A Titanic Estate

By Richard Mineards   |   July 18, 2023

Mega director James Cameron and his wife, Suzy, are selling their longtime oceanfront home on the Gaviota Coast for a titanic $33 million.

The roughly 100-acre property was purchased in 1999 for $4.37 million, according to records.

Cameron, 68, wrote the blockbuster movie Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time, at the ranch. He used an ocean-facing room upstairs in the house as inspiration.

He tells the Wall Street Journal the couple are letting the estate, Hollister Ranch, go because they now spend most of their time in New Zealand.

The main house occupies more than 8,000 square feet and comes with five bedrooms and six bathrooms. There is also a 2,000-square-foot guest house and a tennis court, as well as a 24,000-square-foot equestrian barn, which has been used to store a helicopter and various other vehicles, as well as the occasional submarines, there from his famous underwater expeditions.

Additional features include a large lagoon-style pool surrounded by palm trees. The property is also power and water independent, with two wells for agricultural uses and another that supplies drinking water.

The Camerons own about 5,000 acres of land in the antipodes and 10,000 acres in Saskatchewan, Canada, where they are developing new hybrids for fava beans and plant-based proteins.

The pair also have a home in Crested Butte, Colorado.

Lawyers’ Fees Continue

Kevin Costner’s legal effort to move his estranged wife Christine Baumgartner out of their $145 million beachside mansion in Carpinteria has been successful, with a Santa Barbara judge ruling that she has to vacate the property by July 31.

However, he won’t rule on the validity of their prenuptial agreement until November.

The Oscar winner had “respectfully requested” the former handbag designer “vacate his separate property residence forthwith and no later than July 13, 2023,” according to court documents filed June 30 and obtained by People magazine.

Costner, 68, has been wanting to get Baumgartner, 49, to leave the property for weeks, citing a premarital agreement they both signed in 2004 that stated she would leave the marital home within 30 days if a separation were ever to occur.

In the meantime, Baumgartner has slammed Costner’s proposed $51,940 a month child support offer as “inappropriate.” She had previously demanded $248,000 a month for their three children – Cayden, 16, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 13.

She claims the Yellowstone star spends $240,000 a month on himself and the children when they’re with him.

Stay tuned…

A Spirited Package

Ty Warner’s San Ysidro Ranch, which boasts an impressive collection of ultra-rare spirits found nowhere else in North America, is offering a $40,000 VIP package.

For that hefty price you’ll get tastings of the products, many of which go for $5,000 an ounce, plus three nights in John and Jackie Kennedy’s two-bedroom honeymoon cottage, according to Town & Country’s “Snob’s Guide to the Long Weekend.”

Wear a Sweater Instead

Although King Charles III may derive an annual net income of around $30,809,000 annually from the Duchy of Lancaster, having relinquished the Duchy of Cornwall income when his eldest son William became Prince of Wales, he is not a profligate spender.

The Lancaster duchy, which dates back to 1265 and the time of King Henry III, consists of 45,550 acres of lands, properties, and assets across the U.K., including, most lucratively, central London.

It is considered the private estate of the sovereign. 

In his quests to be more economical and ever greener, the radiators at Buckingham Palace have been turned off completely at weekends, with the palace swimming pool having no heating whatsoever.

This stringent practice has resulted in a 19 percent decrease in natural gas and heating emissions in just a year.

Charles even recycles the bath water at his home Clarence House, just a short drive down The Mall from the palace, and runs his Aston Martin Volante convertible – a gift from his mother Queen Elizabeth on his 21st birthday when he was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge – on a sustainable fuel made from cheese and wine.

If nothing else, it has “a most wonderful bouquet,” he delights in telling friends.

Happy Birthday Geraldo

On a personal note, I congratulate an old friend and colleague Geraldo Rivera, who just celebrated his 80th birthday.

I was a regular panelist on his eponymous TV talk show for many years when it was taped at the CBS Studios on Manhattan’s Upper Westside with veteran New York Post columnist Cindy Adams and the late Mike Walker, gossip columnist for the National Enquirer.

I would also appear on his CNBC show, taped in Fort Lee, New Jersey, a tiara’s toss from the George Washington Bridge across the Hudson and, more recently, his Fox News Network show, which he just quit after 23 years on-air.

An accomplished journalist and great character.

Sightings

Singer Barbra Streisand and actor husband James Brolin at Pierre Lafond… Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, trailed by security, strolling in downtown Santa Barbara… Warbler Katy Perry and actor fiancé Orlando Bloom watching the racketeers at Wimbledon.

Pip! Pip!  

 

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