Italian prosecco is in the process of re-branding itself as the "softer, lighter" bubbly, not to mention cheaper. Production has already increased thirty-fold over the past four decades, with plans for greater distribution particularly to emerging wine markets like China, where marketing drives the majority of sales, relegating prosecco to champagne wannabe status. Hence Italy's support of reserving the name prosecco for wine produced only within the region, a formerly Slovenian area that's been growing grapes since the 1500s, to up the exclusivity factor. Oh, and then there was that little Paris Hilton promo. Italian winemakers disparaged the pairing (she was, after all, promoting an Austrian-crafted sparkling wine in a can), but Paris certainly knows a thing or two about aspirational status.

Usually children follow in the footsteps of their parents, but in the case of the Hiltons one parent is following in those of her children: Kathy Hilton has her own fragrance. Called "My Secret" it comes in a very pretty jewel-like bottle (a pink heart though? Come on) and has top notes of mandarin, freesia, and peony, middle notes of rose, jasmine, and apricot leaf, and bottom notes of sandalwood, vanilla musk, and sandalwood. Available at Macy's for $52-$68 (FYI this version of the bottle featuring Kathy's signature is a limited edition).

BONUS: Register at KathyHiltonFragrance.com to win one of 20 vintage roller-ball heart 1.0 fl oz bottles of the Eau de Parfum or the Grand Prize of a Mother's Day brunch for you and your daughter with Kathy Hilton and her two daughters.

Paris Hilton is in trouble again but this time, I can't really say is is her fault. The Sunday Times reports that winemakers of northern Italy are fighting to defend against what they say are two threats to their industry, one from Hungary and one from Paris Hilton. The battle with Hungary is over the term "Tokai" which the European granted Hungary exclusive rights to use to describe sweet wine made in the Tokaj region of Hungary. Italians say that wine makers in Friuli-Venezia Giulia have been using the term tocai for centuries. The terms "Tokai, Tokaj or Tocai" are all protected under the same umbrella. The Italian Tokai, is a very different wine from the Hungarian wine, it is light and slightly tart.

The Paris Hilton scuffle has to do with her promotion of Rich Prosecco, she's actually been promoting the fizzy drink in a can since 2006 but the recent ad campaign showing her wearing only gold paint has focused new attention to the drink and its name. Italians are angered that the drink, which is not being marketed in Italy, is being called prosecco which generally refers to the Italian sparkling wine made of grapes grown in Veneto, Valdobbiadene and Conegliano wine regions. The Rich Prosecco is, at least according to their website, made of these grapes, but putting the drink in a can and mixing it with fruit juice is considered sacrilege. Winemakers are considered that the Paris-powered beverage could give end up tarnishing the entire Prosecco range of Italian sparklers which are often considered another option to Champagne.

It's a good thing that Paris Hilton gets paid so much to do appearances, she just might need the cash. On Wednesday, her grandfather, Barron Hilton announced that he's pulling a Warren Buffett and plans to donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion fortune to charity. That number includes the $1.2 billion Barron Hilton stands to earn from both the recent sale of Hilton Hotels Corp. and pending sale of the world's biggest casino company, Harrah's Entertainment Inc. The money will be placed in a charitable trust that will eventually benefit the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, bringing its total to around $4.5 billion. it has been rumored that the senior Hilton has been embarassed by the hard-partying ways of some of his grandchildren like Paris and her sister Nicky.

