Susan Lucci's favorite place in her Hamptons house is her sitting room, she tells In Touch magazine. The "Dancing With the Stars" contestant's oceanfront home is in Quogue. She also owns a home in Garden City.
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LA has nothing on LI — at least according to big, bodacious actress Nikki Blonsky. The "Hairspray" movie star, who lives in Great Neck with her parents and brother in a single-family home with a two-car garage, loves the neighborhood, neighbors say. When her career first took off, she “was considering moving to Los Angeles,” says Cassandra Formas-Espadas, who used to live on the same street. But she said “she likes it here.” Here, is a quiet tree-lined street with homes that have roomy two or three bedrooms and are valued at about $650,000, like the Blonskys’ home.
Schools and stores are nearby and Blonsky told Newsday recently that she “loves shopping at Roosevelt Field mall,” which is about 20 minutes away.
Still, the Long Island lark might very well be leaving the neighborhood. Her family’s home was recently seen on the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island for $649,000.
Despite what the National Enquirer might say, Ali Lohan is staying put in North Merrick.
The Enquirer recently claimed that Ali’s big sister, Lindsay Lohan, has been lobbying for the 14-year-old to move in with her and girlfriend Samantha Ronson. Lindsay Lohan is said to have her eye on an apartment in The Dakota building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where Beatle John Lennon lived with wife, Yoko Ono.
Ali’s reps now tell In Touch magazine that the aspiring singer is definitely not moving anywhere. “Ali is in school in Long Island,” and that’s the way it’s going to stay for now, apparently.
For more on the Lohan home, click here.
Newsday photo / Michael E. Ach
Jennifer Lopez didn't like the interview she gave to a fashion magazine, so Tina Brown decided to run it on her Daily Beast site. In it, Lopez says she once had a nervous breakdown, might send Max and Emme to Scientology school and doesn't want to get into her reasons for not breastfeeding.
But the really juicy stuff is about her Brookville estate and what goes inside there.
" 'Don't blow the horn,' I tell my driver as we approach the gates. 'I'm sure we're being watched. A guard will appear,' " writes Kevin Sessums. "Sure enough, the ornate iron gates swing open and a large Latin guard speeds toward us on a Segway Human Transporter, his ear glued to a walkie-talkie."
Sessums continues, "I'm here to see Miss Lopez," I inform him as glares at me through the window. We are led through a canopy of beech trees and oaks on the immaculately manicured grounds of the Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez estate on the North Shore of Long Island."
The driver parks "behind a $300,000 Audie Spyker sports car" from which Anthony "emerges from the driver's side and stares back at me. In a T-shirt and a pair of clam diggers that reveal a tattoo on his right calf, he strides into the house through a side door without a word."
Sessums meets Lopez "in a dimly lit pine study filled with gold records and Grammy awards." She feels sick, her "unwashed hair is pulled severely back and there's a halo of frizz around the crown of her head. She wears no make-up, her eyes are glassy, and her feverish cheeks are aglow."
At one point, Max begins to cry. Lopez runs up and grabs both twins and sits with them through the interview.
"Emme's ears are already pierced with tiny gold hoops in them. Max is wearing a black onesie with an array of sequins on its back."
Read the full interview here, and what New Yorker magazine had to say about it here.
And click here to read more about the house -- and see photos.
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Will Hilary Duff be spending more time on Long Island?
Possibly, if rumors are correct that Duff’s longtime boyfriend, New York Islanders center Mike Comrie has purchased a condo in Garden City.
The gossip blog I’m Not Obsessed reports that the hockey player has purchased a new pad “steps away” from Walk Street Café, the Seventh Street restaurant where the pair have recently been seen dining.
Duff and Comrie’s yearlong romance has made headlines recently. In August, engagement rumors swirled when Duff was seen sporting a ring on THAT finger. Sources quickly denied that the pair are planning marriage.
In Touch magazine recently named Jerry Seinfeld as the celebrity who owns the "priciest collectibles." "The comedian once spent $1.4 million just to build a garage to house his enormous car collection, which includes 46 Porsches," the magazine wrote. "His prized possession is a $700,000 Porsche 959, one of only 337 built." Seinfeld houses his autos in Santa Monica, Calif., the Upper West Side and in East Hampton, where he has a 22-space garage at his home.
