Tag archives: Gwyneth Paltrow

Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner has launched a new plush toy version to raise money for coronavirus relief. Ty, owner of the Biltmore and the San Ysidro Ranch, has been putting up New York medical workers free of charge at his five-star Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan, as I have chronicled in this illustrious organ. […]

On a personal note, I remember dashing Yale-graduate Peter Beard, the legendary wildlife photographer, who has died at the age of 82 after going missing from his Montauk, Long Island, home. Peter, heir to two great fortunes in tobacco and railroads, was a fixture on the New York social scene, where I first met him […]

Six-time Golden Globe nominee Rob Lowe is re-teaming with his 911: Lone Star creator Ryan Murphy to develop a project inspired by Netflix’s hit docu-series Tiger King. Longtime Montecito resident Rob, 56, has revealed they will be developing “our version of this insane story” to his 3.2 million social media followers. Rob is clearly vying […]

Santa Barbara resident and horse racing enthusiast Barry Schwartz, the co-founder of Calvin Klein Inc., is selling his sprawling equestrian estate in New York’s Westchester Country for $100 million. Spanning around 740 acres, the property is among the largest privately held estates in the county, according to Christie’s International Real Estate. Known as Stonewall Farm […]

It was a nice coincidence when former veteran KEYT-TV weatherman Alan Rose, who now works at KOAA-TV in Pueblo, Colorado, took some time off from his vacation to Palm Springs to visit Disneyland. The complex’s California Adventure was hosting its annual food and wine festival, drawing media from throughout the country, including KEYT-TV morning anchor […]

Longtime Montecito resident Dick Wolf, the creator of Law & Order and the multi-TV show Chicago franchise for NBC, has become the network’s $1 billion man. Wolf, 73, has signed a new five-year deal to stay with NBCUniversal, his studio home for the past 36 years, which includes three-year renewals for Law & Order: Special […]

An old friend, New York interior designer Geoffrey Bradfield sends me his latest 295-page tome A 21st Century Palace Asia, featuring a 250,000 sq. ft. 36-bedroom home in China on 30 acres, which took four years to complete. Geoffrey, who has worked on homes with quite stratospheric budgets in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Jakarta and Japan, […]

David Bolton, executive director of the California Missions Foundation, has a lucrative sideline with his TV production company, Cultural Global Media. One year after covering his first Super Bowl, the company has been hired again to produce the legendary NFL event from Miami, Florida, on Sunday (February 2) for millions of viewers throughout Latin America. […]

Beach Boy Mike Love‘s former Santa Barbara estate is up for sale for $6,407,000. The spectacular 2.5-acre oceanfront property boasts five dwellings totaling 5,096 sq. ft. with six bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms on 200ft. of private bluff. Built in 1920, it is set on one of the single largest oceanfront parcels in […]

Korean-American Richard O’Neill, longtime violist for Adrian Spence‘s Camerata Pacifica, is joining the internationally acclaimed lineup of the 45-year old Takacs Quartet. He will replace Geraldine Walther, who is retiring after 15 years in May. Richard, 41, joins founding member, cellist Andras Jejer, English first violinist Edward Dusinberre and American second violinist Harumi Rhodes, in […]

To La Cocina, formerly Somerset, with my snapperazzi Priscilla, to check out the made-over East Anapamu Street eatery, which now features Mexican-Californian cuisine. The charming back courtyard, filled with lavender bushes and gnarled ancient fig trees brought in by flatbed trucks from Northern California and craned in over the rooftops when it first opened after […]

To the Bluewater Grill with my snapperazzi Priscilla where, on the second Tuesday of each month, the popular eatery offers a new seafood tasting menu. The all-inclusive dinner included chipotle blackened swordfish with rice, corn and avocado relish with clam chowder – Manhattan or New England – and a glass of Cuvee Rouge. Scrumptious… Moving […]

Montecito actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘ critically acclaimed HBO series Veep went on hiatus while she underwent treatment for breast cancer. Now Julia, 58, has opened up to the celebrity glossy, Vanity Fair, about her cancer diagnosis and returning to work after a life-threatening illness. On the cover of the Conde Nast monthly Julia wears a diaphanous […]

After “kinging” as George III in the Village Fourth with Justin Bieber watching, for the seventh consecutive year with Dallas dynamo Charles Ward, Santa Barbara Polo Club promoter as George Washington, in his Mercedes convertible driven by British author Deborah Richards, I dashed off to the harbor to board former Santa Barbara Yacht Club commodore […]

Former Montecito resident Jim Sokolove, who moved with his wife, Stephanie, to Boca Raton, Florida last year, has just attended his 50th reunion at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. Jim, who was in the class of 1969, founded his firm Sokolove Law in 1979. The tony twosome used to host the annual Table of […]

Hillside House, now rebranded Hillside given the expansion plans for its 280-acre property which has 59 residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities, raised around $100,000 from its 16th annual Sunset Soirée, held for the first time at the Rockwood Woman’s Club, given the death of Tita Lanning, chatelaine of the historic El Mirador estate, where […]

Lindsay Cortina is the new president of The Junior League of Santa Barbara replacing Kielle Horton after a one-year term. Cortina joined the league six years ago and has served in numerous leadership roles. She is also director of organizational initiatives at Sansum Clinic, where she oversees the implementation of strategic projects and programs aimed […]

Social gridlock reigned at restaurateur Ali Ahlstrand‘s new State Street eatery, Alito’s, when John Thyne and Kevin Goodwin celebrated the 15th anniversary of their real estate company, Goodwin & Thyne Properties. More than 270 guests turned out for the boffo bash, with 1,138 properties sold in the last decade and a half. “It is amazing […]

Tony twosome Jerry Jacobs and Angela Perko celebrated the opening of Montecito’s latest lively literary lair, Lost Horizon, in the upper village with a bijou bash. Dozens turned out for the fun fête at the San Ysidro Road store, which shares space with Diane Stewart‘s fine art emporium. Among the bibliophile bunch were Mahri Kerley, […]

Johann Sebastian Bach was certainly ready for his closeup when the Music Academy of the West hosted a Council of Contributors alumnus recital at its cavernous Lehmann Hall with 32-year-old pianist Evan Shinners, who gained considerably notoriety last year when he performed works of the German composer for five hours daily for 37 consecutive days […]