We know some ladies that would have LOVED to win this prize! Russian Millionaire Pays $1.29 Million At Auction For Space Expedition With Leonard DiCaprio Via NYDailyNews A trip to space with Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio raised 1.2 million euros ($1.5 million) for charity at a glitzy fundraiser at the Cannes film festival on Thursday. At the 20th annual event organized by amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, DiCaprio emerged as the mystery guest to accompany the winner on a Virgin Galactic flight into space. DiCaprio stars in the film “The Great Gatsby,” which opened the 66th Cannes film festival. Actress Sharon Stone said the winning bidder would spend three days in training with DiCaprio in New Mexico before blast-off. “You don’t get to go to outer space every day with a handsome movie star,” said Stone, dressed in a tight-fitting white dress with a gold snake trim down the back. The bidding started at 1 million euros ($1.29 million). The auction brochure for the star-studded gala held at the five-star Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France, near Cannes, said DiCaprio and the winning bidder would be among the first 1,000 people to leave the planet. The winner, Vasily Klyukin, 37, a Russian living in Monaco, said he had always wanted to go into space. “I want to be a bit daring,” Klyukin, who works in real estate, told Reuters. “I will have to give up smoking now for sure!” After the successful bid from Klyukin – who also bought a gold and diamond necklace for 400,000 euros ($517,000) – Stone announced two other tickets were available on the flight. They raised another 1.8 million euros ($2.3 million). We can think of a lot of other things that we’d rather do with $1.29 milli than be on a rocket to outer space with ol’ Leo, but hey, have fun comrade. Image via WENN Continue reading →
Driving while drunk . Applaud his dumb a**. Limo Driver Arrested For Driving Drunk According to CBS Chicago A 54-year-old man is accused of drunk driving while transporting a bus full of high school students to the prom in Glen Ellyn last evening. 23 students from Oswego East High School were on that bus, says the DuPage County Sheriff’s office. And they noticed the driver – Richard L. Madison of Palos Hills – was driving erratically. So they told their parents, who notified two off-duty Oswego police officers who were working security at the prom. Madison was arrested and charged with misdemeanor counts of DUI and reckless conduct. The DuPage County Sheriff say Madison was working for the Limos Alive Party Bus company based in Alsip. Its website says Limos Alive “will provide you with the ultimate party atmosphere to get you going along the way. Comfortable limousine style seating, laser lighting, stereo surround sound and mini bar.” It was Oswego east high school’s senior prom. and Kelsey Dano was expecting the night of her life. Instead, what she got, was the ride of her life. “I had a feeling he was drunk when we first went into the ditch,” said Kelsey Dano. Dano says 54-year-old Richard Madison drove into a ditch just as he was leaving the Oswego subdivision where he picked up 24 students. “We went out of the subdivision, but he cut through multiple subdivisions just to get onto the main raid and then he hopped over two medians,” said Dano. Madison was arrested when the group finally arrived at the prom site, Abbidington Banquets near Glen Ellyn, a 45-minute trip that took 75 minutes instead. “We got there, we got out of the bus or whatever, he kind of was stumbling and his eyes were really red,” said Dano. So Kelsey said she knew he was drunk when he drove into the ditch? Yea that would be our first clue too sweetie. Continue reading →
SMH! Kobe please handle your scandal behind close doors. It’s always sad when families fight especially in the public eye. Kobe Bryant’s Parents Say Son Is A Liar According to TMZ Kobe Bryant’s parents have turned their backs on their son — claiming Kobe was LYING when he accused his mother of stealing more than a million dollars worth of his basketball memorabilia … and putting it up for auction, TMZ has learned. Kobe’s mom and dad — Pamela and Joe — both filed sworn declarations in the legal dispute between Kobe and Goldin Auctions, the auction house planning to sell off the valuable stuff … insisting Kobe willingly gave his mother the items in question … and it’s her right to sell them. According to Kobe’s dad, Kobe gave his mother the memorabilia over the years, telling her, “Here mom, these are for you.” Kobe’s mom insists she never took anything from him without permission. Even Kobe’s grandma has filed a declaration in support of Pamela. Kobe’s sister Sharia Washington, on the other hand, filed a declaration claiming their mother has been conspiring to sell Kobe’s stuff for years … telling her the family could profit greatly from Kobe’s stardom. Who’s lying? As we reported, Kobe has countersued, claiming his mother stole the memorabilia from his house. He wants to stop Goldin from selling the items and to have them returned to him. A judge has blocked the auction, but only for now. It’s kind of funny how Kobe’s entire family has turned against him. Hmm.. We bet somewhere Vanessa is smiling from ear to ear. Continue reading →