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Sure, actress Eva Mendez is a looker ("Hitch" with Will Smith and the dreadful "Ghost Rider" with Nicolas Cage) and a good actress, but does she have style? You be the judge. She just released her "Vida" line of bedding at Macy's. Take a gander here and let us know what you think. Take a particular look at "Kaila," shown here. Kind of interesting. The comforter sets run $340 to $425. Of course, that price doesn't include the sheets, which run about $130 for a set. Maybe it is a good thing when actresses branch out. But, she is a busy beaver. You can see her now in "The Women," later in "Spirit" and in 2009 in "Queen of the South" and "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans."
Jennifer Lopez trained for her California triathlon last month mostly inside her Brookville gym, reports Celebrity Baby Blog. "While her indoors-only technique might be perceived as unconventional by her fellow triathletes, it did offer the unique advantage of added time with the twins," according to the blog. Reporting on an "Entertainment Tonight" interview with Lopez, the blog quotes her as saying, "I could just throw the babies in a little playpen on the floor, or their little mat. They'd just be right there, and if they got cranky I'd pick them up and put them on my lap while I rode the bike." Read more about Lopez's house -- and see photos -- by clicking here.
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Interior designer Lorraine Kirke has lowered the price of her East Hampton mansion to $11.5 million, according to the Sotheby’s International Realty Web site. The home has been on the market with Sotheby’s since early this year, and had been priced at $12.95 million. It had been listed last year with Prudential Douglas Elliman for $14.5 million.
The 7,000-square-foot, 11-bedroom home sits on 1.14 acres, has three fireplaces, a heated pool and a guest cottage.
Kirke owns the West Village Boutique Geminola. Her clients have included celebrities like Salma Hayek, Nicole Kidman and Sarah Jesisca Parker.
She is married to Simon Kirke, drummer for the rock band Bad Company.
Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed the movies “Men in Black” and “Get Shorty”, has a short commute home from his work directing the new HBO pilot “Suburban Shootout” in the Hamptons.
Sonnefeld has lived year round on the East End since 1982, and has been filming the show since August all over the South Fork, according to the East Hampton Star.
Public records show that in 2004, Sonnenfeld and wife, Susan Ringo, purchased a home for $2.4 million on Bull Path in East Hampton. According to published reports, that same year he downsized from a 10,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom home on Broadview Avenue in Amagansett, which he sold for $8.87 million.
The pilot will wrap sometime in October, and if picked up will film during the Hamptons “off season,” according to The Star. The show is set in the fictional town of Georgica Bay, which could be anywhere on the East Coast, but locals will recognize some East End landmarks.
“The quality of light in the Hamptons is unlike anywhere else,” Sonnenfeld tells The Star, “…the exteriors are extraordinary, the houses are extraordinary.”
"Nourish the inner aspect" is the motto of Hamptonite Gwyneth Paltrow's new Web site Goop. "I love being in spaces that are clean and nice," Paltrow writes in a letter on the soon-to-be-active site. Apartment Therapy wants more on the part-time Amagansett resident's love of spaces. "We know she has impeccable taste (witness the Tord Boontje Blossom chandelier that she has hanging over her dining room table in her Hamptons home, profiled in one of the last issues of House & Garden)." The site goes on: "The question is, will it be so aspirational as to be out of reach?" After all, the chandelier "retails for $37,500 at Moss." Stayed tuned -- and, in the meantime, read more about Paltrow's East End home here.
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If you’re interested in a seaside retreat without the airs of the Hamptons, a prime waterfront property is for sale in a quaint village that has been affectionately called “Boreport.”
The nearly five-acre property with 300 feet of beach in Bellport was owned since the early part of the 20th century by the family of Elmer Sperry, an inventor who founded the Sperry Corporation. (His original residence was sold off years ago and is on the adjoining property.)
The property has a three-bedroom cottage — which was built in the 1960s, long after Sperry’s death — with panoramic water views, two in-ground pools and a guest cottage overlooking a pond on a parcel preserved by the town.
Isabella Rossellini and Charlie Rose live in the low-key beach community, which was once summer home to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis when she was a girl.
The property was sold by the Sperry family in 2007 for $5.5 million and is now back on the market for $5.7. It is listed with Anthony Gandolfo of Old Purchase Properties in Bellport.
DONNA ROGERS
Long Island homegirl Lindsay Lohan is reportedly planning to buy a place at the Dakota, the Upper West Side apartment building where John Lennon lived. News of the World reports that Lohan is looking to move into the Central Park West building -- where Lennon was fatally shot in 1980 -- with friend, DJ Samantha Ronson. The paper reports that Lohan has already met with an interior designer about how she wants to decorate the place: "She wants a garish 12-foot circular bed with leopard-print headboard, 'Hers and Hers' monogrammed towels, separate pink and black bathrooms, and a sitting room with DJ area and a huge glitterball." Lohan, who grew up in Cold Spring Harbor and whose family now lives in North Merrick, apparently has "had her eye on the Dakota building for years." Read more here.
