Monday, August 1, 2011

Katharine Hepburn's former estate on sale for $28 million

NEW YORK | Mon Aug 1, 2011 4:26pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The former estate of legendary actress Katharine Hepburn who died in 2003, is up for sale with a $28 million asking price.

The large six-bedroom house in the shoreline community of Old Saybrook in Connecticut was sold by Hepburn's estate for $6 million and has undergone significant renovation and updating since 2005, listing agent Colette Harron said on Monday.

Hepburn, who died at age 96, spent her final years at the house, which was built in 1939 after the Hepburn family home was destroyed during the 1938 hurricane that devastated large sections of the southern New England coastline.

The three-story, 15-room brick Colonial features seven full bathrooms, a two-car garage, a dock and beach, and 680 feet of waterfront on Long Island Sound.

The four-time Oscar-winning actress once entertained Howard Hughes at the home, a scene that was dramatized in the 2004 film "The Aviator." Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Hepburn won the actress a best supporting actress Oscar.

"It's a great work of art," Harron said, adding that the seller, Frank Sciame, has loved living in the house for the past eight years but it has become too much for him.

Sciame, a New York builder whose firm has worked on restoring such landmarks as the New York Public Library and Guggenheim art museum, has great respect for the property's historic value, she said.

Those with more modest budgets might consider the house alone, which along with its property has an $18 million price tag. For $28 million two adjacent parcels are included, more than doubling the acreage.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; editing by Patricia Reaney)



Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

NBC calls "Playboy Club" a "fun soap opera"

LOS ANGELES | Mon Aug 1, 2011 4:43pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NBC executives on Monday defended the network's controversial new drama "The Playboy Club", describing it as a "fun soap opera" and saying that its sexual content would be mild.

Stars of the drama -- set in the 1960s in the first Playboy Club -- also rejected criticism that the show will glamorize the porn industry and depict the club's Bunnie employees as exploited women.

"In terms of content, it will be mild," executive producer Ian Biederman told television reporters. "These are characters who are in a certain time and certain place. The show will be a lot of fun, it will have a ton of music and lots of energy."

Even before it begins airing in September, "The Playboy Club" has been targeted by the Parents Television Council, which last week said it "glorifies and glamorizes this insidious (porn) industry" and urged NBC affiliates not to broadcast it.

NBC's Salt Lake City affiliate has already announced it will not air the show when it starts on September 19.

NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said he wasn't surprised by that decision but said he thought every other affiliate will be airing the show.

"What it has going for it is a recognizable brand that's automatically going to draw attention to it, good or bad," Greenblatt said.

African American actress Naturi Naughton, whose character is referred to as "the chocolate Bunny," rejected the notion that the women working at the club in the early 1960s were merely sex objects.

"They went to school, they had houses, we show them using their resources," Naughton said.

Actor and comedian Joel McHale joked earlier on Monday that "The Playboy Club" was "'Mad Men' with boobs", referring to the Emmy-award winning drama on cable network AMC that is set in the advertising world in the early 1960s.

But Greenblatt said the era was all that the two dramas have in common.

"I don't think it will be like 'Mad Men'," he said. "I think it is a really fun soap. it has a mob element and a crime element and I think it is the right thing for us to try."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)



Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials