Wrap Up

I know June is over so that means Black Music Month is over therefore I have about 5 maybe 6 blog posts pertaining the month long celebration that I will be uploading and then I'm done with that. July is going to be exciting as well as August. I know that I may not have many followers but apparently I'm getting a lot of page views so thanks for taking the time to read and support my blog. Peace and Love

Toni La Nae

JENNY POUSSIN: HOT PINK

UPDATE: Jennifer Aniston, Lucky Lady

Thanks to a covert communique from Our Fairy Godmother in Beverly Hills Your Mama has learned that the deal is done done done for Ohana, the Beverly Hills, CA mansion sit-com star and rom-com queen Jennifer Aniston heaved on the market in March 2011 with a hefty asking price of $42,000,000. That's right, kids, Miz Aniston sold her luxury real estate puppy in just over three months time.

According to a document provided by Our Fairy Godmother in Beverly Hills, the transfer was recorded on the 24th of June for an as-yet undisclosed amount of money. The spendy buyer's identity, not surprisingly, is shielded by a corporate trust. More on that later.

Despite Miz Aniston's optimistic-seeming asking price, qualified buyers flocked to the property and–we heard through the Platinum Triangle real estate gossip grapevine–at least two offers in excess of $30,000,000 quickly surfaced. Intel we received from friends and sources led us to speculate that the buyer might be Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich or maybe even Russian banking and fertilizer multi-billionaire Andrey Melnichenko.

We also heard whispers from the real estate peanut gallery that the buyer was not a Russian at all but rather a New York-based financier. At one point we heard something so odd and outlandish that we never mentioned it in any of our many previous discussions on the topic; We heard from a woman we'll call Stacy Outinleftfield who told us the buyer was a money man from Orange County (CA).

Well, dontcha know that according to the aforementioned document provided to Your Mama by Our Fair Godmother in Beverly Hills, Miz Aniston's estate was purchased by an entity that calls itself the Banana Trust that links back to the offices of a Goldman Sachs subsidiary in–tah-duh!–Irvine, CA.

We quickly put out a few feelers with some of our most well-informed informants. Within minutes of sending an email we heard back from a plugged-in real estate insider we know–let's call her Chatty Cathy–who floated the name of–are y'all ready for this?–a billionaire mutual fund manager from Orange County named Bill Gross.

After a scoot and scout around the interweb and a some drilling down into scads of public property records we found at least one other property in Orange County owned by Mister Gross and his wife–a gal named Sue–that links back to the same Irvine office as the Banana Trust. Coinky-dink? No. We consulted our all but omniscient informant Lucy Spillerguts who was able to confirm with absolute certainty that the buyers are Mister and Missus Gross.

Mister Gross, co-founder of Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), manages the Pimco Total Return Fund that maintains assets of nearly a quarter trillion dollars. No, babies, that is not a slip of our nubby fingers; Mister Gross's monster mutual fund actually holds assets of more than $240 billion. In 2008 Mister Gross's Pimco Total Return Fund profited an astonishing $1.7 billion dollars from the near-collapse of home loan juggernauts Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. Forbes recently estimated that Mister Gross has a personal net worth just above two billion bucks.

A spin through Orange County property records reveals Mister and Missus Gross own several very posh pads in the OC that include (but are not limited to): An ocean front house in a gated enclave in Laguna Beach they've owned since at least 1989; Another, nearby house in Laguna Beach bought in December 2008 for $4,500,000; A cliff side house in Corona del Mar with panoramic ocean vistas he and the Missus snatched up for $8,100,000 in August 2006; A Newport Beach records show was purchased for an undisclosed sum in June 2007; And a perfectly ordinary tract house in an inland gated development in San Clemente they picked up in late 2006 for $1,040,000.

Records show Mister and Missus Gross also own an 11,316 square foot mansion that backs up to the golf course of the Vintage Club in Indian Wells, CA, a condo in Park City, UT and a condo in Cupertino, CA. They also, as per prop records, lay claim to a spectacular 7,091 square foot house on 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach, CA that backs up to one of the famous fairways of what is arguably the most famous golf course in all of the world.