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Here are some new photos of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony's property in Brookville. They were shot by the Nassau County assessor's office:
To read more about Lopez' house, click here.
The Cutchogue home of author and BBC journalist Alistair Cooke is on the market for $5.2 million. The four-bedroom, 2 ½-bath contemporary house sits on 1.4 acres on the southern tip of Nassau Point, on a bluff overlooking Peconic Bay. There is also a separate guest studio with a half-bath.
British-born Cooke, who died in 2004 at age 95, is perhaps best known for his 22-year stint as host of public television’s "Masterpiece Theatre." The home is being sold by Cooke’s heirs.
The home was built for him in the 1940s by architect William Muschenheim, who also designed the Marine Transportation Building at the 1939 World’s Fair, and the exhibition space which was the precursor to Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum.
Listing agent Nicole LaBella of The Corcoran Group says that the scenery, with 248 feet of waterfront and views of Shelter Island, is reminiscent of the south of France. “It’s a rare opportunity to find a property like this on the bay.”
In an article titled "What Recession?" Star magazine reports that Long Island homegirl Mariah Carey and her newlywed husband Nick Cannon paid $125,000 to rent Stone Meadow Farm in East Hampton for one week. "Set on eight acres, the 18,000-square-foot, $20 million mansion has 10 bedrooms and 12.5 bathrooms, a heated pool and a tennis court," the magazine reports. The house is on the market for $19.995 million. The couple settled into the love nest after, as RealLI reported first, holding their much-anticipated reception at LA Reid's Sagaponack estate. Read more on that here.
If you’d like to live in the same village as celebs like Charlie Rose and Isabellla Rossellini, check out this two-bedroom, two-bath home on South Howells Point Road in Bellport. The home belongs to Ross Klein, who recently left his job as president of the luxury brands group of Starwood Hotels, which includes W Hotels & Resorts.
The home is a 1954 Weyerhaeuser kit house, which Klein restored and decorated with mid-century modern pieces, says listing agent Bryan Cronin of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Babylon. The cedar-shingle home, listed at $799,000, has a great room with beamed ceilings and walls of glass, and comes with deeded private access to private ocean and bay beaches.
Cronin says that Klein, who is now global head of luxury and lifestyle brands for Hilton Hotels, is selling the home because he has relocated to Los Angeles.
Gwyneth Paltrow plans to film an exercise DVD at her Amagansett estate, reports Splash News. "The Oscar-winning actress will share her tips for keeping in shape on the tape, sources say, as viewers follow her moves," the site reports, including "yoga, some basic Pilates and flexibility and resistance training." The DVD is to be filmed inside her exercise studio. Read more about it -- and see photos of her house -- here.
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The Elle writer who interviewed Jennifer Lopez at her Brookville home for the magazine's September cover story writes that “'house' is an understatement on par with calling Stephen Hawking 'bright.' It’s less house than estate — compound, even — hidden behind a gate at the end of an all-but-unlabeled street that I completely overshot while driving here. It’s less 'MTV’s Cribs' than it is Robb Report." Lopez gives the interview in her office, which the writer describes as "less workspace than trophy room. As it should be, really; with Lopez and her husband, Marc Anthony, having sold nearly 50 million albums worldwide between them, that’s a lot of platinum and gold plaques to display on the dark-honey wood walls. Add in the various Grammys, AMAs, and other awards, and I half expect to see a PhD diploma in astrophysics tucked in among the hardware. But there’s a desk, so it’s an office — and behind the desk sits Jennifer Lopez." Read more about Lopez's house -- and see photos -- here.
Hollywood comes to Centre Island on Saturday night when a contingent of stars descends upon Twinight, the sprawling Centre Island home of Richard Baron Cohen, businessman and renowned porcelain collector.
Actors scheduled to appear include some from your favorite '70s and '80s television shows, including Ed Asner, Adam West, Lou Ferrigno, Joyce DeWitt, Morgan Fairchild, Tippi Hedron, Larry Hagman, Erik Estrada, Stephanie Powers, David Faustino, Cindy Williams and Priscilla Barnes.
Cohen, a benefactor of the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery & Aquarium, has lent his home for a benefit and celebration of the organization’s 125th anniversary.
