MADONNA HOUSE-HUNTING IN WELLINGTON
0 Comments | Palm Beach Post, Mar 18, 2009 | by Jose Lambiet’s
Get ready to see a lot more of Madonna, Wellington!
A real estate source in the village tells me the singer of Like a Prayer and Like a Virgin recently signed a lease on a sprawling crib at Palm Beach Polo and Country Club. The one-month lease expires March 31, but the singer is so taken by Wellington’s horse country that she is looking to buy.
“She made plans to drive to several properties over the next few days,” the source said. “She’ll be looking at barns and land for her horses.”
Between now and then, the singer is expected to continue her horseback training, including jumping and polo. Madonna first spent two weeks in Wellington in January with her personal trainer. She left for New York City but returned a week later to hammer out the lease details and hang out with polo superstar and Ralph Lauren model Nacho Figueras. Figueras has been giving her polo lessons, and she has been watching his matches with Black Watch.
I’m told her lease is worth $50,000 for the month. The home, on Sheltingham Drive, once belonged to cable’s BET network co-founder Sheila Johnson. Johnson sold the 10,000-square-foot home in 2006 for $3.5 million.
The 50-year-old singer will have plenty of space, with five bedrooms and seven bathrooms.
The homeowners, Virginia-based private investor Bob Aron and his wife, Janice, couldn’t be reached for comment. But real estate records show they’ve put the home back on the market for $6.5 million. Realtor Carol Sollack, who has the listing, declined comment. All parties signed ironclad confidentiality agreements.
The Polo Club has seen its share of famous faces, including British royals Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, in the 1980s. And Madonna’s new neighbors include some of this nation’s richest, like Johnson & Johnson heiress Diana Firestone. (For a video of the home, log on to www.page2live.com.)
BEAUTY AND THE GEEK
Palm Beach billionaire Jim Clark, a techno geek icon since he founded Netscape, is getting hitched Sunday. The lucky (and now richie rich) lady is Aussie TV personality and supermodel Kristy Hinze.
He’s 64, and it’s his fourth time. She’s 29, a blushing first- time bride and the hostess of Australian TV’s version of Project Runway.
Details of the wedding are still sketchy because only a few people have been invited, including an unidentified Palm Beach moneybags. But Page Two has been told the barefoot exchange of vows will take place at sunset on a British Virgin Islands beach.
“It’s a real intimate affair,” said a source privy to some details. “He doesn’t have that many real friends and they invited her close family only.”
The bride’s sister squawked to the Australian press that six bridesmaids will be wearing whatever color they choose.
Clark and Hinze have been dating for at least four years. They share an interest in scuba and golf. It’s not unusual to spot them practicing their swing from a high spot on his ocean-to- Intracoastal property, at times coming close to hitting passing boats.
Neither of the lovebirds returned calls for comment.
Clark’s $52 million home is a Democratic Party go-to retreat. He hosted a candidate fund-raiser last year for President Obama. Ten days ago, VP Joe Biden made an unannounced weekend visit to the estate.
A BERNIE BOOK RUSH
At least somebody could end up making a buck or two off Bernie Madoff.
Book publishers.
Word in wordsmith biz is that no fewer than five publishers are feverishly working on tomes about the $65 billion Ponzi schemer.
Madoff, 70, who had nearly 600 clients in this area, pleaded guilty to ripping off investors. He was ordered held until the June sentencing. He faces up to 150 years behind bars.
Authors and researchers, meanwhile, have been scurrying around Palm Beach for weeks seeking exclusive info about the scammer.
All are competing for a release period that stretches from this fall to the summer of 2010.
Working for Penguin Books, former New York Times scribe Erin Arvedlund is trying to be the first to hand in a draft. She was, after all, the first reporter to question Madoff’s investment strategies and his numbers. That was in 2001.
“I’ve got 82 days left for this book,” she said
horse cribbing