All lot of juicy Celebrity Real Estate News stories have happened in 2009 and this is our top 3 picks for 2009. Celebrity Real Estate News courtesy of Zillow.com has been our Real Estate Round Up listeners and our weekly newsletter favorite topics for 2009.
Best of Celebrity News for 2009
3. Obama Family Voted Most Desirable Celebrity Neighbor for 2010
If you’re a regular listener to our show, you know how much I love our celebrity real estate and all the accompanying eye candy. This week I have the results of the third annual Celebrity Neighbor Survey. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, asks more than 2,000 U.S. Adults who they would most like to be their neighbor, and who they wouldn’t want to share a fence with.
This year, the Obama family was voted the most desirable celebrity neighbor(s) for 2010. Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi, and Sarah Palin tied for second place. However, not all ‘celebrities’ make good neighbors. “Octomom” Nadya Suleman was named the least desirable neighbor of 2009, followed closely by Jon and Kate Gosselin.
In light of recent news, adults appear to be indecisive about whether or not professional golfer Tiger Woods would make a good neighbor. Three percent of adults found him to be a desirable neighbor for 2010, while only slightly more (4%) thought he was the worst neighbor of 2009. The same confusion surrounds Sarah Palin, who last year was ranked number one on the most desirable list. This year, while 12% thought Palin to be a desirable neighbor for 2010, 11% voted her as the worst neighbor of 2009 – ranking her near the top of both lists simultaneously.
File this one under real estate oddities. In one of the more bizarre real estate stories comes “The Brangelina,” a home built in Edmond, OK, that was done as a tribute to the domestic bliss of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
It is a 4,000 sq ft, $500,000 house built near Pitt’s birthplace in Oklahoma City. The clincher of this story is the creation of a life-size sculpture of Pitt and Jolie in a passionate embrace titled “Brangelina Forever” This statue reportedly contains crushed glass from the wine glasses Pitt and Jolie drank from during their first meeting on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The sculpture is being attached to the ceiling of the home’s master bedroom “… to inspire a ’sexual healing’ for the room’s occupants.” Want to buy the home? It comes with a proviso that the owner “…must offer honorary ownership to Pitt and Jolie and put them up every time they come to town to visit Pitt’s grandmother.”
When Marilyn Monroe was laid to rest in crypt #24 at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park, the real estate around her became instantly valuable. Even Playboy king Hugh Hefner has claimed a space next to her.
Years ago, Monroe’s deeply devoted former husband, baseball great Joe DiMaggio, purchased two crypts near Marilyn: one directly above and another kitty-corner to Monroe’s. But when DiMaggio and Monroe divorced in 1954, DiMaggio sold the two crypts to a friend of his, Richard Posner. Posner didn’t realize the purchase he made would be as lucrative as it is since Monroe’s celebrity status wasn’t fully realized at that point; she died of an overdose in 1962.
When Posner died in 1986, he had a wish that his wife, Elsie, fulfilled:
“He said, ‘If I croak, if you don’t put me upside down over Marilyn, I’ll haunt you the rest of my life.’ “
So there lies Posner for the past 23 years — lying face down above Marilyn, his wish fulfilled. However, that will soon change. Elsie would like to sell the crypt where her husband is entombed and move him to the crypt next door — the one reserved for her — and sell his crypt on eBay for a starting bid of $500,000. Bidding ends on Aug. 24 at noon and so far, 18 bids have come in with the top bid $4.5 million.
According to the LA Times, Elsie would like to take the money from the auction and pay off the $1.6-million mortgage on her Beverly Hills home so she can “… leave it free and clear for my kids.”
Elsie doesn’t need space on “the wall” since her wish is to be cremated. Bidding ended at 4.6 million for the highly sought after crypt but the supposed buyer from Japan backed out due to “paying problems”. No further update at this time.
