Estate agents use drama of tragedy to shift Whitney home
US DIARY ORLA HEALY
TALK about thinking outside the box. The real estate agents selling Whitney Houston’s New Jersey mansion have decided to use the nature of the singer’s sensational demise as part of their marketing plan to move the $1.75m (€1.3m) white elephant, which originally went on the market in 2009.
In a remarkable listing on Carproperty.com, the five-bedroom/four-and-a-half-bathroom house is being touted as “a great conversation piece”, for potential buyers.
“This house was also the scene of the activity that brought down this incredible musical diva over a 15-year cycle,” proclaims the advertising listing.
“The mansion was also used in the filming of a 2005 reality show, in which she and her ex-husband appeared at the pinnacle of Whitney Houston's fall from musical power and grace,” continues the advert for the contemporary 12,500sq ft house, situated at 22 North Gate Road, the open-plan interior of which has been (witheringly) described as “a cross between an airport terminal and a bank lobby”.
The ad, which features photos of the house alongside pictures of the late singer and the Beverly Hilton Hotel where her body was discovered last weekend, continues: “With all of this incredible, star-studded history, if you owned this house you would always have these incredible stories to go with it. A great conversation piece.”
The brokers, who are looking for an upfront cash offer, claim interest in the property has doubled over the last week.
Adele denies break rumour
KARL Lagerfeld, eat your heart out. In just-released, web-only outtakes from the pre-grammy interview Adele taped at her 10-bedroom English bolthole for CBS’S 60 Minutes, the singer plays on her love of food by whipping up a batch of cupcakes for anchor Anderson Cooper, who suggests she might have a second calling on a cooking show they decide could be called Rolling in the Dough (a fortuitous gag given the multipleGrammy winner’s coup on Thursday when 21 scored its 20th week at No 1 on the US album chart).
But Adele also found out how her sense of humour can work against her — especially when dealing with the US press. In an interview with American Vogue, conducted months ago but published only last week, the singer is quoted as saying she plans to take a few years off to get her love life sorted out, a comment she now says was a joke.
“I’ve a few days off now, and then it’s the Brit Awards here at home and then I’m straight into the studio,” Adele clarified last week, as “news” of her imminent retirement went viral. “Five years?” she wrote. “More like five days!”
Obama shows romantic side
PREZ Obama sure got fired-up about Valentine’s Day. On Tuesday, the Commander-inChief prefaced his remarks urging Congress to extend the payroll tax cuts with what he called “a quick public-service announcement to all the gentlemen out there”, saying: “Today is Valentine's Day. Do not forget. I speak from experience here. It is important that you remember this. And go big. That's my advice.”
Proving that he is a man of his word, the president sent the first lady an early-morning romantic tweet (signed “bo” to show it was him and not a random staffer), followed that evening by a 90-minute dinner date at the chic Virginia restaurant Vermilion. The couple, who sat among the hoi polloi at an upstairs corner table, enjoyed a cocktail (him: martini / her: white wine) and then ordered an assortment of dishes off the $110-a-head tasting menu before sharing, two-spoon style, a slice of chocolate truffle tart.
Contrived? Maybe, but at least Obama wasn’t as creepy as Newt Gingrich, who, during a stomp through California on Monday, was asked about his V-day plans. “All I can promise is that I believe she will be quite happy tomorrow night,” Gingrich chuckled, referring to wife Callista, who mercifully decided not to deliver a public post-mortem.
Alternative contraception
QUOTE of the week, courtesy of Foster Friess, the 71-year-old investment banker and top donor behind Rick Santorum’s campaign, who appeared on MSNBC on Thursday to explain why he felt the candidate’s controversial stances on gay rights, abortion and women in combat had been blown out of proportion.
“Here we have millions of our fellow Americans unemployed. We have jihadist camps being set up in Latin America, which Rick has been warning about, and people seem to be so preoccupied with sex.
“We maybe need a massive therapy session so we can concentrate on what the real issues are,” Friess began, before uttering the line which will follow him for the rest of his life. “On this contraceptive thing . . . you know, back in my day, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”