The mansion sits on nearly six acres on Long Island Sound, with 16,000 square feet of living space. The home is said to be based up the Petit Trianon Palace in Versailles. An exhibition of some of Cohen’s porcelain, said to be one of the largest private collections in the world, will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art later this month.
For more information on Saturday's gala, call the Hatchery at 516-692-6768
Photo credit: Jonathan Jacobsen
A "barbecue blowout" at Billy Joel's new house in Sagaponack included a game of beer pong between Howard Stern and Ivanka Trump, reports the Daily News. Joel's wife, Katie Lee, apparently showed Trump "how to guzzle through a funnel." Bridgehampton resident Christie Brinkley, Joel's ex-wife, also was there with their daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, Lorne Michaels, Rachael Ray, Chevy Chase, Alex Baldwin, Ron Perelman, Roger Walters and Penny Marshall, according to the newspaper. Read more about Joel's house -- and see photos of other properties he owns on Long Island -- here.
The Victoria's Secret Angel, as Karolina Kurkova is known, always rents a house in Wainscott, Hamptons magazine reports. This summer, she lives on a horse farm. She loves the Hamptons, she says, because "it's so close to the city, and you can have a beautiful house and hang out with friends or walk on the beach. I love riding my bike to buy fresh foods from the farmstands." And her favorite beaches? "I always go to Georgica Pond beach and Montauk beach, and I love the beach in Amagansett."
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That's what Jennifer Lopez tells ABC's "Good Morning America," as you'll see from this clip. Max and Emme are indeed sleeping at the same time, too. Which is good for Lopez, who is now training for a triathlon this fall.
In the meantime, Star reports that Lopez and husband, Marc Anthony, spend "thousands of dollars a week on baby clothes" and that the twins "rarely wear the same thing twice." In fact, much of what they wear is "designer."
And more news from Brookville's most famous resident: New York magazine reports that Lopez will "executive-produce an adaptation of her 2002 chick flick, 'Maid in Manhattan,' creating a series about a 'young Latina from the Bronx working at a Manhattan hotel who tries to make it in the world.' "
For the Lopez archives, read here.
Quarterback Chad Pennington, who was cut from the New York Jets earlier this month to make room for Brett Favre, has gone into contract on his Muttontown home.
Pennington first put the six-bedroom, 7½-bath, brick center-hall Colonial mansion on the market in July for $4.095 million, later lowering it to $3.995 million. The 2-plus acre estate went into contract "within 30 days and for close to the asking price," says Shawn Elliott of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates, whose company both listed the property and brought the buyers. The listing agents are Barbara Tomko and Sharon Hyman.
Elliott says that the closing is expected by early October, and that the new owners are a Manhattan couple in the financial industry.
Pennington’s 7,000-square-foot home has a state-of-the-art fitness center, a billiards room, Gunite pool and a four-car garage. Records show the home was purchased in 2005 for $3.595 million.
Pennington, now a quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, "is one of the nicest clients I have ever met," Elliott says.
Here are some of the more interesting personalities on Hamptons magazine's list: Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, Christie Brinkley, Leslie and Chuck Close, Lorraine Bracco, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, Isaac Mizrahi, Kim Raver, Allison and Leonard Stern, Camille and Kelsey Grammer, and Edith and Philippe de Montebello.
After famously declaring that she will never marry again, Christie Brinkley tells New York magazine that she plans to move to her Sag Harbor house if, and when, she sells Tower Hill. (The Bridgehampton property is on the market for $30 million.) She bought the Sag Harbor house in 2003. "I just want to be here," she told the magazine. "I mean, look at this. I just want to be here." Brinkley gave the interview at another house, across the street. She bought that one last year for $10 million for her parents. They never moved in; now it's Brinkley's office. Catch up on all her properties here.
The listing agent for Ed McMahon's heading-for-foreclosure house in Beverly Hills says the property is now in a "multiple offer situation," according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
This past Thursday, billionaire developer Donald Trump announced that he had made the lenders an offer and expected to be able to buy the house and lease it back to McMahon.
But it now appears that Trump has competition.
Alex Davis of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, now says that a second buyer who wishes to remain anonymous has entered the picture. The junior lien holders have agreed to a short sale at $4.6 million, Davis said, and "that's the number we need to get to."
He added: "This is crunch time."
When LA Reid threw a summer wedding reception for Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon at his Sagaponack estate last week, no expense was spared to make guests like Mary J. Blige, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kelly Ripa and LL Cool J happy. The luxury applied to the menu as well, which was catered by celebrity party planner Andrea Correale, owner of Elegant Affairs, based in Glen Cove and Manhattan.
