Tag archives: Katy Perry

Music to our Ears
By Richard Mineards   |   April 1, 2021

Former Music Academy of the West fellow Jacopo Giacopuzzi is using his keyboard skills in his new profession as a realtor with Berkshire Hathaway in Montecito. Jacopo, who hails from Verona, Italy, moved to the Left Coast in 2013 to start his master’s degree at USC after being a fellow at the Miraflores campus. Since […]

A New Lease on Life
By Richard Mineards   |   November 19, 2020

Carpinteria twosome Ashton Kutcher, 42, and wife Mila Kunis, 37, have listed their 7,351-square-foot Beverly Hills home on half an acre for rent. The property in Hidden Valley in the mountains above Coldwater Canyon is a guard-gated community with neighbors including singers Adele and Katy Perry, and actresses Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Lawrence. The estate, […]

The Rock Star Raffle
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 12, 2020

It takes not only a surfeit of talent but also a lot of moxie to go from singing in a church choir and performing gospel music as a teen to achieving international pop stardom as a young adult. Katy Perry, born in Santa Barbara in 1984 as Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, surely has plenty of both.  […]

Welcome to the Neighborhood
By Richard Mineards   |   November 5, 2020

It was just four months ago that singer Ariana Grande splashed out $6.75 million for a Tudor-style home, The Porter House, consisting of two bedrooms and three bathrooms in two antique barns that had been imported from England, and just a month later Prince Harry and his wife Meghan spent $14.5 million for a nine-bedroom, […]

People of Montecito: Larry Nobles
By Megan Waldrep   |   September 10, 2020

What Montecito Night Will You Not Forget? I would say, when Katy Perry was here (earlier this year). We had about 40 Japanese girls, all 12 years old. They come here every year to learn English and manners, and do four or five dinners with us. Well, it was a night when all the A-listers […]

A Mighty Force
By Gretchen Lieff   |   July 30, 2020

Missing. The anguish never goes away. Missing something or someone, it’s one of the great common denominators. No matter who you are or what you have, such deep loss is irretrievable. Nineteen months ago my beloved border collie dogs, eight-year-old Daisy and her one-year-old puppy companion Diesel, disappeared from my ranch in rural San Luis […]

Leading the Way
By Richard Mineards   |   May 21, 2020

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 […]

Online Opus
By Richard Mineards   |   May 14, 2020

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 […]

Hope is Here
By Richard Mineards   |   April 30, 2020

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. […]

Family Affair
By Richard Mineards   |   April 23, 2020

My item on the death of the 7th Marquess of Bath from the coronavirus at 87 prompted a response from Santa Barbara record producer Alan Parsons. Alex Thynn‘s father, Henry, was married to Alan’s aunt, Virginia Parsons, his second marriage. “They had a daughter Silvy, so she is a genuine cousin,” says Alan, who has […]

Armie’s Back
By Richard Mineards   |   April 16, 2020

Montecito art and car collector Michael Hammer‘s actor son, Armie, 33, is reprising his role in the sequel to the hit film Call Me By Your Name with Oscar nominated Timothee Chalamet, 24. Director Luca Guadagnino, 48, who helmed the original 2017 drama, says both lead actors are keen to reprise their roles in the […]

Easy as Pandemic Pie
By Richard Copelan   |   April 9, 2020

Watch out Martha Stewart! Santa Barbara-based ShelterBox USA president Kerri Murray has launched a new Facebook channel Cooking Through Corona, in which she and guest culinary wizards, including award-winning writer and actress Leslie Zemeckis, and Johnnie-Lee and Mazzy-Lee Gore, daughters of Depeche Mode rocker Martin and Kerrie Gore. Leslie is sharing her secret recipes for […]

Horsing Around
By Richard Mineards   |   April 2, 2020

The Santa Barbara Polo Club is delaying the start of its 109th season, which was scheduled to kick off on May 1, because of the coronavirus. Instead, the hotly anticipated initial equestrian event, the Folded Hills Pope Challenge, has been rescheduled for May 15, with the 12-goal schedule continuing through July 5. “The club is […]

Seas the Day
By Richard Mineards   |   March 26, 2020

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is riding the crest of a wave having been designated Nonprofit of the Year. The harborside museum, which has received the accolade from the Chamber of the Santa Barbara Region, opened 20 years ago with the mission of interpreting the colorful maritime history of the Santa Barbara Channel. It was founded […]

Headed to Hollywood
By Richard Mineards   |   March 26, 2020

San Marcos High sophomore and Santa Barbara Teen Star Sofia Schuster really is a golden girl! The 16-year-old singer traveled down to Los Angeles to an audition for the latest series of the popular ABC TV series American Idol in front of local warbler Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan, and received the golden […]

Riveting Recital
By Richard Mineards   |   March 19, 2020

Ray Winn and Peter Kavoian opened the doors of their magnificent Birnam Wood home for a Musicale featuring Italian pianist Jacopo Giacopuzzi on the dynamic duo’s Bosendorfer grand piano, one of only seven of its type in the world. The Music Academy of the West fundraiser, catered by Elena Wagner, featured Verona native Jacopo, who studied […]

Magical Meetup
By Richard Mineards   |   March 12, 2020

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 […]

Living in Luxury
By Richard Mineards   |   February 27, 2020

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, […]

Remembering Chip
By Richard Mineards   |   February 20, 2020

On a personal note, I remember Santa Barbara realtor Chip Lawson, who has moved to more heavenly pastures at the all too early age of 62. A jovial soul, we first met at Cafe Del Sol, the former popular local bar hangout by the Andree Clark Bird Refuge, now the Magic Castle. Chip, a former […]

Making it on her Own
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 20, 2020

Lauren Cantin, the Montecito-raised teenager who was famously pulled from underneath a four-foot pile of mud and debris after being buried alive for six hours in the early morning hours of January 9, 2018, has appeared on all sorts of big stages in the two years since her rescue. That includes performing a duet with […]