Ty Warner’s Manhattan Hotel to Open

After an epic four-year battle between Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner and the Toronto-based Four Seasons Hotel group, his 926-foot tall I. M. Pei-designed Manhattan hostelry is reopening in September.

The iconic East 57th 383-room property, once known as the most expensive hotel in New York City, has been shuttered since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020.

According to its website, the hotel has been undergoing renovations for the past four years.

An agreement was reached last year, but fell apart.

The powerful hotel union – the New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council – was part of the complicated series of talks, according to the New York Post.

Warner and the Four Seasons “completed agreements” with plans to reopen the property in September this year, the Four Seasons has announced without fanfare.

Warner’s oceanside Santa Barbara property, the Four Seasons Biltmore, is scheduled to reopen next spring.

Ranch Available

Singer Olivia Newton-John’s widower John Easterling is selling the Santa Ynez Valley ranch where the late Grease star spent her final days.

The Aussie warbler died at the age of 73 in August 2022, following a 20-year battle with breast cancer.

The property, Indian Way Ranch, with four bedrooms and five bathrooms, was purchased by Olivia in 2015 for $4.69 million.

Built in 1975, the house sits on 12 acres and includes a two-bedroom guests house, pool, and a barn and stables for horses.

Easterling is asking $8.465 million, according to People.

Don’t Trust Everything You See Online

Meghan Markle’s American Riviera Orchard lifestyle brand has been used by an online seller using the same name to flog tongue-in-cheek adult items.

The online store, assuming the same name as the Duchess of Sussex’s American Riviera Orchard, offers adult coloring books, including one labelled Working Class Royalty for sale.

The site, known for selling anti-monarchy products, launched after the Riven Rock resident announced her own lifestyle brand.

The book, which sells for $9.99 on the website, says it will “unveil the hidden royalty in everyday life.”

“Explore five enchanting scenes that honor the majesty found in everyday moments.”

No word yet on if they are starting to sell jam and dog biscuits…

Casa Dorinda’s Scholarships

Casa Dorinda hosted its annual scholarship awards ceremony with more than 30 scholarship recipients and a record-breaking $185,000 in scholarship awards.

Since its establishment in 1997 the fund, in partnership with the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara has been a beacon of hope for staff members and their families.

Together, nearly 800 scholarships have been awarded, totaling an impressive $1,900,000 to students, enabling them to pursue their educational dreams.

The Beauty of Age

Montecito-based former supermodel Kathy Ireland, 61, says she is grateful for getting older as it “brings maturity.”

Kathy, a former Sports Illustrated cover girl in the 1980s, has turned into a billionaire product mogul.

She has a Fashion 360 line for the Home Shopping Network, a Kathy Ireland worldwide licensing brand and Ireland Pay, a credit card processing company.

She tells People she is happy being a sexagenarian.

“I just learned to enjoy aging more and there’s no fear, and that I’m grateful for.”

Kathy says her fame was “an accident.”

“It was more my photos. It came as a big surprise. The look of the moment was changing in the ‘80s when I started.”

These days new models ask her for advice. “I’m hesitant about encouraging anyone to get into the profession for many reasons. It is a business that can attract of lot of people of questionable character.”

House on the Market

Beauty mogul Jamie Kern Lima and husband Paulo Lima have listed their Carpinteria beach house for $41.95 million.

The tony twosome bought the property from Ellen DeGeneres and actress wife Portia de Rossi for $23 million in 2019.

They had paid $18.6 million for the mansion in 2017.

A former TV news anchor, Kern Lima founded IT Cosmetics with husband Paulo in 2008, selling the company in 2016 to French beauty colossus L’Oreal for $1.2 billion in an all-cash deal.

The four-bedroom, four-bathroom house is 5,979 square feet and comes with one bedroom, two-bath guest house measuring 883 square feet. The property sits on 1.1 acres with 77 feet of ocean frontage.

Sightings

Montecito actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Carpinteria TV talk show host Conan O’Brien meeting Pope Francis in Rome… Rosewood Miramar owner Rick Caruso noshing at the Montesano Market & Deli… Gwyneth Paltrow in Capri for the Jacquemus fashion show.

Pip! Pip!