Tag archives: Gwyneth Paltrow

The light truly is at the end of the tunnel! As an example, Santa Barbara Symphony, under longtime maestro Nir Kabaretti, invited 100 suitably vaccinated VIP supporters to the Granada, to watch the talented musicians perform Beethoven’s “Symphony No.7,” part of the season’s Triumph finale, which honors strength, perseverance, hope, creativity, and community. All of […]

Crowds of members packed the clubhouse and tiered seating at the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club when the Carpinteria equestrian facility opened its doors for the first time in more than a year after the pandemic restrictions were eased. “This really is an extraordinary moment,” said club manager David Sigman. “It couldn’t have been […]

Luz Reyes-Martin, executive director of public affairs and communications at Santa Barbara City College, and Barbara Ben-Horin, former CEO of Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara, are being honored by the local chapter of the Association for Women in Communications at the 13th annual awards presented by Women Connect4Good via Zoom later this month. Independent […]

Montecito Bank & Trust on Coast Village Road was the focal point when a parade including firefighters, law enforcement, and representatives of the community honored a Make-A-Wish Tri-Counties recipient, Carmelo Bisquera, 16, a student at Santa Barbara’s Olive Grove Charter School. Carmelo, whose hobbies are video games and reading, was born with an endocrine disorder […]

Former TV talk show titan Oprah Winfrey hosted a two-hour, hotly anticipated interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and it was worthy of a royal soap opera! It was certainly an astonishing and incendiary show, with Oprah’s Harpo Productions raking in between $7 and $9 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, and CBS […]

Now that Governor Gavin Newsom has lifted the total ban on eating out, I ventured to the historic Santa Barbara Yacht Club to dine with my trusty shutterbug Priscilla, the Montecito animal activist Gretchen Lieff and her longtime beau Miles Hartfeld. The dining room on the outside terrace overlooking the Pacific was socially gridlocked, with […]

New York auction house Christie’s is selling more than 100 pieces of rare vintage Chanel jewelry estimated to be worth more than $163,000. The 106-piece hoard of designer necklaces, earrings, brooches, and more comes from the collection of Susan Gutfreund, an interior designer and Manhattan socialite, who was a good friend of the Kate fan […]

Along with key community partners, United Way of Santa Barbara County is leading a multi-pronged response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on needs assessments conducted with dozens of community partners, the response efforts are focused on providing direct assistance to local individuals, families, and nonprofit organizations, supporting essential workers and workplaces with emergency childcare services […]

Santa Barbara Symphony’s Music Education Center is now offering virtual programming through the orchestra’s Youth Ensembles programming and the private lessons Scholarship Program. The center continues to retain and employ a teaching staff of 12 local professional musicians and two conductors to lead classes and lessons. Each year the center impacts more than 10,000 students […]

Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner has launched a new plush toy version to raise money for coronavirus relief. Ty, owner of the Biltmore and the San Ysidro Ranch, has been putting up New York medical workers free of charge at his five-star Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan, as I have chronicled in this illustrious organ. […]

On a personal note, I remember dashing Yale-graduate Peter Beard, the legendary wildlife photographer, who has died at the age of 82 after going missing from his Montauk, Long Island, home. Peter, heir to two great fortunes in tobacco and railroads, was a fixture on the New York social scene, where I first met him […]

Six-time Golden Globe nominee Rob Lowe is re-teaming with his 911: Lone Star creator Ryan Murphy to develop a project inspired by Netflix’s hit docu-series Tiger King. Longtime Montecito resident Rob, 56, has revealed they will be developing “our version of this insane story” to his 3.2 million social media followers. Rob is clearly vying […]

Santa Barbara resident and horse racing enthusiast Barry Schwartz, the co-founder of Calvin Klein Inc., is selling his sprawling equestrian estate in New York’s Westchester Country for $100 million. Spanning around 740 acres, the property is among the largest privately held estates in the county, according to Christie’s International Real Estate. Known as Stonewall Farm […]

It was a nice coincidence when former veteran KEYT-TV weatherman Alan Rose, who now works at KOAA-TV in Pueblo, Colorado, took some time off from his vacation to Palm Springs to visit Disneyland. The complex’s California Adventure was hosting its annual food and wine festival, drawing media from throughout the country, including KEYT-TV morning anchor […]

Longtime Montecito resident Dick Wolf, the creator of Law & Order and the multi-TV show Chicago franchise for NBC, has become the network’s $1 billion man. Wolf, 73, has signed a new five-year deal to stay with NBCUniversal, his studio home for the past 36 years, which includes three-year renewals for Law & Order: Special […]

An old friend, New York interior designer Geoffrey Bradfield sends me his latest 295-page tome A 21st Century Palace Asia, featuring a 250,000 sq. ft. 36-bedroom home in China on 30 acres, which took four years to complete. Geoffrey, who has worked on homes with quite stratospheric budgets in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Jakarta and Japan, […]

David Bolton, executive director of the California Missions Foundation, has a lucrative sideline with his TV production company, Cultural Global Media. One year after covering his first Super Bowl, the company has been hired again to produce the legendary NFL event from Miami, Florida, on Sunday (February 2) for millions of viewers throughout Latin America. […]

Beach Boy Mike Love‘s former Santa Barbara estate is up for sale for $6,407,000. The spectacular 2.5-acre oceanfront property boasts five dwellings totaling 5,096 sq. ft. with six bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms on 200ft. of private bluff. Built in 1920, it is set on one of the single largest oceanfront parcels in […]

Korean-American Richard O’Neill, longtime violist for Adrian Spence‘s Camerata Pacifica, is joining the internationally acclaimed lineup of the 45-year old Takacs Quartet. He will replace Geraldine Walther, who is retiring after 15 years in May. Richard, 41, joins founding member, cellist Andras Jejer, English first violinist Edward Dusinberre and American second violinist Harumi Rhodes, in […]

To La Cocina, formerly Somerset, with my snapperazzi Priscilla, to check out the made-over East Anapamu Street eatery, which now features Mexican-Californian cuisine. The charming back courtyard, filled with lavender bushes and gnarled ancient fig trees brought in by flatbed trucks from Northern California and craned in over the rooftops when it first opened after […]