Simon Cowell assesses singing talent on “American Idol.” Apparently Mr. Nasty assesses design taste too. Cowell bought a Beverly Hills mansion from Jennifer Lopez a year ago for $10 million. Now he plans to level the home and spend $5 million to rebuild. “It’s simply not good enough,” Cowell was quoted by the British press.
Howard Stern has shelled out $600,000 for an oceanfront rental in Southampton, the New York Post’s Braden Keil reported. Stern and his model girlfriend, Beth Ostrosky, were spotted jogging in the neighborhood last weekend. Banking heiress/Broadway producer Terry Allen Kramer is renting the house to Stern and listing the home for $35 million.
Brad Pitt longs to be an architect. The actor and the environmental organization Global Green USA are sponsoring the Sustainable Design Competition for New Orleans, a contest to find an Earth-friendly plan for housing and community centers in neighborhoods ravaged by Katrina. “Our goal is to kick off the rebuilding effort,” Pitt told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “It’s certainly long overdue, and I can only go from the reports that we get … that it’s behind, absolutely. People are frustrated.”
A Brooklyn house painter is suing Tom Brokaw for $20 million, claiming he was permanently injured while painting a wall in the former NBC news anchor’s Park Avenue apartment. The New York Post reports Anatoliy Sigal also names Brokaw’s decorator – and we swear this is her real name – Kitty Hawks.
An overflowing toilet has Lenny Kravitz, below, in hot water. The rocker is named in a third lawsuit in a New York State Supreme Court complaint charging him with negligence in connection with the August 2004 toilet incident at his Manhattan penthouse, thesmokinggun.com reported. The Pacific Indemnity Insurance Company wants Kravitz to reimburse it for $457,339.11, the amount the firm says it paid policyholder Mark Van Lith for damages to his $2.87 million fourth-floor apartment.
