Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have spent $40 million on another home – a mansion in Italy.
Situated in the Northern Italian hills of Valpolicella, the U-shaped Villa Costanza property boasts 18,000 square feet and 15 bedrooms, seven baths, a movie theater, two swimming pools, a gym and several Jacuzzis. In addition, many of the walls are covered with 17th century frescoes. The property also has stables and a vineyard.
They also own a luxurious Los Angeles mansion and a $3.5 million French-style home in New Orleans.
Angelina apparently fell in love with Italy after filming “The Tourist” there earlier this year.
She and Brad reportedly intend to use the Italian property as a vacation home and continue to use their Loz Feliz house as their main base.
Brad bought the 5,338-square-foot Los Feliz house in the L.A. area for $1.7 million in 1994, and has invested millions into renovating and expanding it.
Sitting on nearly an acre of land, the property consists of a five-bedroom, 5,338-square-foot main Craftsman-style house.
In New Orleans, Brad and Angelina bought an early-1830s mansion in the French Quarter, in 2007.
The house was purchased for $3.5 million in cash and boasts a grand spiral staircase, elevator, and gourmet kitchen.
It also has a large private courtyard and a separate two-story guest house, as well as private parking for two cars.
According to the celebrity website janetcharltonshollywood, this makes their sixth home in various countries in the world.
The couple’s property holdings also include a French chateau and Cambodian hideaway.
Yesterday marked one year since Patrick Swayze‘s death from pancreatic cancer. For his wife of 34 years, Lisa Niemi, it’s an anniversary that brings both sorrow and hope.
“In some ways I look at the anniversary and I think, ‘It’s either going to knock me down or it’s going to make me stronger,” Niemi says. “And I know I’m stronger now. The fact that I’ve had some good days definitely gives me hope that I can have more.”
As a new spokeswoman for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Niemi is launching an awareness campaign on this anniversary of Swayze’s death. “Be a Hero in the Fight Against Pancreatic Cancer: Know it. Fight it. End it” will feature videos and personal messages from Niemi.
“It’s a merciless disease,” she says. “If Patrick being sick can help somebody else, it’s the highest possible honor I could help him have.”
At home on the ranch she shared with Swayze just north of Los Angeles, Niemi said she was considering her own personal ways of celebrating her husband’s life. “I’m looking at doing some things like picking out the most beautiful tree ever,” she says, “and planting it in an extraordinary spot.”
And Swayze’s “Dirty Dancing” co-star, Jennifer Grey, says she wouldn’t be competing on “Dancing With the Stars” if it weren’t for him — and the example he set of living life to the fullest in the face of any daunting challenge.
“Patrick was one of the most fearless people I’ve ever met,” the actress, 50, told Access Hollywood. “(He) really embraced life and was all about going for it.”
Grey, herself a thyroid-cancer survivor, says she took Swayze’s way of living to heart — that it’s important to embrace opportunities in the limited time you have to enjoy them.
“Life is short, baby. It is fragile. It is fleeting,” Grey says. “And just because someone is there one minute, it does not mean they are going to be there the next. Once you feel that, and you can smell that kind of fragility, you’ve got to take some kind of action to counteract that.”
Though it’s daunting, Grey realized she couldn’t pass up an opportunity like DWTS. “If not now . . . when?” she asks. “When are you supposed to reclaim the joy that you had as a young person?”
Asked how she would feel if Swayze’s widow, Lisa Niemi, came out to support her when Dancing begins next Monday, Grey said she would be honored. “I would be so grateful if she did, and if she didn’t, I feel her support,” Grey says. “She e-mailed me. She just said that she is rooting for me and proud of me.”
The ’60s country rock band Buffalo Springfield is reuniting.
Neil Young will reunite with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay for a pair of performances as Buffalo Springfield for Young’s annual Bridge School benefit concerts in Northern California, according to the L.A. Times.
Also scheduled to perform are Pearl Jam, Elton John and Leon Russell, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams and several other acts.
The reunion of the country-rock band that began in 1966 in Los Angeles will feature Young, Stills and Furay as an acoustic trio, given the Bridge School’s history of unplugged performances by all participants. The group’s other two original members, bassist Bruce Palmer and drummer Dewey Martin, died in 2004 and 2009, respectively.
Springfield will top the bill both days of the Oct. 23 and 24 shows, which generates funds and awareness for the school’s programs aiding severely physically handicapped students.
“We make Pearl Jam look like a young band,” Young said with a chuckle over the weekend. “It’s all a matter of perspective.”
Young’s two sons both have cerebral palsy and his daughter, Young, has epilepsy.
lsmith@denverpost.com
