Posted on 03/28/2023 4:26:32 PM PDT by Libloather
A number of Hollywood’s elite are reportedly in a hurry to sell their luxury homes ahead of 1 April, when Los Angeles’ new “mansion tax” comes into place.
The tax, called Measure ULA, will require sellers of properties of more than US$5 million (approximately £4 million) to pay a four per cent transfer tax.
It will also require sales of more than US$10 million to pay a 5.5 per cent tax, with all funds raised going towards public housing. The city aims to raise up to US$1 billion from these sales in an effort to tackle the growing homelessness crisis.
Measure ULA was passed with 57 per cent of the vote in November 2022, after housing advocates and labour unions campaigned to get it on the ballot. But it faced backlash from real estate agents, who warned it would cause a “frenzy” of sell-offs among the wealthiest homeowners.
Celebrities including Jim Carrey, Britney Spears and Kylie Jenner have all put their sprawling properties on the market in recent months.
Carrey’s home, which spans across 12,700 square feet, went on the market in February for US$29 million, while Spears reportedly put her 11,650 square foot home in Calabasas on the market for US$12 million just six months after she and husband Sam Asghari purchased it.
It was first reported in October that Jenner put her Beverly Hills home, which she owns with partner Travis Scott, up for sale for more than US$33 million. The couple bought the seven-bedroom, 10-bathroom property in 2018 for US$20.4 million.
Mark Wahlberg put his 30,500 square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills on the market last April, well before the measure was introduced. However, he dropped the asking price from US$87.5 million to US$79.5 million in November, and finally found a buyer in February this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
And then there’s one of my favorite up and coming young actresses, who lives in a double wide in a trailer park.:)
I exaggerate only slightly. It’s technically classed (per Zillow) as “mobile manufactured.”
No names please, even on the remote chance that you suspect the answer. Privacy is important for the folks with real people incomes who don’t live with bodyguards and elaborate security for their walled compounds. Which is about 99.99 percent of the people who work in the industry.
That makes two of us now that most of “da rich” are far left extremist activists.
We have way too many “Idle Rich” in this country. That is not healthy.
Yes, the coastline of Maine is filled with trustfunders, “artists” who live in multimillion dollar mansions by the ocean.
I suppose these einsteins could just stay put and not sell, then they won’t have to pay the tax. Guess I don’t understand the very rich. Not that I really want to.
I’m always amazed at some of the people who have that kind of money to spend on a house.
The A++++ list movie stars who have been around for two or three decades, I can understand. The economics of the industry have changed and the mega-million dollar contracts for a starring role are rapidly becoming extinct. (And very few people got those, even in the glory years.) Also going extinct are the lucrative backend deals, and the streamers are even finding ways to slash residuals. But until recently, a big star with a series of successful blockbusters could become quite wealthy. On top of that, many of them get entrepreneurial, set up their own companies and produce their own films. I give them credit for that and don’t begrudge the money they make.
The younger actors just coming up must be sick inside, realizing that they’re 20 years too late. The streamers are swallowing the whole industry and squeezing everyone. But that’s another story.
The big recording stars I can understand. You too could have a huge mansion if you sold eleventy-seven bazillion records and have 50 tunes playing incessantly on the radio and across Spotify and similar platforms.
The producers I can understand. They build busineses and, if successful, can reap big rewards.
The major league athletes I can understand. If someone pays you $20 million a year to play shortstop and advertisers think you’re marketable, you can make big bucks. And a lot of the athletes are stupid enough to live really big in the five year window they enjoy before injury or age cuts them down. The smart ones, however, can be sitting pretty for life.
That said, I cannot understand the army of very wealthy people, mostly self-made, who are famous for being famous — people like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, who rode leaked sex tapes to celebrity status. Or Instagram and TikTok stars, social media influencers, and various species of consultants, agents, and other hangers-on who seem to make fortunes in the celebrity freakshow business.
Of course, if I understood it, I suppose I too could be rich. But as it is, I can respect the singer who can really sing, the actor who can really act, and the champion athlete who excels in a competitive arena. But the others? How?
AI is going to replace most Hollywood jobs anyway.
That’s going to be interesting to watch, though I don’t think I’ll live long enough to see the technology get good enough.
Cartoon movies and anime do have a following, but for AI to replace real people in other films will require a considerably greater suspension of disbelief than audiences have ever been asked to attempt. Yes, we know that those are actors onscreen, and the actors are not the characters they play. But they’re still flesh and blood people, and the film wants us to identify with them. (Which is why they should keep their messy private lives private.)
I’m not sure most of us will be able to do that if we know that the character was never anything more than pixels and programming. I’m not one to cry in movies (or to cry elsewhere, for that matter), but I will confess that, on occasion, it has been necessary to man up and maintain a stiff upper lip. I’ve never gotten emotional in that way over a character in a book.
I give it ten years.
Is that a bet? If you’re right, ten years from now I’ll give you a month’s worth of free boasting rights on the movie ping list threads.
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