…it appears that Cher is selling her Malibu mansion. When I first moved to Los Angeles, I became fast friends with Barrie Livingstone. We both were new in town and were on fire taking on LA. We both did well really quickly, got big clients neighborhoods that make careers. For about two years Barrie worked on Cher’s house in Malibu, a Moroccan palace, inspite of the fact that it is billed as Italian Renaissance. He loved working with her, had a great relationship with her and was amazed at how she would note details. She once noticed that a nailhead installation on a door was about 1/32 of an inch off of the matching rustic style door. Barrie of course, saw to it at once that this was remedied.

Once his part of the project was finished and he was onto the next project in New York, he passed an newsstand and saw that Cher had done a photo shoot for Architectural Digest in the Malibu house with Ron Wilson, the designer she had fired prior to hiring Barrie. Apparently they made up and didn’t mind publishing all the work as Ron’s. Barrie, a nice jewish boy from Manchester England, said, “I was walking by a cathedral and I lit a candle for them”.

Who says decorating isn’t as cutthroat as Hollywood?

I love reality shows. I know, I know, they’re the death of art and all that, but as cultural phenomenon, but I get a huge kick out them. Well, that, and sometimes they show my neighborhood and people I have met. It took me awhile to remember where I met Josh Flagg on MDL, but finally it came to me: He hosted a breakfast for my candidate and friend (sometimes client), the fabulous Nancy Krasne for Beverly Hills City Council last year. The breakfast was at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I think he’s about twenty two – mighty fancy when most guys that age are just trying to pony up rent.

The other principal interests of the show are Chad Rogers and Madison Hildebrand, both who claim to be experts with “ins” to Malibu. This is the stuff you get watching Million Dollar Listing. First, let me point out to the viewer that even if these places are over a million dollars, I didn’t see a house on the whole show (with the exception of two shown to the ever eccentric Suzan Hughes) that wasn’t a dump compared to the fabulous homes found in the Deep South, especially in New Orleans! The show follows three guys around Los Angeles as they sell real estate in the tony neighborhoods that make LA famous. It’s all about A View Of The Beach, as exemplified by Ms Hughes’ desperate search of a “Bu” house to rent for the summer that has “The View” at eye level, right on the beach, so that she can watch her teenagers learn to surf. Cost for rent for such a view? Seventy five grand, per month, payable up front.

It’s truly surreal to note that all of these guys are under thirty and have already achieved a level of success that many spend decades attaining. I am very interested to see what will happen as the show progresses, as Josh Flagg has recently been arrested for grand larceny, accused of stealing art from client’s homes. The charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, but talk about a nail in the coffin of a lucrative career! And if you watch the show, you’ll see that whatever cash he has made is in great danger if he keeps up with the spending habits he has – almost $9000 in one hour long shopping trip.

I have a feeling I’ll post about this one again, because I’m dying to go off about how blank and wierd the guys are, how sexually ambivalent they seem, and how unnaturally they interact with other people. Stay tuned…

It’s the knell of couture dying…

My Husband is in denial. He thinks he’s going to get me to go camping. And he’s not interested in any of my reasons, either. And now that this is available, I have one less excuse…

“Where is everybody?” I wondered yesterday, as the Critter and I mosied around the triangle on his Kettler yesterday morning. Then, like a V-8 moment, I realized that people are watching the Olympics!

It should come as no surprise to my readers that I am no follower of sports. I am often grateful that the Husband does not leave me a football widow each fall, but God he loves these Olympics. He also enjoys asking me to check what time the “scuba diving” event and the “poker” events are just to see if I’m as clueless as I appear. So, in the spirit of family unity, we holed up Friday night and parts of yesterday and watched the spectacle in Beijing.

So far, the things I find most interesting are the Bird’s Nest Stadium and the official costumes of the nations’ teams. The Bird’s Nest is the brand spanking new National Stadium , and its design was chosen from thirteen proposals of very innovative architects to be built for the 2008 Olympics. It’s truly incredible – a capacity of 91,000!! The visual feast that was the opening ceremony was truly without peer – from Peking Opera to walking in space! I love the little Chinese go go girl cheerleaders who clapped and waved the teams on – wonder who designed their boots? The USA Team’s official walking parade uniform was designed by the original purveyor of the All American lifestyle himself – Ralph Lauren.

If the US were judged on appearance alone, we would certainly have won on opening night. We have some absolutely gorgeous competitors, and our country can be very proud of the sheer number of our citizens who are allowed to compete – that Americans regard talented athletes as a treasure and that we reward hard work with support and the means to go to Beijing to compete. My very astute friend Robert made the observation that the sparse numbers of athletes from certain countries shows that “dictatorships can really kill art”.

I told the Husband to call me when the men’s gymnastics events start…

How cute is this? A moose and her babies find a sprinkler to cool down.

I just used this to give the Critter his first lesson in the rap / hip hop genre. I hope The Husband doen’t mind – he would prefer the Critter only learn classical, Sinatra style and Journey.

But Critter already has his hands up in the A-yuh!

Right now I have a couple of hours to do anything I want to do. I have before me:

• Beverly Hills Community Services Bulletin – and pore over pages six and seven – I can stress about whether the Critter is properly stimulated prior to entering preschool.
• Read
I, Rhoda Manning, Go Hunting with my Daddy

, by Ellen Gilchrist, which causes me to miss the South and all its decadence
• Work on painting for page 15 of “Louis of Beverly Hills – The Adventures – Part One ‘
• Watch something on in demand like a marathon of “Project Runaway” or “Gene Simmons Family Jewels” and learn How It’s Done from the masters.
• Take a nap
• Get into it on City Mommy

I”ll Twitter later and let you know what I decided to do…

Leave it to Gawker to unearth this old cigarette advertisement – sheesh! We better get back to puffing!

The Atelier was rocking! Yikes!

Earthquake information here