The Hilton foundation supports a variety of projects. Conrad Hilton established the foundation in 1944 and left most of his fortune to it when he died in 1979 but Barron Hilton challenged the will and after a long legal battle he agreed to split ownership of the shares in the Hilton hotel empire with the foundation. The Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters, established in 1986, is the principal beneficiary of the Conrad N. Hilton Fund. It operates under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and supports the apostolic work of sisters around the globe. Projects focus on health care, education and social service. According to the Hilton Foundation website, in order for projects to qualify for funding, they must directly serve the economically disadvantaged, and at least one vowed member of an officially recognized Roman Catholic congregation of women must be directly involved with the project in a full-time capacity. The Sisters' Fund also awards emergency grants in response to natural disasters and political crises. Most of the grants from the Sisters' Fund are small and have gone to projects such as helping sisters in Uganda to begin poultry raising projects and in Vietnam, grants for sewing machines have helped sisters to establish vocational training programs for young, rural women. So far the Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters has awarded over 3,600 grants totaling more than $38 million dollars.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Al Jean, an executive producer of "The Simpsons" has listed his home in Beverly Hills for $2.95 million. The four-bedroom house was built in 1933 and once belonged to actress Carroll Baker. It's even listed by a celebrity turned real estate agent, actress Leah Lail of the Brill Group. The listing is here.
--The Beverly Hills site of a home designed by John Woolf for Lauritz Melchior, a renowned Wagnerian tenor, has been sold for $9 million. The Woolf house was also home to actress Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan, and novelist Judith Krantz. A newer home was built on the site in 1988.
--A hilltop site once owned by Merv Griffin may be snapped up by a group of developers who will pay more than $100 million for the property and then resell it in smaller parcels.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--A fashion change-up, Pierre Berge, the longtime partner of Yves Saint-Laurent, has sold his Fifth Avenue apartment to Valentino's lifetime partner, Giancarlo Giametti, for a $7.5 million. it was our estate of the day in December last year, check out pictures here.
--Heather Mills rented Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi's six-bedroom home in Georgica Pond area of East Hampton in August for $200,000.
--Greg Norman's estranged wife, Laura, has closed on a recently built two-story home on Moses Lane in Southampton with a $4.35 million asking price.
--Mark Messier, sold his Upper West Side apartment for just more than $3 million last year and has just sold a one-bedroom apartment at the venerable Osborne building at 205 W. 57th St. for $580,000.

Also from Braden Keil of the NY Post:
--Tony Randall's co-op home has found a buyer. The home, which was listed for $17.5 million was bought by the late Mr. Randall in the '80s for less than $900,000.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Whitney Houston has sold her five-bedroom, 8,022-square-foot house in Alpharetta, Ga. for $1,190,000, just months after it was headed for foreclosure.
CNN's Miles O'Brien sold a 1,975-square-foot unit at 222 Riverside Drive in New York, for $3.7 million (which was $200,000 above the asking price). He bought the unit in 2005 for $3,200,000 from actor Chris Meloni.
--The official sale price for Jason Priestley's Hollywood Hills home was $1.902 million.
--Actor Gary Anthony Williams of "Boston Legal" has sold his house in North Hollywood for $578,000 and purchased a home in Sherman Oaks for $1.4 million.
--TV director James Burrows has sold his Georgian-style mansion in Los Angeles' Bel-Air area for $10,500,000.
--Actress Anne Heche's Tudor-style house in Hancock Park area appears to have gone to contract after having been listed for $3,795,000.
--Matt LeBlanc has sold his six-bedroom mansion in Hidden Hills. for an undisclosed price after it had been on the market for $10,295,000.
--Actress Linda Fiorentino has sold her one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper West side for her $1,225,000 asking price.


From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The father of the governor of New York, Bernard Spitzer donated 11 apartments to the American Museum of Natural History in 2004 and 2005, many of the apartments have been flipped and have yielded $6,255,000 for the natural historians.
--New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has paid around $40 million for 1014 Madison Avenue, next to a home he bought last year for $45 million for his foundation. The two buildings can be combines as long as the facades remain the same.
--CNN talking head Nancy Grace has bought a third apartment on a high floor of The Revere condo on East 54th Street for $925,000. She needs the room, she recently married and is expecting twins.
--Actress and Hyatt heiress Liesel Pritzker, who sued her father and other powerful family members over pillaged trust funds in 2002 and won a reported $500 million settlement has spent $6.2 million on a 4,146-square-foot apartment at 455 Central Park West.

From the Real Estalker:
--Is Faye Dunaway renting her two-bedroom Hollywood home on Craigslist?
--Rumors are flying that David Geffen has been quietly shopping his famous 9.4-acre Los Angeles estate for $100 million.
--Usher has listed his home in Alpharetta, Georgia for $1.95 million. We will be looking at this home later as our estate of the day.
--Newly married Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer have bought a stately brick home in Hancock Park for $11 million.
--Billy Baldwin and Chynna Phillips are renting a home in Beverly Hills for $14 million.
--Another person related to "The Simpsons," Dan Castellanata, the voice of Homer Simpson is selling his Santa Monica house. It is listed at $3.295 million. Explore the gorgeousness at the property website here.


