A Smash of Wind and Brass

It was the perfect combination when the 30-year-old Boston Brass and three-time Grammy-nominated Imani Winds performed at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lecture series.

Adventurous programming and dynamic playing is the wind quintet’s trademark; playing Paquito D’Rivera’s “Selections from Aires Tropicales” and even Stevie Wonder before joining with the brass quintet in a stirring rendition of Leonard Bernstein’s “Maria” from West Side Story and works from Astor Piazzolla, Paul Hindemith, Arturo Sandoval, and Ernesto Lecuona.

The Boston Brass opened the 90-minute concert with Shostakovich’s “Galop” and work by ever-glorious Bach.

Great fun…

Wedding Bells 

Actor Kevin Costner’s ex-wife Christine Baumgartner is engaged to her beau of over a year, financier Josh Connor, 49, who happens to be one of the Oscar winner’s former friends.

Connor put his five bedroom, five bath 2,899 square foot home on the market for $7.3 million last month having purchased it in March 2022 for just $2.2 million.

Baumgertner, 50, said “Yes” to Connor’s beachside proposal in our tony town last week less than a year after finalizing her acrimonious divorce with the Yellowstone star.

Handbag designer Baumgartner filed for divorce from the Oscar winner in 2023 after 18 years of marriage. They have three children together – Cayden, 17, Hayes, 15, and Grace, 14.

For the Record

A lawsuit to make Prince Harry’s secret visa records public is set to have its first court hearing under Donald Trump’s administration.

Washington, D.C.’s Heritage Foundation has re-opened its case to have the Montecito resident’s immigration papers released.

The foundation has raised questions about how King Charles III’s youngest son was able to gain entry into the country in 2020 having admitted in his bestselling autobiography Spare to taking cannabis, marijuana, and psychedelic mushrooms.

Normally any admission of drug use would bar an applicant from entry into the U.S. But the organization was refused access to the Duke of Sussex’s application by the Biden administration.

But lawyers for the think tank and Harry have been ordered by the judge Carl J. Nichols to meet at a federal court in Washington this month.

Trump has previously suggested Harry may be deported from the U.S. if he is found to have fraudulently filled in his visa form, even though Meghan is an American citizen and their children Archie and Lilibet, have dual citizenship.

Stay tuned…

Podcast Pushed Back

Riven Rock resident Meghan Markle is postponing the release of new episodes of her Archetypes podcast.

The Duchess of Sussex, 43, has already delayed the release of her Netflix cookery show, With Love Meghan, from last month to March due to the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.

Now it appears her scheduled podcast with Lemonade Media, which appeared to tease new episodes at the start of the New Year, will also be delayed.

According to Hello! magazine, episodes of Archetypes have been “pushed back.”

In the Circus

Santa Barbara warbler Katy Perry’s year-long legal battle with the disgruntled seller of her multi-million-dollar Montecito estate has taken another dramatic turn with Katy fuming, claiming it has turned into “a media circus.”

The family of Carl Westcott filed a subpoena in October clearing the way for British actor Orlando Bloom, 47, to testify during the damage phases of an upcoming trial scheduled for February 25.

They claim the Pirates of the Caribbean actor played a significant role in managing the 1930s’ eight bedroom, seven and a half bath 9,000 square foot property on a 2.5 acre lot after Westcott, 85, was forced to relinquish his Montecito home after selling it to Perry for $11.25 million in 2020.

But just days later, Westcott tried to void the deal claiming he was under the influence of painkillers when he signed.

In a response filed in L.A. Superior Court, Perry’s legal team argued the involvement of her family, including her fiancé Bloom, should be considered “off limits” calling the subpoena an unnecessary move.

They claim it is no more than “a publicity tactic.”

House Off the Market

Montecito actress Gwyneth Paltrow has sold her Los Angeles mansion in Brentwood.

The Oscar winner, 52, originally put the 8,000 square foot pad in Mandeville Canyon up for sale for $29.99 million before lowering the price to $24.9 million last October.

She then lowered the price again with the property finally selling for $22 million.

Paltrow listed the estate in May 2024 when son Moses, 18, headed off to college after graduating high school.

She picked the home with her ex-husband Coldplay rocker Chris Martin, 47, in 2012 for $9.95 million.

It was built in 1950 and completely renovated in 2009. The house, on two thirds of an acre, has eight bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, including a one-bedroom apartment above the garage.

Split Views

Former Montecito-based actress turned TV talk show host Drew Barrymore has opened up about her divorce from ex-husband Will Kopelman, admitting she still has not “fully recovered.”

Barrymore, 49, split from actor Kopelman, 46, in 2016 after four years of marriage, and the former couple co-parent daughter Olive,12, and Frankie, 10.

On her New York-based show she talked with The View veteran panelist Joy Behar and said the separation had “destroyed her.”

“I think, for me, when I got divorced from my kids’ dad, I did not fully recover from that, I was so invested in that plan.

“I was stuck together for life. We’ve grown a lot through the last 14 years through our union with our kids.”

She previously told People magazine in 2022 she found her split from Kopelman “cripplingly difficult.”

Barrymore has now been married three times – to filmmaker Tom Green for one year from 2001 to 2002, and Jeremy Thomas between 1994 and 1995.

Sightings

Katy Perry noshing at London’s oh-so trendy Chiltern Firehouse… Kevin Costner checking out the crowd at Lucky’s… Actor Josh Brolin at Pierre Lafond.

Pip! Pip!