

Katy laughs, mock-offended. "Yeah," she grins. "It's all hype."

And with that, it's time for lunch, debated at length, before a majority vote is taken and everyone decides on Nando's. A station assistant brings back an order for what seems like everyone who works at Rinse, and then some. Katy's still trying on clothes, with a pair of enormous, glamorous spike heels ("From Topshop! Topshop's good" chips in Geeneus). They'll look good on TV ? she wears them on Daybreak the next day ? but I can't imagine you wearing them to a club, I say. "I can't dance in them," she shrugs, tucking into her chicken and slipping back into her Vans.

? The album On a Mission is out on Monday.


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/29/katy-b

Jay Z Movie News Celebrity Gossip Dancing On Ice

Forbes Family Lightens Real Estate Load in London

SELLER: Forbes family
LOCATION: London, U.K.
PRICE: �12,000,000
SIZE: Big

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Listing pictures are slim but, as first reported in the Financial Times last week, the U.S.-based Forbes family have put Old Battersea House, their historic and dignified outpost in London's Battersea, on the market with an asking price of �12,000,000. A quick consult with our currency conversion contraption shows that amounts to $19,413,500US at today's rates.

The Forbes family's considerable fortune is largely derived from publishing and they are best known for their eponymous magazine that publishes fascinating lists of the world's wealthiest individuals and other financial information both important and trivial.

The sprawling Forbes clan has opted to unload Old Battersea House as part of the family's planning to ensure the family's wealth is secure for future generations. Listing information shows that the Grade II listed mansion sits right on the Thames Rivers?or at least, right across the road from the Thames?and includes a baroque hallway, wide staircase, 5 reception rooms that include a paneled drawing room or two, oak doors and floors, a modernized kitchen and a total of 10 double bedrooms and an unknown number of terliting and bathing facilities, at least one of which is equipped with a spa tub and sauna.

Malcolm Forbes, a man known for his glittery lifestyle, jet-setting friends and down-low homosexual proclivities, acquired the walled and gated property in the early 1970s. It was in a serious state of disrepair having empty for five long years during which part of the roof fell in. The Forbes family hired architect Vernon Gibberd who spent four years rescuing and restoring the gorgeous Georgian-style manor house that was built in the late 17th century on Tudor foundations.

Over the years the wealthy Forbes family hosted a slew of dinners and parties attended by dignitaries (Margaret Thatcher, Ronald and Nancy Reagan), financiers (Warren Buffet) celebrities (Elizabeth Taylor) and various members of the royal family.

In addition of their desire to divest their portfolio of Old Battersea House, the Forbes family also plans to sell off a well-regarded collection of British artworks housed in Old Battersea House that includes works by Thomas Gainsborough and a collection of Royal memorabilia that includes a number of portraits of Royals and a pair of Queen Victoria's under panties.

Although Your Mama is far from an expert on the London property market, Old Battersea House seems to be in a slightly less than desirable location for someone with twenty million bucks to lay out for a 10 bedroom manor house. Although Battersea Park is cycling distance and the London Heliport is walking distance, the property is surrounded by apartment houses where perfectly ordinary one and two bedroom flats can be had for well under �300,000, around $500,000US. That's hardly chopped liver but it is not, Your Mama thinks we can all agree, even on the same real estate playing field as Old Battersea House.

listing photos: Savills

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/03/forbes-family-lightens-real-estate-load.html

Cheryl Cole Simon Cowell David Beckham David Guetta

Let's stop this Top of the Pops revival in its tracks

Though great in its day, the world does not need the return of a weekly half-hour ghetto for pop music

BBC Four is hosting a Top of the Pops night this Friday. From then on, the classic Thursday night slot will see episodes screened weekly, from that equivalent week, starting from 1976. Which, of course, is great: everyone loves a good Pan's People montage and the chance to see vintage Madonna clips. Except, of course, that's not where it will end. Next thing you know, it will have inspired another Facebook group, another Twitter hashtag and another guileless attempt to bring the thing back. Not in my name.

Top of the Pops was great and necessary in its day, but the world has changed. Think about what this campaign actually suggests: the return of a weekly half-hour ghetto for pop music, based around the singles chart, predicated on the idea that this is the only place for people to hear their favourite songs. Now, that couldn't fail to look anything other than totally foolish.

In his forthcoming book Retromania, Simon Reynolds examines how the present is so ashamed of itself that it's driven to obsessing about its recent past to the point where there isn't actually any past left.

It's why a grunge revival has been predicted every two years since grunge actually ended, and it's why people are still slavishly demanding a Top of the Pops comeback. But Top of the Pops isn't Doctor Who, a programme so ingenious it can survive the test of time. It belongs to an era when music was dominated by only a few artists, who were tightly product-managed. This was a time when Sunday afternoons were spent taping songs off the radio, and waiting until Thursday evening to see them performed on TV felt like a real event.

The internet has obviously played a significant role in the ubiquity of pop, but even in the dusty old world of television, there's more access to music than ever before. It's everywhere.

The BBC plays Florence and the Machine to plug Lark Rise to Candleford. Rihanna can waggle her arse on The X Factor and create a national panic. When promoting her single Don't Hold Your Breath, Nicole Scherzinger performed it on Dancing On Ice, Loose Women, T4, Lorraine, The Hot Desk, The Crush, Let's Dance for Comic Relief and Freshly Squeezed.