Although their property portfolio bulges with extraordinary properties, Mister and Missus Gross's real estate story didn't get really interesting until July 2009 when they spent a reported $23,000,000 to acquire an 11,000-plus square foot mansion on the gated Harbor Island enclave in Newport Beach, CA. The couple proceeded to demolish the 9 bedroom and 12 bathroom house but seem to have had a real estate change of heart and just this month flipped the now bare parcel back on the market with an asking price of $26,500,000.

Did Mister and Missus Gross catch a classic case of The Real Estate Fickle with the Newport Beach property? Did they decide they didn't want to deal with the hassle and time involved with building a mansion from the ground up? Or did they decide on entirely different digs, say, a newly renovated move-in ready celebrity-owned mansion in Beverly Hills?

Your Mama contacted Mister Gross's office for comment, confirmation or denial in regards to the purchase of Miz Aniston's Ohana, but have not yet received a response.

As for Miz Aniston, well, beehwatcha made out like a bandit. She paid $13,500,000 for the 9,000-plus square foot gated residence in Bev Hills, originally designed by architect Hal Leavitt, on November of 2006. Rumor and report has it she sold for somewhere around $37,000,000 although at one point we we're leaked the number $35,500,000. Of course her profit decreases dramatically when the massive renovation costs and fat real estate fees are considered, but Your Mama would not be the least bit surprised if Miz Aniston walked with ten million big ones.

Last month Miz Aniston purchased a pair of small apartments in New York City that she plans to combine into a small-ish but stylish duplex penthouse. The upper level–formerly the wee penthouse pad of hair honcho Sally Hershberger–spills out to a wrap terrace with seven million dollar views west to the glittering Hudson River and north to the twinkling Midtown skyline that includes the Empire State Building and–even better–the Chrysler Building. We hear she has a third unit, adjacent to the lower of the two she just bought, in contract as well but we don't have any proof of that, hunties.

Your Mama does, however, have it on quite good authority–two good authorities, actually–that Miz Aniston plans to maintain real estate roots in Los Angeles and has peeped a number of properties in the Sunset Plaza and Beverly Hills areas. Miz Aniston plans, it seems, to live a bicoastal life, the ultimate geographic real estate dream of almost everyone Your Mama knows.

Lucky lady.

Glenn Beck Takes it to Texas

WHO: Glenn Beck
LOCATION: Westlake, TX
PRICE: around $20,000 per month
SIZE: 7,904 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We hesitate to write about this bit of celebrity real estate bizness because we always get the most vile hate mail when we discuss right wing political pundit and crybaby conspiracy theorist Glen Beck. However, we're going to take our chances and let the chips fall where they may since, you know, sticks and stones and all that.

In late 2005 Mister Beck and his wife Tania spent $4,250,000 for a luxurious mansion in sleepy but swank New Canaan, CT. Four years later, in late 2009, Your Mama prattled on about the huge house–dubbed Waterford Manor–that was then on the market with an asking price of $3,999,000. They had previously and unsuccessfully attempted to sell the house with an asking price of $4,999,000.

In early April 2011 Mister Beck got into some boiling hot water for his increasingly frequent anti-Semitic harangues. Not even Fox News, which promotes a socially and politically conservative agenda, could excuse or tolerate Mister Beck's race theories and and fear baiting ways. So they canned him. Everyone publicly made nice-nice about the matter but, make no mistake, Fox News sent their teary-eyed cash cow and his highly contentious notions packing. Mister Beck's last show on Fox is, as it turns out, today. He will switch his often controversial commentating over to GBTV, an acronymically-named internet-based network.

It wasn't long after he was very publicly axed that Mister Beck announced on his show that he'd sold his Connecticut mansion and planned to leaved the New York City area. We don't know how many folks in lefty-lib New York City mourned the loss of the Mister Beck–who lived in New Canaan but filmed his show in Manhattan–but we do know that property records and title information we peeped at do not reflect a sale of his Connecticut estate. In fact, our entirely unscientific research reveals Mister Beck's trés traditional mansion remains on the market with a reduced asking price of $3,650,000. Current listing information shows it stands on 2.8 acres, measures 11,320 square feet over four floors and includes 6 bedrooms, 5 full and 3 half bathrooms, 5 fireplaces, front and rear staircases and–natch–a "super" security system.

