Here’s More On “I BOUGHT A FAMOUS HOUSE”!!!

Hope you can watch “I Bought A Famous House” tonight on HGTV at 8pm ET! Here’s a quick rundown and Q and A about the show!!

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS SHOW ABOUT?
Well – we’re always so fascinated with celebrities – what their lives are like – how they live – and some people can take that fascination to the next level and actually BUY a celebrity’s house… the funny thing though – in Hollywood – some people look at owning a star’s house as a GOOD thing – and others think it’s AWFUL! We see a little bit of all of that in this special – some people – when they moved in, they changed EVERYTHING – and in other cases, some people leave the whole house EXACTLY THE same. The guy who bought Paris HIlton’s house – it still has all the same furniture in it that Paris had – EVEN THE STRIPPER POLE. (Um, Okay…) He lived there for three years – and now he’s renting out Paris Hilton’s space as the ultimate party pad – for 20,000 dollars a month!

OKAY – WHAT’S WITH THE STRIPPER POLE??
I know – AND it’s built into a marble coffee table – to me, this seems like a recipe for a concussion!  

Famous House Paris Hilton Clip from Brian Balthazar on Vimeo.

BUT SHE ALSO HAD A KILLER CLOSET...
Yes, she turned one bedroom into a huge – completely mirrored closed. I won’t lie though – no one looks good from every angle – my ass looked huge in that closet …because you’re seeing it from every angle!

THIS HOUSE – WAS THIS THE ONE ALL THE PAPARAZZI WERE CAMPED OUT IN FRONT OF?
Yes – this was during Paris’s problems when she was being hauled off to jail and then back home, and everyone wanted as hot of her, and the NEIGHBORS were GOING BALLISTIC that they couldn’t get out of their driveways because photographers were truly CAMPING OUT there.

YOU ALSO WENT TO MADONNA’S BIG PLACE IN THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS – WHAT HAPPENED THERE?
Right when Madona was super-hot in the early nineties, she bought a place right near the Hollywood sign – it’s around 100 years old…called Castillo Del Lago – “Castle Of The Lake” – and it’s huge, and it’s old, and it’s got a four floor spiral staircase.
WELL – she hired her brother Chris Ciccone to decorate – and he went all out – spending money until she said no – and she NEVER said no! He painted the outside these bold red and yellow stripes and the neighbors went NUTS. And of course photographers could say “Hey where’s Madonna’s house?” UM – RIGHT THERE. It was a really unusual look.

Well – when fashion designer Leon Max bought it THE FIRST THING he did was get some paint on those damn stripes! The ink was barely dry on the contract when he had his painters come up and cover it up.
Well – Christopher Ciccone has since see the new color and he’s ticked. not happy. He says so in the special.

Meanwhile  – this was the house that was where the creepy stalker tried to scale a 40 foot wall and murder Madonna – he wanted to marry and kill her – he was very unstable, and the security guard shot him.  This house is truly like a castle so I don’t know how he got up there – there’s a huge wall all around it… but somehow he did.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER AND MARIA SHRIVER’s HOUSE IS HUGE…AND ITS FOR SALE!
YES – It’s currently on the market for just under 14 million dollars. (What?)
IT’s ENORMOUS AND VERY PRIVATE ! Unlike Paris Hilton and Madonna who basically were happy to be in the limelight, Arnold and Maria have this HUGE place tucked away in a very quiet neighborhood. It is basically everything you could get in a resort right in one place. It’s got a tennis court, huge outdoor pool, big yard, a mini petting zoo… and a three thousand dollar toilet that sprays water all over your bum – apparently those don’t come cheap!

OKAY – EVERYONE IS INTO THE RAT PACK – MAD MEN THING – AND YOU ALSO WENT TO FRANK SINATRA’S PLACE! AND IT LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME!
It does! The new owners decided to restore it – it was Frank’s Palm Springs vacation home – and it’s really cool – but we loved was that we took Frank Sinatra Junior back for the first time in sixty years! It’s interesting to see what it’s like for someone to go back after that long and see what they notice is the same, what’s different and how they react to the whole thing.

IT’S A VERY COOL LOOKING PLACE…
This was the FIRST ultimate party house (sorry Paris Hilton!) This was a place where they would drink, smoke, make music, wine and dine – swim (the pool is shaped like a piano!) Everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Sammy Davis Junior had partied there.
It also has a huge record burning machine and player… it’s essentially a mobile recording studio…. he had these wax records and he could record a song onto them.

AND SO DO PEOPLE LIVE THERE?
People can rent this place out – for – get this – 2600 a night- with a THREE NIGHT MINIMUM. That’s about 7 thousand dollars for one stay…It’s wild.  You gotta love old blue eyes to pay up that kinda dough.

DID YOU FIND THAT CELEBRITIES ALL HAVE GOOD TASTE?
No. No. No. Good taste is relative – and I like leaving that to the people watching – but I think there will be at least one space where you’ll say – “Hmm… I probably wouldn’t nave done that.” But that’s part of the fun!

“I Bought A Famous House” premieres Friday December 14th at 8pm on HGTV.

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