Cher Wants $85 Million for Her Venice-Inspired Malibu Home
The singer and actress says the Italian Renaissance-style house took nearly five years to build
The singer and actress says the Italian Renaissance-style house took nearly five years to build
The singer and actress Cher is listing her longtime home in Malibu, Calif., for $85 million.
The Italian Renaissance-style estate, built in 1999, is set on approximately 1.7 acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean, said listing agent Robert Kass of Hilton & Hyland, who is marketing the property with colleague Drew Fenton. The main residence spans roughly 13,200 square feet with arched windows and doors facing the ocean. There is also a separate gatehouse, infinity pool and tennis court, Mr. Kass said.
The “Believe” singer paid $2.95 million for the property in 1989, records show. She previously listed the property for $45 million in 2009, according to Realtor.com. (News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, also operates Realtor.com under license from the National Association of Realtors.)
The house, which took nearly five years to build, was inspired by Venice, Italy, Cher said in an email. “From every room, there is an ocean view,” she added.
Cher said she entertained often in the home, hosting “intimate dinners in the family dining room” and larger “tented parties in the courtyard and pool area.”
“My Rinpoche came to give a prayer session with a large group of friends,” she said.
Located on Pacific Coast Highway, the gated property has a driveway lined with 40 Palm trees and a courtyard with a Moorish-style fountain. There are seven bedrooms, plus the gatehouse, which serves as a guesthouse. In the main residence, the primary suite has a meditation room and two closets, including one that doubles as a panic room, Mr. Kass said. The primary bathroom is designed like a hammam with Turkish wood screens.
The lower level of the house has an indoor-outdoor gym and theatre. Cher also has a climate-controlled wig room with close to 100 hairpieces, according to the 2002 book “The Cher Scrapbook.”
Mr. Kass said the style of the home is dramatic, with high-end finishes, stone and hardware. The estate is “iconic,” he said. “Everyone knows that house; it’s at the end of the bluff so no one is on the right side.”
Malibu, a mecca for celebrities and the uber-wealthy, has experienced a recent string of high-priced sales and listings. Billionaire media mogul Byron Allen just paid $100 million for an estate in Paradise Cove formerly owned by self-storage billionaire Tammy Hughes Gustavson. Former Disney chief executive Michael Eisner is asking $225 million for his Malibu compound. Last year, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and his wife, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, paid $177 million for an oceanfront home in Malibu.
Cher, known as a pop icon and Academy Award-winning singer and actor, gained popularity in the 1960s as half of the husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher. She later released many of her own albums and there was a Broadway musical about her life.
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
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New research tackles the source of financial conflict and what we can do about it
When couples argue over money, the real source of the conflict usually isn’t on their bank statement.
Financial disagreements tend to be stand-ins for deeper issues in our relationships, researchers and couples counsellors said, since the way we use money is a reflection of our values, character and beliefs. Persistent fights over spending and saving often doom romantic partnerships: Even if you fix the money problem, the underlying issues remain.
To understand what the fights are really about, new research from social scientists at Carleton University in Ottawa began with a unique data set: more than 1,000 posts culled from a relationship forum on the social-media platform Reddit. Money was a major thread in the posts, which largely broke down into complaints about one-sided decision-making, uneven contributions, a lack of shared values and perceived unfairness or irresponsibility.
By analysing and categorising the candid messages, then interviewing hundreds of couples, the researchers said they have isolated some of the recurring patterns behind financial conflicts.
The research found that when partners disagree about mundane expenses, such as grocery bills and shop receipts, they tend to have better relationships. Fights about fair contributions to household finances and perceived financial irresponsibility are particularly detrimental, however.
While there is no cure-all to resolve the disputes, the antidote in many cases is to talk about money more, not less, said Johanna Peetz, a professor of psychology at Carleton who co-authored the study.
“You should discuss finances more in relationships, because then small things won’t escalate into bigger problems,” she said.
A partner might insist on taking a vacation the other can’t afford. Another married couple might want to separate their previously combined finances. Couples might also realize they no longer share values they originally brought to the relationship.
Differentiating between your own viewpoint on the money fight from that of your partner is no easy feat, said Thomas Faupl, a marriage and family psychotherapist in San Francisco. Where one person sees an easily solvable problem—overspending on groceries—the other might see an irrevocable rift in the relationship.
Faupl, who specialises in helping couples work through financial difficulties, said many partners succeed in finding common ground that can keep them connected amid heated discussions. Identifying recurring themes in the most frequent conflicts also helps.
“There is something very visceral about money, and for a lot of people, it has to do with security and power,” he said. “There’s permutations on the theme, and that could be around responsibility, it could be around control, it could be around power, it could be around fairness.”
Barbara Krenzer and John Stone first began their relationship more than three decades ago. Early on in their conversations, the Syracuse, N.Y.-based couple opened up about what they both felt to be most important in life: spending quality time with family and investing in lifelong memories.
“We didn’t buy into the big lifestyle,” Krenzer said. “Time is so important and we both valued that.”
For Krenzer and Stone, committing to that shared value meant making sacrifices. Krenzer, a physician, reduced her work hours while raising their three children. Stone trained as an attorney, but once Krenzer went back to full-time work, he looked for a job that let him spend the mornings with the children.
“Compromise: That’s a word they don’t say enough with marriage,” Krenzer said. “You have to get beyond the love and say, ‘Do I want to compromise for them and find that middle ground?’”
Talking about numbers behind a behaviour can help bring a couple out of a fight and back to earth, Faupl said. One partner might rue the other’s tightfistedness, but a discussion of the numbers reveals the supposed tightwad is diligently saving money for the couple’s shared future.
“I get under the hood with people so we can get black-and-white numbers on the table,” he said. “Are these conversations accurate, or are they somehow emotionally based?”
Couples might follow tenets of good financial management and build wealth together, but conflict is bound to arise if one partner feels the other isn’t honouring that shared commitment, Faupl said.
“If your partner helps with your savings goals, then that feels instrumental to your own goals, and that is a powerful drive for feeling close to the partner and valuing that relationship,” he said.
When it comes to sticking out the hard times, “sharing values is important, even more so than sharing personality traits,” Peetz said. In her own research, Peetz found that romantic partners who disagreed about shared values could one day split up as a result.
“That is the crux of the conflict often: They each have a different definition,” she said of themes such as fairness and responsibility.
And sometimes, it is worth it to really dig into the potentially difficult conversations around big money decisions. When things are working well, coming together to achieve these common goals—such as saving for your own retirement or preparing for your children’s financial future—will create intimacy, not money strife.
“That is a powerful drive for feeling close to the partner and valuing that relationship,” she said.
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’