Tag archives: Christine Baumgartner

A Smash of Wind and Brass
By Richard Mineards   |   February 11, 2025

It was the perfect combination when the 30-year-old Boston Brass and three-time Grammy-nominated Imani Winds performed at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lecture series. Adventurous programming and dynamic playing is the wind quintet’s trademark; playing Paquito D’Rivera’s “Selections from Aires Tropicales” and even Stevie Wonder […]

TMZ at Maison Mineards
By Richard Mineards   |   March 5, 2024

Yours truly was front and center on TMZ Investigates on Fox regarding Carpinteria actor Kevin Costner’s divorce war with his wife Christine Baumgartner. A crew of seven visited Maison Mineards Montecito two weeks back to shoot a half hour interview with TMZ founder Harvey Levin, who was on Zoom from Los Angeles. The hour-long show […]

Harpsichord in the Hall
By Richard Mineards   |   February 27, 2024

Camerata Pacifica debuted its latest import-flutist Sébastian Jacot in a most impressive concert at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall, with a program including music by Bach, Haydn, and Jolivet. Geneva-born Jacot, who began studying music at the age of six, also holds the position as principal flute at the prestigious Berliner Philharmoniker. He plays a […]

Harry and Meghan to the Rescue
By Richard Mineards   |   January 23, 2024

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have adopted one of former TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres’ ailing chicken, which was being bullied at her $25 million Montecito estate, just a five-minute drive from the Sussexes $14.5 million mansion in Riven Rock. Ellen, 65, updated her 139 million Instagram followers on the progress of Sinkie, so […]

What’s the Cost of Happiness?
By Richard Mineards   |   September 26, 2023

Santa Barbara, not surprisingly, is the most expensive city to be happy in the U.S. An Australian-based money exchange service, S Money, has ranked the most costly cities in America based on data from a 2018 Purdue University study on the relationship between happiness and income to find the price of happiness in every metropolis. […]

Remembering Paul
By Richard Mineards   |   September 19, 2023

It has been almost 10 years since Santa Barbara’s Paul Walker died in a tragic car accident, but the pain of his passing still impacts his younger actor brother Cody just days before what would have been his 50th birthday. The Fast & Furious star died in 2013 aged 40 after a Porsche he was […]

More Help to Maui
By Richard Mineards   |   September 12, 2023

In other Maui news, former TV talk-show titan Oprah Winfrey, 69, has teamed up with actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, 51, in committing $10 million to make direct payments to the Hawaiian island of Maui devastated by wildfires. The People’s Fund of Maui will give $1,200 to adults not being able to return to their […]

Access Denied
By Richard Mineards   |   September 5, 2023

Meghan Markle’s estranged father Thomas is refuting reports he approves of photographer Ken Larsen’s celebrity sightseeing tours in Los Angeles and Montecito, which will include Prince Harry’s Riven Rock estate. Thomas, 79, blasts the bus tour – $1,400 for a group of six – as “tacky” and says he is not included in any way […]

Production in Progress
By Richard Mineards   |   August 22, 2023

Prince Harry and his actress wife Meghan Markle are planning a production of Canadian novelist Carley Fortune’s romance Meet Me at the Lake. The New York Times bestseller, Fortune’s second novel is a story about two long lost lovers whose paths cross by chance a decade after first meeting. Netflix or the Sussexes paid around […]

Photographer Takes Flight
By Richard Mineards   |   August 8, 2023

Ubiquitous photographer David Bazemore, a shutterbug and videographer in our Eden by the Beach for 26 years, has become an FAA certified unmanned aircraft pilot. The certification means David can used a DJI Air 2S drone, which can film stunning 5.4k video and can snap 20-megapixel photos. “If a client’s imagination is ready to take […]

Fine Design in Theater
By Richard Mineards   |   August 1, 2023

My item last week on the historic Lobero Theatre being chosen as one of the world’s 11 most beautiful by society glossy Town & Country prompted a call from Montecito philanthropist Anne Towbes saying that another of the theaters on the list, Steinmetz Hall in Orlando, Florida, was designed by Montecito architectBarton Myers, 88. The […]

Past Schoolmate Unlikely to Attend Class Reunion
By Richard Mineards   |   July 25, 2023

Montecito actor Billy Baldwin got a considerable shock with a blast from the past this week. He has revealed he went to school with accused New York mass murderer Rex Heuermann, 59, the alleged serial killer of 10 women on a barren stretch of Long Island coastline nearly 13 years ago, who was snared by […]

A Titanic Estate
By Richard Mineards   |   July 18, 2023

Mega director James Cameron and his wife, Suzy, are selling their longtime oceanfront home on the Gaviota Coast for a titanic $33 million. The roughly 100-acre property was purchased in 1999 for $4.37 million, according to records. Cameron, 68, wrote the blockbuster movie Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time, at the ranch. He […]

Movie in the Works
By Richard Mineards   |   July 11, 2023

Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner, 78, is coming to the big screen, in a comedy, no less. America’s favorite plushies are finally getting the movie and TV treatment with The Beanie Bubble, which shines a light on the owner of the Biltmore and the San Ysidro Ranch, the tycoon behind the collection craze from the […]

Attorneys’ Fees Continue
By Richard Mineards   |   June 27, 2023

Kevin Costner’s divorce from estranged wife Christine Baumgartner would appear to be getting more acrimonious by the day with claims the Oscar winner is now “homeless,” she splurged $95,000 on his credit card, and has a restraining order against him. The Carpinteria-based actor’s attorneys claim they have made “multiple offers” to get his wife to […]

A Bacharach Boogie
By Richard Mineards   |   May 16, 2023

Songwriting legend Burt Bacharach, who died in Los Angeles in February at the age of 94, was commemorated in energized fashion when the Brooklyn, New York-based Mark Morris Dance Company performed to his many hits at the Granada, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. The “Look of Love” show, a music collaboration […]