Lauren Conrad, who turns 27 today, is the exception, not the rule, in today’s celeb culture. After achieving fame at a young age, she chose to scale back. Choosing to focus on her “real” life and branch out career-wise from reality TV, The Hills star has led a life largely under the radar for a few years now. She’s topped the N.Y. Times Bestseller List and achieved success as a celebrity fashion designer, but seems to content to live a lower-profile life. More power to her for that. Leave a comment with your birthday greetings for one of our favorite celebs, and follow the jump for some classic Lauren Conrad photos and Hills clips … Lauren Conrad Hills Montage LC Reading Lauren Conrad on Letterman The Hills Season 5 Trailer
Crystal Harris’ wedding dress, worn during her New Year’s Eve nuptials with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, is ready to hit the auction block for charity. “I am auctioning my wedding dress with @charitybuzz to help raise money for lymphoma in memory of Mary,” the Playmate tweeted Thursday. Mary is, of course, Hef’s secretary Mary O’Connor , who passed away in January. She was a great friend (and “Mansion Mom”) to the girls for 40 years. According to Crystal Harris , Mary even played a key role in their reconciliation after she went all Runaway Bride on him during their first wedding attempt. According to a statement from Charity Buzz, Harris’ partner in the venture: “Crystal is donating this dress in memory of her good friend, Mary O’Connor.” “Mary was Hugh Hefner’s longtime assistant of 40 years, and is credited with helping Crystal reconcile with Hef last year, ultimately leading to their recent wedding.” “Money raised will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in Mary’s name.” Bids for the 26-year-old Harris’ gorgeous strapless, floor-length mermaid-style, soft pink Romona Keveza gown and Aruna Seth shoes will start at $1,000. The auction is set to end on February 11.
A Gallery Of Blue Ivy’s Photos One year ago today, the world was captivated by the announcement that Jayonce’s firstborn Blue Ivy Carter touched down from her Illuminati villa. It was only a few days later that the first pics of the first lady of showbiz surfaced on the Internet. Now, on her first birthday, we look back at all the pics of the infamous Blue we were able to see so far. Take a look and go awwww.
Remember them love letters we told you Mick Jagger’s former black boo thang sold for a fortune last month? Apparently the rocker is all in a rage at Marsha Hunt over having his private thoughts become so public. But it’s not the first time he’s gotten heated with Hunt, the former couple were at odds for a number of years over his unwillingness to acknowledge or support his daughter Karis. The Daily Mail did a thorough break down of the drama: But it was this auction that reopened old wounds with Mick, who is said to be furious that his private thoughts have been sold to the highest bidder. American Miss Hunt, who now lives in a dilapidated house in rural France that urgently requires repairs, candidly admits she sold the letters to a mystery collector because she needs the money. ‘I’m broke,’ she says. ‘Anyone who has the impression that I have money knows nothing about me. I had friends who came to visit from Pennsylvania and there was no electricity in the house because the bill had been too high. ‘One of my friends said: “Surely you’ve got something you could sell?” ’ Back in the late Sixties, Mick announced his affair with Miss Hunt in typically public — if heartless — fashion. Two days after the band’s ex-guitarist Brian Jones was found dead in the swimming pool of his Sussex home, the Rolling Stones played a tribute concert to him in front of 250,000 people in London’s Hyde Park. This being Mick, the solemnity of the occasion on July 5, 1969, would not be allowed to interfere with his raging libido. For sitting in the crowd, just yards from his live-in girlfriend of three years, Marianne Faithfull, was singer Marsha, the latest celebrity notch on the Jagger bedpost. And, as if inviting both rivals for his affection was not brazen enough, Mick tactlessly, and tastelessly, opened the musical part of the show by belting out a cover version of the rock song I’m Yours And I’m Hers. Its not-so-hidden-meaning spoke volumes about Jagger’s monumental ego and his callously flippant approach to his female conquests. Certainly, it was a cruel public humiliation for the 22-year-old Marianne, given that she — along with half of London — was already well aware that her singer boyfriend was cheating on her with Hunt. But Faithfull wasn’t giving up so easily, she flew to Australia to be by his side and after he rejected her she tried killing herself by taking barbiturates. She was in a coma for several days, during which Mick stayed busy writing letters to Marsha Hunt. Some of the letters, which were included in the auction last month, were even written on headed hotel notepaper in the room at the city’s Chevron hotel, where Miss Faithfull had tried to kill herself days earlier. Jagger had first spotted Miss Hunt when she appeared as the female lead in the controversial musical Hair. Mick, who had developed a taste for beautiful black girls, got his PA to contact Marsha to ask her to appear on the cover of the Stones’ new single, Honky Tonk Women, dressed as a tart. She refused, but a few nights later, Mick turned up at her flat in London’s Bloomsbury. Within days their clandestine affair was in full swing. Born into a poor family in Philadelphia, Marsha had studied at the prestigious Berkeley University in California, before coming to Britain in 1966 at the age of 20. Her stunning looks quickly attracted a string of famous suitors, including Marc Bolan and her co-star in Hair, Paul Nicholas. Jagger, in a testament to those politically