From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--It's official, Paris Hilton has bought a nearly 7,500-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion in Mulholland Estates for $5.9 million. According to her uncle and broker, Mauricio Umansky of Hilton & Hyland she plans to convert the fitness room into a shoe closet.
--Former Arizona Diamondback player Matt Williams and his wife are asking $12.7 million for a not-yet-completed eight-bedroom home in the Phoenix area. They decided that the over 15,000 square foot home would be too large. The listing is with Walt Danley and can be found here (it is listed at $12.6 million). The purchase price includes the cost of finishing the home.
--A trust of the family of Los Angeles developer Richard Meruelo paid $18 million for a 1.6-acre oceanfront parcel listed at $24.9 million in Golden Beach, Florida in what is believed to be the biggest sale in the Miami area this year. The property was first listed for $26.6 million just over a year ago.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Steffi Graf has listed her Miami home, shown above, for $3.5 million. Graf bought the Hibiscus Island home for $1.315 million in 2001, about eight months before she married Andre Agassi. The listing is here. Only in Miami would a home like this be listed as a potential teartown.
--Real-estate developer R. Donahue Peebles and his wife, Katrina, sold their house in Santa Fe last month for $2.813 million. They paid $2.35 million in 2005 for the close to 9,000-square-foot property.
--Actor Cliff Robertson's former beachfront estate in La Jolla was recently listed for $28 million but has been reduced $22.5 million. We'll take a look at this historic property as our estate of the day.

From TMZ:
--The sale of Paris Hilton's home has hit a snag. The home appraised for under the asking price ($4.25 million). Instead the buyer got an appraisal for $3.6 million. There's some discussion of just how much all that included Paris furniture is worth. The real estate agent, Paris' uncle Mauricio Umansky says the buyers, a married couple from Texas, will pay the agreed-upon purchase price (and mostly cash to boot, taking a loan for $1 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Los Angeles Dodger Rafael Furcal has listed his Pasadena townhouse for $1,159,000.
--Kimora Lee Simmons has sold her home on N. Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills for $5,665,000.
--The Real Estalker Mama delivers pics of Steven Cojocaru's swanky new digs.
--The Real Estalker Mama also has more pics of David Spade's Malibu home for sale for $16 million. It's quite shabby chic and girly.
--And the Mama really hits it big with a whole boatload of pics of the $165 million Ross home for sale.

From the NY Post's Page Six:
--Yankee catcher Jorge Posada and his wife have paid $3.6 million for a three-bedroom apartment t next door to their four-bedroom condo on East 77th Street.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Dixie Chick Natalie Maines and her "Heroes" hubby Adrian Pasdar have bought a $5.6-million home in a Brentwood gated community. Mr. Big Time Listings unearths the listing. You can check the gorgeous home out here.
--Stand-up comic and writer Carol Leifer has sold a rental house in the Hollywood Hills for close to its asking price of $2 million.
--Rapper Erik Schrody, known as Everlast, has put his Woodland Hills home on the market at $789,000. The listing is here. Mr. Big Time Listings reports that Everlast has bought a $1.2 million home in Altadena.
--Christopher Knight and his wife, "America's Top Model" Adrianne Curry, have sold their Manhattan Beach town home for its asking price of $1,689,000. They have bought a larger home with ocean views in the area.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--The buyer of a five bedroom home in Toluca Lake that Damon Wayans had owned from 2001 to 2006 had listed the house for $4,495,000 months after buying the home from Wayans for $3.3 million. The successful flipper sold the home for $4.4 million.
--Mr. Big Time nails down the dollars on Kelsey Grammer's recent Los Angeles home moves. He sold his Bel-Air home for $13.5 million and paid $13.7 million for a home in Holmby Hills.
--Actor Paul Reiser has paid $755,000 to purchase a one-bedroom, 1,174-square-foot condominium unit in Beverly Hills.
--Actor Steven Weber sold his house in Malibu for $3,820,000 around $1 million more than he paid for it in early 2006.
--The asking price for the Hollywood Hills home that once belonged to Bobby Darin has been reduced from $3,689,000 to $2,995,000.

