A New Role for Roling

Santa Barbara Symphony has appointed Rebecca Roling as vice president of patron and community engagement.

A lifelong classical music fan, patron of the arts, and musician, Roling will build upon and leverage the popular organization’s impact and momentum, and be responsible for the growth of donation and ticket revenue through patron connection and loyalty.

Five years ago, Roling transitioned her 25 plus years of marketing expertise towards the symphonic world, resulting in a track record of success in audience and revenue growth.

As director of marketing and audience development with the New West Symphony in Thousand Oaks, she innovated dozens of high yield ticketing and fundraising campaigns, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars through sponsorships, donations, partnerships, ticket sales, and memberships.

As host of “Meet the Artist,” a popular interview program, Roling grilled artists and conductors for a capacity audience. Guests included Grammy and Emmy award winners Pinchas Zukerman, Garrick Ohlsson, Anne Akiko Meyers, the Marcus Roberts Trio, and Bruce Broughton.

She is a graduate of the Essentials of Orchestra Management program by the League of American Orchestras and is working towards her Masters in Arts Leadership from Colorado State University. She is also a graduate of UCSB and majored in music at City College.

Ryan Seacrest Lists Estate

American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, 45, has listed his sprawling Beverly Hills estate for $85 million, eight years after snapping up the property from TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres for $39 million.

Seacrest, who also co-hosts the Manhattan-based TV show Kelly and Ryan with former actress Kelly Ripa, has been spending more time of late in New York.

The 9,200-square-foot house on 2.87 acres has four bedrooms and six bathrooms, with panoramic views of the Big Orange.

Ellen Snags Dennis Miller Estate

TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, 62, and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, 47, are the new owners of comedian and political pundit Dennis Miller’s $49 million 4.3-acre Montecito estate.

The dynamic duo bought the property with a 9,000-square-foot South African Cape Dutch-style house, a guesthouse and barn from Miller, 67, and his wife, former model Carolyn, 55, in September.

The private deal makes the compound, a short distance from the new homes of Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, one of the priciest compounds in our Eden by the Beach, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Millers lived on the estate since buying it for $11 million in 2006.

Home for the Holidays

Prince Harry and wife, Meghan Markle, are busily planning their first Christmas at their new $14.7 million home, Riven Rock.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved into the 14,563-square-foot nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom home on nearly five and half acres in July and, given the pandemic restrictions, will be spending Yuletide in Montecito with their 19-month-old son Archie and Markle’s Los Angeles-based mother Doria Ragland, 64, instead of joining Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth for the holidays as they have in the past.

Normally the 94-year-old British monarch celebrates at her 20,000 acre 775-room estate in Norfolk, Sandringham, built by Queen Victoria’s son, King Edward VII, but this season for the first time in 30 years will be in a “bubble” at 1,000-year-old Windsor Castle, 26 miles outside London, keeping in contact with most relatives via Zoom.

Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, were spotted shopping for a Christmas tree and other decorations at Big Wave Dave’s, a shop set up in Macy’s parking lot at La Cumbre Plaza, where Prince Charles’s youngest son was mistaken by one youngster as a member of the staff.

James Almaguer, who works on the lot, says: “They seemed like very nice people. Harry seemed like a particularly chill lad honestly. It was anticlimactic, but a very, very liberating experience.”

Harry has also been ordained “Sexiest Royal” by the readers of People magazine. The dashing duke beat off stiff competition from his older brother, Prince William, 38, and Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, 41.

The title comes a year after he was awarded the celebrity glossy’s Sexiest Man Alive accolade following in the footsteps of the likes of John Kennedy Jr., George Clooney,and Mel Gibson.

In other news, Harry and Meghan have just handed over their former U.K. home, Frogmore Cottage, a tiara’s toss from the Long Walk near Windsor Castle, to Prince Andrew’s daughter, Princess Eugenie, 30, and her husband Jack Brooksbank, 34, who are expecting their first child.

Frogmore, near the grand mausoleum which is the final resting place of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, was the home of Victoria’s Indian manservant, the Munshi, the subject of the charming 2017 film Victoria & Abdul, with Dame Judi Dench reprising her role as the long reigning monarch.

Until now the couple have been living in Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace, known by the Prince of Wales as “the aunt heap” because of all the royal relatives living there.