Monte ito Miscellany

30 May – 6 June 2013MONTECITO JOURNAL6 • THE VOICE OF THE VILLAGE •

TV host and comedienne Ellen DeGeneres is back in the hood!

Ellen, who sold her former Montecito 1926 George Washington Smith mansion, just a tiara’s toss or two from Lotusland, to Google hon-cho Eric Schmidt in 2007 for $20 mil-lion, has splashed out $26.5 million on top international interior design-er John Saladino’s most impressive 13-acre pad, Villa di Lemma, which he wrote about in a hefty bestselling cof-fee table tome, Villa, in 2009.

She also snapped up a 3.8-acre property next door for $2.5 million, I’m reliably informed, presumably for privacy, given Saladino’s 79-year-old Mediterranean-style estate boasts a quarter of a mile long driveway, total-ly obscuring the six-bedroom, six-full bath property, boasting nine fireplac-es, from the road.

Ellen’s former Spanish colonial-style 5,000-sq-ft four-acre home in our rarefied enclave had four bedrooms and four and a half baths, with a 1,300-sq-ft master suite, was bought for around $16 million and originally put on the market a year later for $24 million.

But she still made a handsome prof-it of around $4 million on the deal with Schmidt, 58, who is currently

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ellen’s new Pad

Monte ito Miscellany

by Richard Mineards

Richard covered the Royal Family for Britain’s Daily Mirror and Daily Mail before moving to New York to write for Rupert Murdoch’s newly launched Star magazine in 1978; Richard later wrote for New York magazine’s “Intelligencer”. He continues to make regular appearances on CBS, ABC, and CNN, and moved to Montecito six years ago.

miscellany Page 20

Ellen DeGeneres buys former John Saladino estate

30 May – 6 June 2013MONTECITO JOURNAL20 • The Voice of the Village •

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worth around $6.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Saladino totally restored his 1934 property over a three-year period after originally seeing it in 2001, including installing 14,000 18th century roof tiles shipped in from Italy and planting 2,000 trees. It also has a motor court with antique Venetian statues and one room has a bath made from an antique Roman sarcophagus.

It was put on the market three years ago for $24.5 million, but was eventu-ally bought 14 months ago for around $16 million by Texas tycoon Tom Sturgess and his wife, Heather, who formerly owned a smaller property on Channel Drive near hotel magnate Ty Warner and also built up large land holdings in New Zealand after moving there in 1996. He was also on the board of Goldman Sachs in the antipodes.

Having made around $10 million in just over a year, the Sturgesses intend to stay in Montecito and are currently searching for another pad, I’m told by friends.

Ellen, 55, who is married to actress Portia de Rossi, sold her Beverly Hills compound comprising four proper-ties, including a 9,200-sq-ft house, on three acres to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest for $37 million after putting it on the market for $49 million in May last year.

Just three months later she sold another property, actor Brad Pitt’s former Malibu home for $13 million, making around $1 million on the deal.

The tony twosome now have a cozi-er $18 million single story 8,500-sq-ft four-bedroom, six-bathroom contem-porary house, complete with a tree in the living room, in the Trousdale Estates area of Beverly Hills.

Having been a guest for dinner at Villa di Lemma a number of times, I can assure her she will certainly be getting the best of the architecture of the Golden Age of the 1920s combined with the comfort and technology of the 21st century.

“Ellen has had her eye on the prop-erty for quite some time, so the timing was right,” says my man with the martini. “It also gives her total pri-vacy, something she did not get in her old home in Beverly Hills, with tour

buses constantly coming by and end-less nosey parkers.”

Saladino is now living in Birnam Wood.

Stay tuned...

Katy Buys the BlockSanta Barbara singer Katy Perry

won’t have to worry about getting along with her neighbors at her new Hollywood Hills home.

The 28-year-old former Dos Pueblos High student has invested her hard-earned money in two adjacent proper-ties, including a contemporary-style five-bedroom, three-bathroom home consisting of 2,916-sq-ft of living space.

But the $11.5 million purchase from oil heiress Aileen Getty also includes a 3,884-sq-ft Spanish-style home on the lot next door with three bedrooms and three and a half baths.

The main home is described as a mid-20th century adobe built in 1953. It features an open floor plan and floor-to-ceiling walls of windows.

One of the properties was owned by TV talk show host Conan O’Brien’s bandleader, Max Weinberg, and actor Jake Gyllenhaal’s parents.

Katy sold a 8,835-sq-ft seven-bed-room, 11-bath Spanish-style mansion on three acres she shared with her ex-husband, British comedian Russell Brand, last month for $7 million. The couple bought it two years earlier for $6.5 million.

She split from singer John Mayer in March and is reportedly now keep-ing company with 31-year-old talent agent, Michael Kives.

Watch this space...

Charles’ Memoirs Charles Freericks, who made it big

in Hollywood developing network TV shows, has not forgotten his less glit-tering upbringing in Paramus, New Jersey.

