Weekend Wrap Up

1.
Although the hostess of Top Chef Padma Lakshmi owns a funky loft apartment in New York City's East Village that she bought in January of 2008 for $1,650,000 she's reportedly on the hunt for a new pad that she and her baby Krishna can call home. According to the fine folks at Curbed (via the New York Post) Miss Lakshmi was recently spotted taking a tour of a 4,535 square foot pre-war pad in the Village with 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and a pocketbook punishing $10,995,000 asking price.

2.
There's no celeb connection on this one, kitty cats, but we're going to have a looky-loo anyways because this house in Houston, TX is a real damn doozy that's really not to be missed. Before you go any further we suggest y'all get a big fat nerve pill down in you, buckle your real estate safety belts and prepare yourself for a bumpy ride through some hard core decorative despicable of the highest magnitude.

3.
A week or more ago we dissed and discussed an historical mansion in London's celebrity-packed Highgate 'hood last listed at £7,950,000–that's 12,803,600 American at today's rates–and purchased by British waif-model pioneer Kate Moss. Some of her (alleged and reported) plans for the new place include installing a $65,000 kitchen, an entertainment room with stage and karaoke machine and a $1,500,000 gym. Pleeze. Who spends a million and a half clams on a home body torture facility ? That's just plain ludicrous.

Anyhoo, this week comes along the real estate news that the string bean unloaded her former home in St. John's Wood for £10,000,000. That's $16,105,200 at today's rates according to our currency conversion contraption and four million more than she paid for her new place in Highgate so it seems the model knows how to make money.

4.
Is professional dribbler Kobe Bryant building himself a fancy 14,500 square foot castle with a two-level sport court in the fancy-schmancy gated community of Pelican Crest down behind the Orange Curtain on California's Newport Coast? Could be. Mister Bryant already owns two mansions in the nearby Pelican Ridge community so Your Mama can't fathom why he'd want a third mansion in such close proximity to the two he already owns but then again who are we to question the real estate ways of the rich and famous?

5.
Anyone who's ever craved a Big or Little Edie Beale moment can now rent their famous Grey Gardens estate in East Hampton, NY. The cost: $135,000 for two weeks in August. A few flicks of the well-worn beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus shows that works out to an astonishing $9,642 and 86 damn cents per day.

The current owners–writer Sally Quinn and former executive editor of The Washington Post Ben Bradlee–purchased the derelict house in 1979 and worked that shit over something fierce, hunnies. We're not sure how they got rid of the cat crap smell but for nearly 10 grand a day they damn well better have, right? The 6,000-ish square foot shingle-style cottage has seven bedrooms and four bathrooms and the grounds include a clay tennis court, gunite swimming pool and thatched-roof pool house.

6.
Black Eyed Peas front woman Fergie and her model turned actor man-mate Josh Duhamel (Las Vegas) appear to be in need of some temporary East Coast digs. Mister Duhamel was reportedly espied having a look-see at a 1,600 square foot apartment in a newly constructed rental tower called The Corner located on the corner of Broadway and West 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The 15th floor spread features a curving wall of floor to ceiling windows in the living/dining/kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 (window-free) terliting facilities, a stacked washer/dryer closet, a secret safe for stashing jewels drugs and other valuables, and a 830 square foot set back terrace.

On the west coast Miss Fergie and Mister Duhamel live in the hills high above Los Angeles' upscale Brentwood area in an 8,232 square feet contempo-style crib with 8 bedrooms and 8.5 poopers that they snatched up in April of 2007 for $4,875,000 from director Brian De Palma (Mission: Impo.ssible, Bonfire of the Vanities, Scarface)

7.
The remarried widow of deceased celebrated celebrity caricaturist king Al Hirschfeld has heaved the artist's long-time New York City townhouse on the market with and asking price of $5,295,000. Mister Hirschfeld, who went to meet the Great Illustrator in the Sky back in 2003, purchased the 20-foot wide four-story Queen Anne-style townhouse in 1947 and painted the exterior bubblegum pink with white trim. The interior spaces of the 4,160 square foot are equally as colorful–if dingy and dusty looking with a lot of duct tape holding stuff together–and include 4-5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms.

8.
There is some ugly business going down at the legendary Dakota building in New York City, people. U-G-L-Y, ugly.