If he's leaving the New York area as he said, inquiring minds want to know, where or where will Mister Beck go? Well, buckle your safety belts, bunnies, because well-placed sources tell sassy Dallas-based real estate gossip Candy Evans that Mister Beck is headed her way, to the Dallas suburb of Westlake, TX where it's rumored and reported on the Second Shelters blog that he's leased a large house in the swank guard-gated Vaquero Club community.

According to Miz Candy Evans, the well-maintained mansion where Mister and Missus Beck will (allegedly) set down temporary Texas roots was first put up for lease at $15,000 per month before it was raised to $20,000. Presumably Mister and Missus Beck are paying somewhere in that rent neighborhood.

The Hill County-style house, owned by professional ball player Jorge Piedra and Swarovski crystal heiress Vanessa Piedra, stands on about 1.71 acres of manicured grounds, measures 7,904 square feet and includes 7 bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms plus a separate guest/pool house with living room, bedroom and bathroom.

A curving wall extends across the front of the property where a perfectly circular drive at the front of the house wraps around to a rear motor court and four-car garage. A wide set of shallow steps makes a grand procession from the driveway to the front door. The clean-lined contemporary interior spaces include a double-height entry with travertine tile floor and built-in knick-knack display cubbies and a formal living room with hardwood floors, corner fireplace and a built in flat-screen tee-vee surrounded by built-in knick-knack display cubbies. Very chic steel-framed glass doors open the living room to the covered dining terrace that overlooks the back yard.

Not surprisingly, a pink Swarovski crystal-encrusted Tord Boontje-designed Blossom chandelier hangs in the high-ceiling dining room. A butler's pantry connects the dining room to the commodious kitchen outfitted with wide-plank wood floors, steel-blue flat-fronted cabinetry topped by black counter tops of undetermined material, a large work island and snack counter with white marble counter top and a built-in breakfast banquette with more built-in knick-knack display cubbies.

Other notable interiors spaces, according to listing information, include a study with even more built-in knick-knack display cubbies, a fitness room with mirrored wall, and a sun room with steeply vaulted ceiling from which hang two more pink crystal-encrusted Tord Boontje-designed Blossom chandeliers.

The children will note at least one more goddam pink crystal-encrusted Tord Boontje-designed Blossom chandelier that hangs over the deviled egg-shaped freestanding soaking tub in the master bathroom that also includes separate shower, double sinks and a built-in floating vanity table. Your Mama adores Mister Boontje's Blossom chandelier and would love to own one if we could stomach (and afford) the prodigious price tag which can run as high as $30,000+ depending on the size. We also recognize that Miz Piedra is representin' the family business. But, puppies, too much is too much and four Tord Boontje-designed Blossom chandeliers all in one house–and not all in the same room–is just too much.

Anyhoo, the house wraps around a terraced backyard that includes various patios, one with built in fire-pit ringed by a semi-circular built-in stone bench. An extra-wide stone staircase descends gently and grandly down to the swimming pool, spa, cabana and adjacent guest/pool house that features a pergola-shaded raised porch. Wide pooch-friendly lawns surround the pool and terraces and stretch back to the community's highly-rated golf course that winds through the Vaquero Club community.

Should Mister and Missus Beck find they like the house, it's currently listed for sale with an asking price of $3,900,000. Listing information indicates the seller is willing to finance a sale but it seems unlikely that Mister Beck–a multi-millionaire many times over–would need another rich person to assist in the finance of a real estate purchase. He is, let's get real, a rich and generously compensated white man; We're quite certain their are any number of banks and other financial institutions who would love to lend him a few million bucks to buy a big house in suburban Dallas.

The fancy-pants Vaquero Club enclave,"smack dab next to D/FW Airport" according to Miz Candy Evans, has long been popular with professional athletes such as golfers Brian Watts and Todd Hamilton, baseballers Dave Berg and Josh Hamilton, and pigsknner Henry Ford who all own (or owned) mansion inside the gates of the Vaquero Club at one time or another. The parents of pop trio and tween heart throbs The Jonas Brothers also own a substantial house in the upscale golf community.

listing photos: Keller Williams