In his new book, My Imaginary Friend Was Too Cool to Hang Out With Me, Charles, whose mother lives in our Eden by the Beach, relates a come-dic look at growing up in the Bergen County town of 25,000, just 17 miles from Manhattan, but a world away for most of the residents.

“It’s a collection of stories about one boy’s amazing ability to make the

worst choices possible time and time again and yet come out of it smiling, happy and healthy,” he explained at a bijou book bash at Tecolote, the lively literary lair in the Upper Village.

“It took me five years on and off to put together. Memories come and go. You just dig deeper.”

Having worked at NBC, CBS and, finally, New Line Cinema, he has writ-ten a number of produced plays and three other tomes, including a non-fiction read on railroads.

Charles, who lives in Santa Monica, is now working on a new play, I Can’t Believe You Took Me Seriously...

Tony Comes to TownIt was undoubtedly one of the toni-

est events ever held at the Montecito Country Club when veteran crooner Tony Bennett captivated an audience of 230 well heeled guests and raised a hefty $375,000 to benefit UCSB’s Campaign for Arts & Lectures, which hopes to garner $20 million for an endowment for the popular program.

Bennett, who has won 17 Grammy awards and sold more than 50 million records worldwide, was in top form at the sold-out event, singing for 75 minutes with his talented quartet.

At the age of 86, his voice, like Scotch whisky, seems to get better with age, as he sang old favorites like “Because of You,” “Rags to Riches,” and, of course, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

Bennett also left his art in Montecito, when a watercolor of Rome he paint-ed under his real name Anthony Benedetto – Oprah Winfrey owns one of his works commissioned by the United Nations – was snapped up in an auction for $24,000 by local dynam-ic duo Robert and Margo Feinberg.

Other items sold off by auctioneers Dan Burnham and Eric Sonquist included a banjo signed by Steve Martin and six box seats to his concert at the Hollywood Bowl, which went for $8,000, a cello signed by Yo-Yo Ma, a frequent performer at the Granada, which sold for $18,000, and a nine-day National Geographic expedition for two to Cuba, which was bought for $13,000.

“Wasn’t Tony quite superb?” gushed premier table sponsor, Leslie Ridley-Tree, who joined Mike and Anne Towbes, Robert and Gretchen Lieff, Morrie and Irma Jurkowitz, Sara Miller McCune, Marcy Carsey,

miscellany (Continued from page 6)

New York interior designer John Saladino

Warbler Katy Perry buys new $11.5 million Hollywood home

Author Charles Freericks pens latest book

30 May – 6 June 2013 MONTECITO JOURNAL 21

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John Franklin, Norma Hernandez, Dana Petersen, Laurie Leighty, and Becky Johnson

Eric and Nina Phillips, BrianFrederick, Rich and Luci Janssen, Tom Kenny and Susan McMillan, and Jim and Stephanie Sokolove in spreading their largesse.

Other guests at the fabulous fete included Larry and Nancy Koppelman, Dick and Noelle Wolf, Tab Hunter and Allan Glaser, Jeffand Hollye Jacobs, Richard and Annette Caleel, Pat and Ursula Nesbitt, Arlene Montesano, Marloweand Arlyn Goldsby, Betty Stephensand Lindsay Fisher, Nina Terzian, Celesta Billeci, Carla Hahn, Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin, and Henry and Dilling Yang...

Taste of the NationMore than 600 gourmands and

oenophiles packed the grounds of the Montecito Country Club for the sixth annual Taste of the Nation, organized by Share Our Strength, which raised around $100,000, benefitting the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County and the United Boys & Girls Club, among others.

The tony culinary event, chaired by supermodel Tatjana Patitz and emceed by K-Lite radio host Catherine Remak, featured more than 50 of the city’s top food and wine purveyors,

miscellany Page 26

Catherine Remak, Lori Gaskin, The Lark chef Jason Paluska and Sarafina Brown from Fairview Gardens Education Farm at Taste of the Nation (photo credit: Trinity Wheeler Photography)

30 May – 6 June 2013MONTECITO JOURNAL26 • The Voice of the Village •

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including a community cooking com-petition with three teams compris-ing a chef, a prominent community leader and a junior high student from Fairview Gardens’ internship pro-gram.

The winners were Bacara chef David Reardon, SB fire captain Michael Hoose and intern Druien Barton.

Since 1988 Taste of the Nation has raised more than $80 million, includ-ing hundreds of thousands in Santa Barbara alone.

Food for thought, indeed...

They Showed Them Their LoveVolunteers raising funds for the

Foundation for Santa Barbara City College had good reason to celebrate.

The third annual campaign “Show Us Your Love,” which ran for six weeks until the end of April, raised more than $1 million to help with scholarships, book grants, internships and childcare.

“It’s easily a record,” said Vanessa Patterson, executive director, as some 135 volunteers marked their success at the college’s gourmet dining room. “We had thousands of donors, from $11 to $150,000.

