Tyler Perry – the writer and star behind “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” –
is building a 60,000-square-foot production facility in Atlanta, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Tyler Perry Studios will house two soundstages and eventually will be the home of an acting school and a theater company. Perry said his syndicated sitcom “House of Payne” and the upcoming movie “Daddy’s Little Girls” were filmed at the studio. “I hope that this is just the start of making Atlanta even more of a movie town,” Perry said.
Don’t get too used to that new “Today” show set. NBC spent $3.5 million to make over the morning show’s studio to welcome new co-host Meredith Vieira, but a source told the New York Post the staff has complained the set “looks something like a hospital wing. Both Meredith and Matt Lauer have complained about it, so there are going to be changes.” An NBC spokeswoman admitted there may be some “small tweaks” with the set, adding “If you ask Matt, Meredith, Al (Roker) or Ann (Curry), they’d all agree they love it.”
The price on Eddie Murphy’s “Bubble Hill” property in New Jersey keeps dropping. The comedian originally listed the Englewood Cliffs property for $30 million in December 2004, then dropped it to $27 million in August 2005. Now Murphy is listing the 32-room, 25,000-square-foot Colonial on 5 gated acres for $22 million, the New York Post reported. Murphy bought the then-unfinished property in 1986 for a reported $4.5 million.
Gwen Stefani has bought Jennifer Lopez’s one-time Beverly Hills home for $15.5 million, bangshowbiz.com reported. Film producer and businessman Sam Nazarian sold the four-bedroom house in The Summit, a lavish development built in 1998 near Mulholland Drive. Stefani, her husband, rocker Gavin Rossdale, and their son Kingston, born in May, will move in soon.