When most average people think about where they're going to spend their birthday it's usually about finding the right balance between somewhere special but still affordable. We all love to splurge and spend extra money on special occasions to have a great party, but what if the parties were offering to pay you to come celebrate with them? That would change things, wouldn't it?

Such is the life of Paris Hilton. For her 24th birthday 3 years ago she was reportedly offered $200,000 to spend her birthday celebration at PURE, a nightclub in Caesar's Palace. That offer trumped the deal she'd been taking advantage of in previous years to spend her birthday at a rival club in the Bellagio hotel-casino, where they provided her with free private jet transportation to and from, a free room, a free gourmet meal, and of course free drinks.

Must be rough.

From US Weekly:
---Paris Hilton has bought a five-bedroom, Mediterranean-style mansion for $6.25 million. There's some discussion over whether she has or has not bought the home, a rather bland yet lavish home in the Mulholland Gates community. Check out the listing here, it's clear the home was a family dwelling and will need a big remodel to fit Paris's single girl lifestyle. The home may also have more bookshelves than Miss Paris may require.
--The 7,000-square-foot Beverly Hills home Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have been renting is back on the market for $100,000 a month.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Three Ponds in Bridgehampton , shown abvoe, which was on the market for $75 million is now listed at $68 million. The listing is here.
--Alan Alda has listed a three-bedroom Sag Harbor home that he used as a home for the help for $799,000.
--Patricia Clarkson has bought a loft in the Village for $1.55 million.

From the Miami Herald:
--Hulk Hogan, has sold his Miami Beach mansion to action movie director Michael Bay for close to the listing price of $18.9 million. You can see pictures of the home here.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--FIIC chairman and C.E.O. Abdul Huda Farouki, a friend of the disgraced former deputy Iraqi prime minister Ahmed Chalabi, is moving into the same building that Jon Bon Jovi recently paid $24 million for a penthouse in, the New Museum building in SoHo. Farouki's apartment is more modest, he paid $5.95 million for a second-floor condo.
--Anne Hathaway's parents have bought a $1.6 million apartment at the St. James Tower, a purplish far East Side condo.
--The daughter of socialite Denise Rich, Daniella Klistock, and her husband Richard have paid $3.9 million for a two-bedroom co-op at 785 Fifth Avenue where Ms. Rich lives in a lavish 28-room penthouse.
--The tales of Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik's search for a home in New York have been legion. Looks like Blavatnik, who has purchased a couple of blockbuster properties in New York is also the buyer of the Bronfman home making him just the second person history to pay over $50 million for a New York townhouse.


From the Real Estalker:
--Film producer Andrew Vajna has listed his Beverly Hills home for $6.495 million. The listing is here and it looks like it has already been sold.
--Tommy Lee has picked up a home in Calabasas that was listed at $6.75 million.

From Berg Properties Celebrity Big Time Listings:
--"Dancing with the Stars'' dance Louis van Amstel has paid $1.1 million for a two-bedroom condo unit in West Hollywood.
--French singer Johnny Hallyday and his wife, Laetitia, have paid $3.9 million for a Mediterranean-style house in the Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills/Bel-Air area.
--Motley Crue lead guitarist Mick Mars has paid $1.46 million 3,603-square-foot home in Malibu.
The National Enquirer has reported that Lionel Richie bought actor Dennis Franz's 2,274-square-foot town home in Century City area as a surprise for his daughter Nicole Richie and her fiancé Joel Madden. The rather bland condo was listed at $1.395 million.
--Marie Osmond has listed her six-bedroom home in Orem, Utah for $1.2 million. The listing is here.
--Actress Anna Paquin and two relatives have paid $1,575,000 for a home in the Hollywood Hills.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--NBA all-star Allen Iverson has listed his five-bedroom home in Villanova, Pennsylvania for $6.3 million. The listing for the 14,000 square foot chateau-like home on Chateau Lane is here.
--Grammy award-winning producer James Harris III, better known as Jimmy Jam, sold his lakefront home in Minnesota in June for $7 million.