“Our donor base has increased by

five hundred percent to five thousand people. Just two years ago is was only nine hundred.”

Last year the Campaign for Student Success raised around $800,000.

Most impressive...

Her Side of the StoryEurydice, staged by UCSB’s

Department of Theater & Dance, is a decidedly different take on the age old Greek tragedy dating back to Virgil, concentrating on the female aspect of the myth rather than her partner Orpheus.

Playwright Sarah Ruhl’s 2004 contemporary adaptation, as direct-ed by Jeff Mills – better known in Santa Barbara for his work with the BOXTALES Theatre Company – pro-vides a highly theatrical, often come-dic production with a simultaneous childlike and sensual lord of the underworld and his Chorus of Stones.

Scenic designer Nayna Ramey has done a spectacular job, with a small elevator to transport the players from one land to another, and even a River Styx with free flowing water on the stage at the Hatlen Theater.

Megan Caniglia is well up to par as the principal player, as are Julian Remulla as Orpheus and Michael Morgan as Eurydice’s father.

Christopher Costanzo as the lord is a hoot appearing on stage dressed as a circus clown riding a child’s tricycle and even on stilts, and is ably sup-ported by Madelyn Robinson, Ian Elliott and Alice Trew as the stones, with Christine Buccelli as the singer accompanied by the Young Artists String Quartet, with arrangements from Santa Barbara musician and composer Jim Connolly.

This is a Eurydice for the ages!The show runs through Saturday...

Focus on BachFans of Bach were out in force for a

candlelight concert by the West Coast Chamber Orchestra at the First United Methodist Church.

Conducted by founder Christopher Story and relative newcomer, Michael

Shasberger, a professor of music at Westmont College, the 27-year-old ensemble kicked off the performance with Air on the G String followed by Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor with soloist Tamsen Beseke, who works with the Los Angeles Opera and L.A. Master Chorale orchestras.

The second half began with the Flute Concerto in A Minor with Shasberger at the helm and Sheridon Stokes, who played the famous penny whistle solo from the Titanic song “My Heart Will Go On” with Celine Dion, and wrapped with Vivaldi’s Gloria for Choir and Orchestra.

An evening to savor...

Fiesta Foundation Fete

Aviation executive Chris Toomey, who is being honored by the John E. Profant Foundation for Arts at its 13th annual Fiesta Finale at the El Paseo restaurant in August, hosted a bash at his charming Toro Canyon colonial-style home for supporters of the organization.

Over the past decade the foundation has given out more than $250,000 to Santa Barbara residents, including 160 fine arts scholarships.

“It’s a great cause and I’ve always enjoyed working with it,” says Chris, who hails from Boston, as his new New England design house attested.

Among the 75 guests digging into the pizza cooked by Via Vai chef Juanita Martinez, including Marie

and Mignonne Profant, were Bruce and Pat Hinds, Ralph and Diana MacFarlane, Nina Terzian, John and Pat Klink, Mary Collier, Christine Winters and Terry Rykin.

A 2012 Teen Star finalist Megan Wilson, accompanied by pianist Renee Hamaty, entertained, singing works from Puccini and Etta James...

Art in the Funk ZoneArt aficionados invaded the Funk

Zone at the weekend when five galler-ies joined forces for a group opening at their respective locations, spear-headed by MichaelKate and the Arts Fund Gallery.

The latter hosted the annual Teen Arts Mentorship Group exhibition featuring more than 50 paintings, photographs and bronze sculptures, highlighting the diverse talents of 30 high school students who participated in four mentorship classes this spring taught by local artists, including Michael Irwin, Philip Van Nostrand, Nevin Littlehale and Elizabeth Schwyzer.

Montecito painter Thomas Van Stein, known for his moonscapes, joined with another local artist, John Carlander, at the MichaelKate space for “Bright Lines and the Void,” a show exploring contrasts in compo-sition, approach and process. Two other West Coast artists, Hilary Baker from L.A. and Norman Lundin from Seattle, also participated in the exhib-it...

Sightings: Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman and his wife, Genevieve, checking out the crowd at Lucky’s... Sopranos star Michael Imperioli grab-bing a sandwich at the Three Pickles on East Canon Perdido... Veteran actor Stuart Whitman chatting with friends at Café Del Sol

Pip! Pip! for now

Readers with tips, sightings and amusing items for Richard’s column should e-mail him at richardmin [email protected] or send invita-tions or other correspondence to the Journal •MJ

miscellany (Continued from page 21)

Neil Kreisel, Maddy Jacobson, Vanessa Patterson and Robyn Freeman at the Foundation for SBCC fundraiser (photo by Priscilla)

Fiesta Finale honoree Chris Toomey

Michael Shasberger shared conduct-ing duties at Bach concert (photo credit: Brad Elliott)

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Monte ito Miscellany