Fêting the Firefighters
After inviting Montecito firefighters to her home a year ago during the Thomas Fire, former Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres followed up by having them come to her Burbank based studio for her popular eponymous TV talk show.
“It was quite a day,” says local realtor Diana MacFarlane, whose son, Dan is pictured third from the left.
“It was the ninth day of her 12 Days of Christmas special and everybody got wonderful gifts,” including Mexico vacations and extremely generous gift cards.
Well deserved…
PHOTO CAPTION:
P) Montecito firefighters enjoy Ellen DeGeneres’s TV talk show
Topping the Charts
Santa Barbara warbler Katy Perry is the fifth highest earning musician in the world in the newly released Forbes magazine list with $83 million, beating one-time rival Taylor Swift, who earned $3 million less.
Irish rockers, U2, led the list with a staggering $118 million, beating out Coldplay with a commendable $115.5 million.
British singer Ed Sheeran, 27, earned $110 million, while Bruno Mars was fourth with $100 million.
Honoring Mandela
Montecito broadcasting titan Oprah Winfrey was in South Africa for a charity concert honoring the late president Nelson Mandela, a century after his birth.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell, Gwyneth Paltrow‘s ex, Coldplay rocker Chris Martin, and British musician Bob Geldof were at the FNB stadium in Johannesburg for the laudatory Global Citizen event.
Other guests included Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Usher, Pharrell Williams, Trevor Noah, and Dave Chappelle.
In Bed with Gwyneth
Newly married Montecito actress Gwyneth Paltrow has shared her tips for getting hot and heavy under the sheets, putting together a “dirty weekend” sex kit for her lifestyle brand Goop.
The Oscar winner, 46, who tied the knot with TV producer Brad Falchuk, 47, in September, has treated readers to a helpful guide worth $4,277 featuring a vegan lubricant, massage oil, and a 24 karat gold sex toy.
The Maude Rise condoms ten-pack, which is 100 percent latex, is the most affordable item on the list, costing a mere $12.
Dazzling Digs
Oscar winner Kevin Costner, whose beach house in Carpinteria is near Star Wars producer George Lucas and TV talk show host Conan O’Brien, is renting out his Aspen, Colorado, compound – for a price.
The 160-acre spread, with a main house and two guest houses, amid the forest, lake, and a river, sleeps 34 and is now available for $30,000 a night.
This isn’t the first time the property, which also boasts three hot tubs and a sledding hill, has been available for rental.
Last year Kevin offered it for lease at $650,000 per month.
His ten-acre slice of coastal Carpinteria, just a tiara’s toss from his other oceanside estate, hit the market last year with an initial price of $60 million. It has now been reduced to $49 million.
Opulent Nuptials
Montecito art and car collector Michael Hammer‘s actress daughter-in -law, Elizabeth Chambers, and her daughter, Harper, 4, flew to India for the lavish nuptials of rocker Nick Jonas, 26, to actress Priyanka Chopra, 36, at the luxurious Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
The three-day extravaganza at India’s last living palace, boasts 347 rooms and was lit by laser lights for the extravagant occasion.
Jonas, as is Indian custom, arrived on an elephant dressed like a king, wearing a turban and holding a sword, while the bride wore a Ralph Lauren custom-made gown. After a local ceremony, the twosome had a Christian ceremony presided over by the groom’s pastor father, Paul Kevin Jonas.
The couple got engaged with Jonas proposing with a large Tiffany diamond ring on his wife’s 36th birthday in London last July after just a few months of dating.
