It’s a Glamourous Life

An old New York friend, international interior designer Geoffrey Bradfield, sends me his latest hefty 288-page tome Stage Set, which chronicles in lavish detail the past 50 years of his glamorous life.

Geoffrey details his unlikely ascendance from a farm in a remote South African province to a glittering career that has earned him worldwide recognition as “The Billionaires’ Designer” after working for the legendary Jay Spectre in the ‘70s.

As well as being a superb designer, Geoffrey is also an impeccable host, with myriad photos of him with the rich and famous, including members of the Royal Family, including Prince Charles and Camilla, and Queen Elizabeth‘s youngest son Prince Edward, for whom he threw a party at his Upper Eastside townhouse in Manhattan ten years ago.

I well remember his 60th birthday bash when I flew in from Los Angeles. Geoffrey took over the 26-room mansion formerly owned by Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione, with staff dressed in Mozart-mode, bewigged and carrying candelabras, as we walked up the magnificent marble staircase with the likes of Vanity Fair scribe Dominick Dunne, Andrew and Jill Roosevelt, and Michael and Tara Rockefeller.

Breakfast was served at 1 am and the festivities continued well until the morning hours.

Recent projects include a 200,000 sq. ft. Asian chateau brimming with Chinese antiquities, a penthouse palace floating above Jerusalem, and extravagantly scaled residences in London, Jakarta and Silicon Valley.

Prepare to be mightily impressed.

Troubled Waters

Oscar winner Michael Douglas‘s son, Cameron, 41, has spoken up about his struggles with cocaine and heroin dependency, which started when he was a young teenager.

The grandson of legendary Montecito actor, Kirk Douglas, 103, tells Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson he used to sell crystal meth and was eventually arrested in 2009, ending up in prison for heroin possession and conspiracy to distribute drugs.

“I felt lonely and uncomfortable in my own skin and drugs soothed that for me,” says Cameron. “It allowed a connection to a peer group.”

He says he now feels he has a purpose in life and is continuing to pursue a career in acting.

Dame Newton-John 

My congratulations to singer Olivia Newton-John who has been named a Dame, the female equivalent of a knight, in Queen Elizabeth‘s New Year’s honors list.

Olivia, 71, a longtime resident of the Santa Ynez Valley – she put her 12 -acre horse ranch up for sale for $5.4 million in May, 2019 – receives the honor for her singing and acting, and her charitable work supporting cancer research.

The four-time Grammy winner, who is battling breast cancer for the third time, is best known for co-starring in Grease with John Travolta.

She was born in Cambridge, England, where I used a toil as a district chief reporter on the Evening News, and I remember her well from her early career when she was a regular on British singer Cliff Richard‘s weekly BBC TV show in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Mental Health Matters

Santa Barbara warbler Katy Perry has been reflecting on her past battles with depression.

The singer, 35, says she is helped by her British fiancé Orlando Bloom in an interview with Vogue India.

Reflecting on a particularly tough period between 2017 and 2018, the former Dos Pueblos High student admits she struggled to even get out of bed.

“In the past I’d been able to overcome it, but this time something happened that made me fall down too many flights of stairs. I had to really go on a mental health journey.”

Katy also discusses her “spirited journey” with the Lord of the Rings actor, saying they bring out the best in each other by pulling out the “poison.”

It was all Yellow

TV talk show titan Oprah Winfrey reveals she and CBS Morning Show co-anchor Gayle King have a blooming good relationship.

Montecito’s most famous resident had yellow flowers specially flown in from Holland for a dinner party she hosted for King, a lifelong friend since 1976 when they met as young journalists in Baltimore.

“Gayle’s favorite color is yellow, so we’re gonna yellow up the place,” Oprah revealed in an Instagram post.

“Tulips, narcissus, daffodils, all the spring flowers in the middle of winter. That’s what’s so fantastic.”