Tag archives: Meghan Markle

The Way of Cameron
By Richard Mineards   |   December 10, 2024

Montecito actor Josh Brolin has revealed mega director James Cameron’s reaction to him rejecting a role in the Avatar sequel, The Way of Water. The Men in Black III star, 56, detailed he declined to appear as a new character in the 2022 box office smash 13 years after Cameron’s original film became the highest […]

A Video to Remembrance
By Richard Mineards   |   November 19, 2024

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have made their first joint appearance in more than three months as the Riven Rock duo shared a new video message. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex wore blue blazers and poppies in their lapels in honor of Remembrance Day in a video message about online violence against children, a […]

Area’s Numbers by the Numbers
By Richard Mineards   |   October 29, 2024

For the eighth consecutive year Atherton, California – 94027 – is America’s most expensive zip code while our rarefied enclave – 93108 – ranked Number 5 with a median property price of $5,052,000. The Hamptons’ Sagaponack and Water Mill ranked number two and three with median property prices just shy of $6 million, according to […]

Harry on Hair
By Richard Mineards   |   October 22, 2024

Prince Harry has revealed daughter Princess Lilibet has inherited her mother Meghan Markle’s “thick hair” and it is now so long “she can almost sit on it.” The Duke of Sussex, 40, made the rare comment while attending the WellChild Awards in London. “Archie and Lilibet have been blessed with their mother’s thick hair,” he […]

Getting ‘Cut’
By Richard Mineards   |   September 17, 2024

Orlando Bloom, British actor fiancée of singer Katy Perry, took his body to the limit while filming The Cut, about a retired boxer returning to matters pugilistic. The new movie premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month and Bloom told People he “literally thought I was gonna die” because the role was so […]

Royal Treatment
By Richard Mineards   |   September 3, 2024

Prince Harry and his former-actress wife Meghan Markle have done a new CBS TV interview about cyber abuse, with the Duke of Sussex paying homage to first responders. During the interview with Jane Pauley, the Riven Rock twosome spoke about how parents need to protect children from online harm – reflecting on their experiences with […]

Local Couple Returns Home
By Richard Mineards   |   August 27, 2024

Prince Harry and his actress wife Meghan Markle, now back in our rarefied enclave after a four-day quasi royal tour to Colombia, certainly got the VIP security the Duke of Sussex has so publicly craved. More than 3,000 police, snipers and even a bio-terrorism van trailed their every move, despite hardly anyone turning out to […]

Local Home Sold
By Richard Mineards   |   August 20, 2024

Ellen DeGeneres and actress wife Portia de Rossi have sold their sprawling Carpinteria spread for a hefty $96 million. The dynamic duo purchased the 20-acre property in 2022 for $70 million, at the time one of the largest real estate deals in Santa Barbara County. Property records obtained by the Wall Street Journal show they […]

Market Research
By Richard Mineards   |   August 13, 2024

Meghan Markle took a private jet with entrepreneur Jamie Kern Lima to attend a one-day business summit in the oh-so tony Hamptons. The Duchess of Sussex, 42, was in attendance at the G9 Ventures Summer Summit hosted by Amy Griffin, wife of billionaire hedge fund founder John Griffin, at their $13 million home. The Riven […]

Royal Bequeathment 
By Richard Mineards   |   August 6, 2024

Prince Harry is set to receive a hefty payment when he celebrates his 40th birthday on September 15. The Duke of Sussex will get the substantial payout thanks to a bequest from the late great-grandmother, the Queen Mother. The widow of King George VI put $90 million in a trust fund for her family and […]

Anniversary on the Farm
By Richard Mineards   |   July 30, 2024

Montecito rocker Adam Levine and his wife Behati Prinsloo celebrated ten years of marriage at the weekend with family and close friends in Mexico. The 45-year-old Maroon 5 singer and former model Behati, 36, marked the milestone with 150 guests at the Flora Farms in San Jose del Cabo where they were married. The tony […]

A Hazy 4th
By Richard Mineards   |   July 16, 2024

Mother Nature was decidedly uncooperative as 250 guests gathered on the Serena Rooftop of mega winemaker Bill Foley’s Hotel Californian for the third year to watch the much-anticipated July 4 pyrotechnics over the harbor. But the evening soon resembled a scene from Wuthering Heights as a heavy marine layer rolled in totally obscuring the colorful […]

Ty Warner’s Manhattan Hotel to Open
By Richard Mineards   |   June 25, 2024

After an epic four-year battle between Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner and the Toronto-based Four Seasons Hotel group, his 926-foot tall I. M. Pei-designed Manhattan hostelry is reopening in September. The iconic East 57th 383-room property, once known as the most expensive hotel in New York City, has been shuttered since the start of the […]

Lending a Helping Hand
By Richard Mineards   |   June 18, 2024

Former TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has generously been playing mortgage lender to family members to get them on the property ladder. The 66-year-old serial real estate flipper, with her former actress wife Portia de Rossi, has been dishing out home loans to relatives wanting to get a property, according to the London Daily […]

May the Birthday Be with You
By Tim Buckley   |   June 4, 2024

Star Wars tycoon George Lucas celebrated his 80th birthday in grand style. The Carpinteria resident hosted a mega bash at his Skywalker Ranch, 40 minutes north of San Francisco. The ranch is home to a sprawling main house, the man-made Lake Ewok and Skywalker Sound, a 153,000 square foot post-production facility with a 300-seat theater. […]

Stay Royal ShelterBox
By Richard Mineards   |   May 28, 2024

ShelterBox, with headquarters in Santa Barbara and Truro, Cornwall, has had its royal patronage renewed. After a review conducted by the Royal Household, following Queen Elizabeth’s death two years ago, and coinciding with the first anniversary of the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, it comes at a poignant time as ShelterBox approaches […]

Whirlwind Tour
By Richard Mineards   |   May 21, 2024

It was a royal tour in all but name when Prince Harry and his actress wife Meghan Markle touched down in Nigeria for a 72-hour visit. Just hours after arriving in the capital Abuja, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were visiting children of the Wuse Lighting Academy, which is supported by the twosome’s Archewell […]

House on Market
By Richard Mineards   |   May 14, 2024

Tech mogul Eric Schmidt, who owns Montecito’s sprawling Solana estate, the former home of Bill and Sandi Nicholson, has put his Bay Area compound on the market. The three-acre property, created by combining three contiguous parcels in the tony township of Atherton, home to America’s priciest zip code for seven consecutive years, is asking $24.5 […]

Local House Under Construction
By Richard Mineards   |   April 30, 2024

Meghan Markle’s new Netflix series exhibiting her cookery and gardening skills is not being shot at the Sussex’s Riven Rock estate. But, by sheer coincidence, at the nearby eight-acre estate of old friend Tim and Sherri Cipolla, who split their time between our rarefied enclave and their home in Rancho Palos Verdes, an oceanside development […]

Real New Neighbors
By Richard Mineards   |   April 23, 2024

Real Housewives of New Jersey alumna Dina Cantin is our rarefied enclave’s latest celebrity resident. She and her husband David Cantin have just snapped up a nearly 6,000 square foot five bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom Tuscan-style villa for $16 million in Montecito. The tony twosome relocated to the Left Coast in 2015, settling in Malibu. Originally […]