“It was a beautiful summer night,” says Correale, “everyone enjoyed themselves.” The menu included treats like Amagansett lobster rolls, Kobe beef, a gourmet pizza grill and a New York steakhouse grill.
On Aug. 23, Elegant Affairs will once again be catering a grand soiree, this time at Stone Meadow Farm, the East Hampton estate that Carey and Cannon had recently rented while they were in town.
Hundreds of guests, including Tory Burch, Aretha Franklin and Russell Simmons are expected to attend the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Suffolk County Chapter of the American Red Cross. The event is hosted by WABC-TV's Ken Rosato. Tickets are $250 each ($300 at the door). To RSVP call (631) 924-6700 from 9am - 4pm or email your request to Suffolk@crossnet.org.
Stone Meadow Farm is on the market for $19.995 million, listed with Gary DePersia of The Corcoran Group. The main house features 10 bedrooms and 18,000 square feet of living space. There are also two separate guests cottages, spa, tennis courts, gunite pool, and a stable that accommodates five horses.
Model Stephanie Seymour "finds peace in the summer months at her beachy, casual home in Sagaponack" she decorated herself, according to Hamptons magazine. Seymour spends most of her time on the beach. "Billy Joel lives two doors down from me and he's right next to the public beach, and nobody ever bothers him," she says. When she's not sunning, she shops in Sagaponack, Southampton and East Hampton, as well as Bridgehampton Commons. She also likes to go to Bridgehampton polo, which is where she's pictured here. That makes sense: Her husband, Peter Brant, plays polo in Bridgehampton and even owns his own team.
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They bonded over houses; now, according to Fox News, actor Mark Consuelos will be marrying his fellow architecture lover Howard Stern and fiancee Beth Ostrovsky. Read more about the Hamptons house Stern and Ostrovsky are building here.
If you've got $12.9 million and are a big fan of television's "Gossip Girl", why not buy this 5-acre estate where two episodes of the show's upcoming season were filmed?
The Villa at Chestnut Hill, where scenes for a "white party" for the show take place, has just gone on the market with Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates. The gated five-bedroom mansion boasts nearly 15,000 square feet, a grand foyer with dual wraparound staircases, a 65-foot ballroom, a gym and a glass-enclosed salt water swimming pool. The third story cupola affords a 365-degree view of the manicured grounds and neighboring Planting Fields Arboretum.
The listing agents are Angela Rothenberg and Kim Greenberg. Greenberg owns the home with fiancee and real estate developer, Fred Rudd. The former owner was chop-shop king Michael Pescatore.
Greenberg and Rudd have made many improvements to the property since purchasing it from the government for $8.3 million in 2007, beating out dozens of bidders. "They went above and beyond in every detail," Elliott says. "They've taken it to a level far above the previous owner."
Elliott says that recently, a Kohl's commercial was filmed at the estate, and in June rapper Ludacris filmed an At&T commericial there as well.
According to an article in the August issue of Vanity Fair, Southampton residents have been occupying themselves with the “parlor game for the summer” which involves trying to figure out just who really bought the former Marty Richards mansion at 104 Gin Lane.
The home sold for $60 million in March to South Lane Properties LLC. At the time, Tiger Woods was reported to be the buyer, but he has denied his involvement in the sale, as has real estate agent Beate Moore, who handled the deal through Sotheby’s International Realty.
Now Southampton developer Kim Pape weighs in, telling the magazine, “I’ve heard it’s Tiger Woods after all.”
Pape’s source? “The seller told someone who told me.”
Donna Karan’s hilltop compound in the Northwest Woods section of East Hampton is where the designer began her spiritual journey, she recently told Hamptons magazine. Of her home, Karan says, “This has always been my retreat. I would take long walks along the beach and look at the rocks and the water, and that was where I would find my calm.”
Karan lives in a “conglomeration of modernist-style homes inhabited by the entire Karan clan” which includes next-door neighbors daughter Gabby Karan and Gabby’s husband Gian Paolo de Felice and the couple’s two children. The compound overlooks a rocky shoreline leading to Gardiners Bay. Public records show that Karan, who lives on Hedges Banks Drive, is a neighbor of music mogul Sean Combs.
Karan once told In-Style , "I grew up on Long Island, in Woodmere, right near Atlantic Beach. I raised Gabby on Fire Island. The beach has always been my place to think and create.”