Meanwhile, William McKinley High seems a far more interesting backdrop to hear the songs of Katy Perry and Bruno Mars. At least you know none of it's real. And as more of us go digital, there's about three dedicated channels for every musical genre.

It doesn't help that the internet, with its obsession with search terms and short sharp shocks, has so far failed to generate the compelling alternative to music television it has so much potential for. And yes, there certainly is a space for a dedicated pop show with songs and performances that actually feel exclusive, creative access to stars with wit, personality and credibility, rather than the label-funded puffs that pass for interviews on 4Music. I'd be more than happy to executive produce such a show it any networks are listening. But that programme wouldn't be Top of the Pops, and it would sully a great institution to try calling it that.

But if you really need evidence of why Top of the Pops should stay dead, just watch it on Christmas Day. It's fun then, but it would be painful on any day when you're not drunk by lunch. Does this once great colossus really deserve the indignity of having Adele performing Someone Like You every week until June 2013? Really?

In 2011 pop music is an inventive, high-concept fantasy playground, where Nicki Minaj becomes a samurai warrior , where Lady Gaga is paraded inside a giant egg, and where Biffy Clyro play at being pirates. But it's a world with no place for Top of the Pops. Let it go.


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/mar/30/lets-stop-top-pops-revival

Cheryl Cole Simon Cowell David Beckham David Guetta

More Vacay Mish-Mash

Sorry for the delay, buttons, but Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter?and our long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly?are actually on a wee getaway vacay with all the grays and gays out in Palm Springs, CA. We spent the better part of today day with our almost-famous artist pal Henny Penny during which we went t0 the Palm Springs Art Museum. We had a look-see at a print retrospective of John Baldessari, passed through the permanent contemporary collection, had our photos taken with a bone-chilling Duane Hanson sculpture andtoured a small and incomplete but still interesting look at the architecture of noted Coachella Valley modernist architect Donald Wexler appropriately called Steel and Shade. Then we had a crappy late lunch. Now we're back at our home base sitting by the pool thinking we should probably think about getting back to our real home. Anyhoodles poodles...

There has been heaps and hordes of hoopla and hoo-ha the last few days over a proposed 80,000-plus square foot compound an as yet unidentified property owner wants to build on a 5.2-acre property in the upscale Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles, CA. The proposed plans call for an opulent 42,681 square foot mock-Mediterranean-style main house, a double-winged 27,000-plus square foot "son's villa," a 4,400 square foot guest house, a 5,300 square foot structure for housing staff and a 2,700 square foot gatehouse.

The Los Angeles Times revealed earlier this week that the proposed monster mansion is to be built for a single man with three children. Ownership of the property is shielded through a serious of LLCs, attorneys and the like but there is much speculation that the property owner may be a Saudi royal, specifically Prince Abdulaziz ibn Adbullah ibn Abdulaziz al Saud who happens to be divorced man with three children.

The massive?and some might say utterly preposterous?scale of the project has the dander up of Benedict Canyon residents who have formed an ad hoc group to stop the construction of the compound that will rival the square footage of Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA. Interestingly, one of those who oppose the colossal compound is Hollywood honcho Michael Ovitz who himself recently completed his own humongous and �ber-contemporary crib in the 'hood.

There are many hoops and hurdles for this unnamed property owner to hop through before he can break ground on his mini-mall sized mansion but iffin Your Mama were the betting type?and we're not?we'd wager this real estate size queen will get his way even if he has to scale things back to a more modest but still elephantine 50 or 60,000 square feet. For more information on the group opposed to the development visit their website Save Benedict Canyon.

It's come to our attention via a well-connected Los Angeles real estate-o-phile that the possibility of an 85,000 square foot compound in the Benedict Canyon area isn't the only possible construction of a mega-mansion that's working the last nerves of concerned citizens in some of L.A.'s priciest zip codes.

Over in the Franklin Canyon area of Los Angeles, another angry ad hoc group staunchly opposes the efforts of controversial Ritz-Carlton hotel developer Mohamed Hadid to construct a huge and palatial residence?that he claims is for his own use?atop an unspoiled peak much cherished by urban-dwelling hikers and nature lovers.

Mister Hadid, the children surely recall, is the same man who famously sold his Bel Air mega-mansion Le Belvedere in the summer of 2010 for a gut-punching and record-setting $50,000,000. There is at least one person Your Mama knows who believes that fifty million dollar deal was shady and presented us with some documentation that indicates that Mister Hadid's (former) Bel Air estate is now bank-owned, but that's another alleged scandal for another time.

Mister Hadid has already begun to bulldoze the mountain to create a large flat pad for the sprawling spread he wants to erect but he was presented with a "stop work" order in late February. Those who want more information should visit the Save Franklin Canyon website.

Finally, there have been many queries from the kids as regards to the real estate history of two-time Oscar winning actress Dame Elizabeth Taylor (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, BUtterfield 8, Suddenly, Last Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and etc.) who went to meet her maker earlier this week at the too-young age of 79. Your Mama could spend hours recounting each of the many homes around the world she's owned but it's already been done and done well here and here.

The world lost one of it's last great Tinseltown stars with Elizabeth Taylor who championed AIDS funding and research at a time when it was simply not socially acceptable to do so. May she rest in peace.

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-vacay-mish-mash.html

David Guetta 50 Cent Salma Hayek Justin Bieber