incorrect times, nicknamed his new lover Miss Fuzzy. And, while in Australia the following year, it was for her that he wrote Brown Sugar — his provocative eulogy to interracial sex and drugs that he had crudely originally titled Black P***y. Within months, his faltering relationship with Marianne Faithfull was over and Mick moved Marsha into his house overlooking the Thames on Chelsea embankment. Already missing Marianne’s son, Nicholas, to whom he had become a surrogate father, he took Marsha out to Mr Chow restaurant in Knightsbridge, where he asked her to have his child. She quickly became pregnant and a misty-eyed Jagger talked about wanting a son, whom he had decided, in typical flower-power fashion, to call Midnight Dream. The social-climbing Jumpin’ Jack Flash also decided he would send the boy to Eton. But within three months, Jagger was already going cold on the relationship — and was casting his roving eye over the latest of a carousel of girls he had marked down to share his bed. Stung by Mick’s coolness towards her, Marsha moved out. He wasted no time in installing another beautiful American — 22-year-old Californian model Catherine James into his Chelsea home. Despite Marsha carrying his child, practically all references to her and the baby were quickly airbrushed out of his life. Catherine James told me: ‘When I moved into Mick’s house, I knew about Marsha, but his relationship with her was already over. It didn’t seem a big deal to him. He just mentioned that she was a girl he had met who had got pregnant. He said he wasn’t in love with her, but she was very talented. ‘I felt he was not encumbered by anything, not by Marsha or the baby. He was young, and I didn’t get the impression he was thinking seriously about becoming a father and being part of this child’s life.’ Hit the flip for more details.
Norman Rockwell’s World War Two painting “Willie Gillis Food Package from Home” fetched $2.8 million from a private buyer at an auction in Chicago on Saturday, the auction house said. The winning bid for the iconic artwork was less than the up to $5 million estimated ahead of the auction, said Emily Betts Susanin, director of marketing and communications for Susanin’s Auctions in Chicago. But it was “great news” nonetheless, she said, adding that no other painting had ever fetched more at a Ch
The Japanese collector who purchased Sam’s upright piano from Casablanca ‘s Parisian flashback for just $154,000 in 1988 is putting the piece of cinematic history up for auction. And as time goes by, movie memorabilia appreciates: On the auction block in December, the Casablanca piano could sell for as much as $1.2 million. Per THR and Gothamist , the piano from one of cinema’s most romantic films of all time appears in the Paris flashback scene as Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) prepare to part ways and he toasts, “Here’s looking at you, kid.” Just in time for Casablanca ‘s 70th anniversary , the piano is expected to sell via Sotheby’s on December 14 for “somewhere between $800,000 and $1.2 million.” A hefty price tag for most folks, but for the billionaire romantic out there it’s the perfect conversation piece for raising a glass, pulling a date close, and whispering “Is that cannon fire, or is it my heart pounding?” It could even be used as a (rather expensive) prop for Casablanca 2 … [ THR , Gothamist ]
The time is ripe for a James Bond auction. The latest in the franchise, Skyfall , heads to North American theaters in early November and the 50th anniversary of 007 is a key slot for a memorabilia sale. Posters from every Bond pic, stills, lobby cards, scripts and other memorables will hit the auction block and in December and is expected to take in over $200K. But the loot may pail in comparison to an earlier sale of Bond tidbits, including a bathing suit worn by 007’s latest incarnation, Daniel Craig . One of the centerpieces of the planned sale of Bond memorabilia is a rare From Russia With Love special advance Leicester Square world-premiere poster from 1963, according to Reuters. It is one of only a handful known to exist and it’s expected to nab $10,000 – $15,000. Certainly not bad, though not quite the tidy sum swimming trunks worn by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale fetched at a separate London auction . Judi Dench presented the swimming costume (as the Brits call it) and joked they were “unwashed,” selling for a cool $72,000. The latest items going under the hammer were assembled by a private British collector over 25 years, noted the auction house’s head Joe Maddalena. “He wanted to build the most comprehensive James Bond movie poster collection,” he said. “It’s really a mind-boggling collection.” Maddalena pointed out a yellow Dr. No silkscreen on linen poster from 1962 that is thought to be the very first 007 film poster ever to appear to the public. Other highlights going on sale is a rare U.K. advance for Goldfinger and a 1964 British Thunderball poster from 1965. They’re expected to sell for $4,000 – $6,000, though Maddalena noted that he tries to keep estimates “conservative.” The auction will take place n Los Angeles December 15 and 16 and will include hundreds of other Hollywood-themed memorabilia aside from Bond. Auctions have reaped huge sums in past sales. Marilyn Monroe’s “subway” dress from The Seven Year Itch sold for a whopping $5.5 million, while Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot dress from My Fair Lady grabbed $4.4 million. [ Source: Reuters ]
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