From Reuters:
--Hedge fund manager and Red Sox owner John W. Henry has paid $16 million for a Boston estate.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Actress Catherine Bell and her husband Adam Beeson, have put their Calabasas home on the market for $3.25 million. The listing is here.
--Robert Wagner and his wife Jill St. John are selling a home in Brentwood's Mandeville Canyon, designed by Cliff May, for close to $15 million.
--A five-bedroom modern home which belonged to the late sci-fi film writer Bernard Gordon has been sold for close to its $2.3-million asking price.
--Fashion critic Steven Cojocaru has bought a contemporary house with city views and a pool for close to $4 million. As the Real Estalker reported in May, Cojo had listed his five-bedroom Hollywood Blvd. home for $2.995 million.
--Chris Salvaterra, an executive with Nickelodeon Movies and producer of "Fast Food Nation," and his writer wife, Marjorie, have sold their Venice home to "Flightplan" director Robert Schwentke and his wife, Jen Howard. The selling price was $1.6 million. The Salvaterras bought a home in Hancock Park.

From People:
--Actor John O'Hurley is selling his Beverly Hills villa. It is listed at $6.2 million, it's our estate of the day later today.

Wow, that was fast. Even in this worrisome real estate market Paris Hilton has managed to sell her Los Angeles home in just 10 days for the full asking price of $4.25 million. Consider us impressed. After all, Hilton bought in 2004 for $2.9 million and although the pool area is quite elegant, there may be some de-Parising needed in order to remodel the home. The Spanish-style 1920s mansion is full of pictures of Paris and one bedroom was turned into a closet. No word yet on who the mystery buyer is but Paris did say in an interview that she has to buy all new furniture because the buyer bought all her belongings as well. So maybe a remodel isn't in the cards after all.

So what hasn't Paris Hilton done yet? Designed her own shoe line! The heiress will soon be adding one more industry onto her "been there, done that" list (it's gotta be a novel if she actually has one), and that's footwear. Early next year Paris Hilton Footwear is scheduled to launch thanks to a recently signed licensing agreement with Antebi Footwear Group. Paris was quoted as saying "My goal is to create a stylish and fun fashion line from head to toe."

Alrighty then. I'm curious to see what she comes up with, although I'm sure they'll be cute and stylish. The Paris Hilton Footwear collection will supposedly include something for everybody, meaning everything from stilettos to wedges to flats.

Like Kate Moss before her, a little infamy hasn't hurt Paris Hilton's endorsement career. E Online reports that Paris is the face of the new Bliss collection by Italian jeweler Damiani. Paris was recently photographed for the launch of the three-year print campaign by photographer Ellen von Unwerth. The Bliss line is the less pricey and more youthful line from the jeweler. Materials used in the pieces include gold, stainless steel, wood and diamonds and prices will range from $60 to $3,000. The higher-end line has featured Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow as models. Pitt designed his and Jennifer Aniston's wedding rings with Damiani and later sued them when the company sold the designs to the public. Paris Hilton's Bliss ads will run in magazines overseas for a year before invading the U.S.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Christie Brinkley has found a new home in the Hamptons, picking up a waterfront estate in North Haven which had a $10.995 million price tag. Her ex-husband, Peter Cook has also bought a place in North Haven for close to $1.2 million.
--Broadway producer Jeffrey Finn has purchased a one-bedroom pied-a-terre at the Platinum condo complex for just over $1.4 million.
--Rachel Hunter is looking for a fixer upper in the Hamptons. Good luck with that.
--Hotel developer Robert Burns wins the dubious distinction of spending the most money on a Hamptons rental. He is renting an oceanfront Southampton home for a record $1.2 million for the year. He is currently working on building a new mansion in the area.

Bonus from the NY Post:
--Is Alex Rodriguez of the NY Yankees looking to buy the Lake Carrington Estate? The home in Greenwich, Connecticut is billed a "couture-ready" mansion, a nine-acre lakefront property dominated by a Georgian-style stone mansion spanning 35,000 square feet. The listing is here.

From The Real Estalker:
--Scarlett Johansson has picked up a home in the Hollywood Hills for around $8 million.
--Ricky Martin has listed his Miami mansion, shown above, for $16.9 million. No interior pics but the listing is here (that's one deep blue pool).
--Keyshawn Johnson's condo at The Californian in Los Angeles is for sale for $3.595 million.
--Rumor has it that Britney Spears may have sold her Malibu mansion.
--It was nearly two years ago that we first learned Kathleen Turner was set to put her Amagansett home on the market for $7.95 million, now we finally have the listing which is for $6.995 million. Check out the charming beach home here.
--Real estate goddess Ellen Degeneres is at it again putting another tempting home on the market. This Hollywood home is listed for $1.995 million. Ellen and her team do some mighty fine renovating. Check out the calm white splendor at the property website.
--Numerous websites are reporting that Britney Spears may be buying Ray Liotta's old nest in the Pacific Palisades. We'll be checking out this home later as out estate of the day.

From Celebrity Babylon:
--Rumor has it Tom Cruise has picked up a plot in Montecito from Rob Lowe and his wife and may be building a getaway house.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Trusts and partnerships linked to billionaire hedge-fund manager Bruce Kovner paid about $70 million earlier this year for a bunch of oceanfront properties in California's Santa Barbara County. The Kovner-related entities paid $35 million for a three-acre lot with a large Tuscan-style home, $20 million for a four-bedroom house on three acres and then $15 million for six acres.
--New York attorney and real-estate investor Alan Schnurman has just gotten approval to sell eight lots in a Hamptons subdivision, 41 acres in all, for $64.5 million. He bought the land in 2005 for around $25 million. Schnurman's got some success behind him, he recently sold six lots in Bridgehampton for $37.5 million that he bought in 2005 for $12 million. That buyer in turn has put the lots on the market for almost $50 million. The listing is here.
--As we already knew, Anne Heche's home is on the market for $3.795 million.
--As the Real Estalker predicted weeks ago, Paris Hilton has put her home on the market. The price is $4.25 million. She bought in 2004 for around $2.9 million. The listing is here and warns that there is "a pre-screening process" for getting your look at the place. Also, The Gilded Moose has a great commentary on the interior.
--Basketball player Rasheed Wallace has listed his nearly 10,000-square-foot residence in Portland, Oregon for $5.2 million, making it one of the most expensive listings in the area. Rather bland for a sports star's house, you can check it out here.

From TMZ:
--Johnny Depp has picked up a penthouse in the Eastern Columbia building in downtown Los Angeles for about $2 million. The striking turquoise Art Deco building is an LA landmark but the neighborhood is still in transition.

From Berg Properties Celebrity Big Time Listings:
--Jazz singer Lalah Hathaway has sold her Los Angeles home for $848,000 to yoga instructor and model Rainbeau Harmony Mars.
--Michael Jordan's ex-wife has paid $4,720,500 for a mansion in Chicago's River North neighborhood.
--The hunt is on, which house is the house Orlando Bloom bought in the Hollywood Hills for $2.8 million.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Howard and Yvonne Tsao, who graduated from the NYU Stern School of Business barely a year ago, just paid $11.75 million in cash for a 58th-floor spread at the Park Imperial on West 56th Street.
--More news from the infamous 30 Crosby Street, home to Lenny Kravitz and formerly infamously, Courtney Love. Trader Richard Barabino, who sold his second-floor loft there for $6.5 million, will really miss the show-off factor of the apartment and also the help which he refers to has being "like little puppies wagging their tails eager to do something to help you out."
--Steven Kessner, a real estate magnate named by The Village Voice in June 2006 as one of "NYC's 10 Worst Landlords," has bought his son Robert a $1.395 million apartment at 300 East 85th Street, a tower called the America.
--Jeweler-craftsman John Landrum Bryant and his heiress wife, Patricia Bauman, have paid $7.1 million for a four-bedroom apartment in the Beekman that includes a garden, wine cellar, two wet bars and a master bedroom with a kitchenette and fireplace. They plan to put in a jade stone fireplace.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Mel Gibson has sold his Malibu beachfront home for nearly $30 million. He bought the home in the fall of 2005 for $24 million. Also, in May, he bought a 400-plus-acre agricultural and cattle ranch in Costa Rica for $25.8 million, according to La Nación, a Costa Rican publication.
--Former Dodger and Angel center fielder Steve Finley and his wife, Amy, have listed their Rancho Santa Fe estate at $20.5 million. The home has 12,000 square feet and is on seven acres. You can find the listing on the Barry Estates website.
--The Malibu home of the late Daniel Jacoby, an Internet banking pioneer, has been sold for about $12 million.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Mel Gibson has put his estate in Greenwich, Connecticut on the market for $39.5 million for the 28-room Tudor-style mansion on more than 75 acres. Gibson bought the home in 1994 for a reported $9.25 million. It has 15 bedrooms, 12 full bathrooms, a great room with a 40-foot ceiling and a massive fireplace and landscaped grounds that include a maze. The listing is here.
--Christie Brinkley is set to relist her Tower Hill estate in Bridgehampton. It was last on the market for asking price of $26.5 million.
--Fashion designer Tory Burch has just rented a s home in the Hamptons for the next four weeks for around $360,000.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Seagram liquor heir and Warner Music Chairman and C.E.O. Edgar Bronfman Jr. has sold his 31-foot-wide townhouse at 15 East 64th Street. It will become the second townhouse in New York City history to break the $50 million mark. He downsized into 1040 Fifth Avenue which was listed at $19.5 million.
--John Cleese, who recently put his gorgeous California ranch on the market for $28 million, has bought a New York apartment for under $1.5 million.
--A two-bedroom loft at 380 West 12th Street was sold by American socialist leaders Jack Barnes and Mary-Alice Waters for $1,872,500.
--Gregg Hughes of the Opie and Anthony radio show has bought a 40th-floor apartment in the Trump Place complex for $3.35 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Jamie Kennedy has picked up a modern house in Los Feliz owned by fashion designer Philippe Naouri which was listed at $2.275 million.
-- Salvator Xuereb and his wife writer Nikki Toscano have purchased a home in the Franklin Hills/Los Feliz area for $915,000.
--Michael Madsen's Malibu home has headed for foreclosure is now listed at $7.8 million, a deep discount since it was on the market for $9.95 million just a few months ago. The listing is here.
--Once again a messy divorce equals a house on the market. Anne Heche is splitting from her cameraman hubby Coley Lafoon and their charming Paul Williams English-style Los Angeles home is on the market for $3.795 million. The listing is here.
--Britney Spears has put her Beverly Hills home back on the market, this time for $7.495 million (up a couple million from the last time she listed).
--Rumor has it that Paris Hilton is set to put her house on the market.

From Big Time Listings:
--The official price that Josh Duhamel and Fergie paid for their new house in Brentwood is $4.875 million.
--The official price for Denis Leary's Manhattan apartment is $3.9 million.
--Nicky Hilton's new Hollywood Hills home cost her $2.8 million.
--Richard Gere's Manhattan townhouse sold for $12.8 million.


A tip from a reader, Darlene:
--If Clarence Clemmons ever wants to give up the music business, the legendary sax player could do a fine business in real estate voiceover. Check out his smooth jazz and vocal stylings to sell his home at One City Plaza in West Palm Beach, Florida.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Damon Dash has sold his Benedict Canyon home of five years for $3.6 million.
--Frank Leboeuf, a member of the French national soccer team when it won the World Cup in 1998, has just closed escrow on a Craftsman-style home in L.A.'s Miracle Mile area for $979,000.
--Radio man Todd Leitz has sold his Sherman Oaks home which was listed at $829,000 and bought a larger residence in Studio City for about $1.5 million.
--Gavin MacLeod, captain of "The Love Boat," lived in this '60s-style home from 1976 to 2001, and now it's on the market in Palm Springs at $899,000. The listing is here.

Whether she's doing it by accident or it's all part of some carefully calculated master plan I have no idea, but whatever Paris is doing it's working! She really has built herself an empire, and (gasp) now has the opportunity to teach others how she did it. The Learning Annex has reportedly offered Paris $1 million dollars to teach a 1 hour class called "How to Build Your Brand." That much money puts her behind only Donald Trump ($1.5 mil) in the company's history of paid guest teachers.

I guess here is where 'by accident' or 'carefully calculated' really becomes important -- can you tell us how and why you do what you do, Paris? I'll grab my notebook.