Hollywood writers accept Overture
Reuters UK - LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Startup studio Overture Films has signed an interim agreement with the Writers Guild of America to grant striking writers to work for the company. The deal follows a range of pacts between the WGA and film companies

Darling’s Bank reforms dismissed as vague
The Independent - The plans acknowledge the special position of lenders compared with other companies because a loss of confidence in the banking sector would undermine the whole financial system. The Treasury also wants to speed up payment to depositors so that they

Call for tighter rein on share rumours
News.com.au - Call for ASX to monitor rumours that affect share prices Companies complaining they’re trading below true value More personal finance news in our Money section BABCOCK & Brown chief Phil Green has called for tighter Australian stock exchange

Sector Glance: Media Companies
MSN MoneyCentral - Gannett Co Inc ( GCI ) Stock Quote , Chart , News , Add to Watchlist NEW YORK (AP) - Shares of most major media companies rose on Wednesday afternoon, after the Federal Reserve lowered a key interest rate and indicated that further rate cuts are

More graduates lack skills to win jobs
Daily Telegraph - Almost half of leading companies failed to find suitable graduates to fill vacancies last year despite record numbers of students leaving university, a new shows. In a survey of 217 of the biggest companies by the Association of Graduate Recruiters

NHS gets more money but productivity falls
Daily Telegraph - The NHS is also buying more health care from private companies. NHS spending on new buildings, refurbishments and new premises has risen at about 3.5 per cent for each of the past 10 years to £1.9 billion in 2006. Publishers wishing to reproduce

Market Report: Travel firms provide an escape from the gloom
The Independent - While the rest of the market frets about the spectre of a significant slowdown in economic activity, travel companies (especially those in the package holiday business) are celebrating bumper results. Why? (Or rather, how?) Well, according to Thomas

Training cut plan to plug Army gaps
MSN UK News - I would be very nervous of having to deploy with this limited level of expertise and experience in the frontline companies.” In December Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged that British force levels in Afghanistan would remain at 7,800 troops. The

Annual Changes to the NASDAQ Dividend Achievers Index
MSN MoneyCentral - XHFNY), is the preferred provider of business and financial data on global publicly listed companies. Headquartered in Fort Mill, SC and New York City with sales offices in key North American cities, Mergent also has a strong global presence with

Market rollercoaster continues
News.com.au - Bell Potter senior adviser Stuart Smith stated although the local market was gaining ground, investors were too focused on news coming from distressed companies, such as unlisted broker Tricom Equities. “We’ve been sort of mesmerised by the headlines

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Like other Baby Boomer women, I’m very health-conscious. I read about being healthy, consider eating healthy foods (although I don’t always do it), and I understand the long-term benefits of good health. I heard from Kristen King (another b5media blogger) about a contest in which you can win a $50 gift card to Target by listing the 5 things you can do this year to improve your health.

Sounds pretty simple to me, so I did it. You can see my entry and more details on the contest on Kristen’s site: Lively Women. And, yes, I included dark chocolate in my list. See this article from WebMD for more information on the health benefits of dark chocolate.

Tags: baby_boomer, chocolate, contest, healthy, women

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Something to be aware of.   Condo developers in Flordia, an I’m sure other places, pay real estate agents commissions in advance on the sale of condminium units.  This isn’t a bad practice or in any way underhanded.  If you were ever a sales person working on an advance, it’s the same concept.  Commissions on what you sell go aganist the amount they’ve already paid you.  If you are in the market for a condo in Flordia, or any place else, you need to comprehend if the real estate agent you are dealing with has taken advance commissions from any seller/developer.  Obviously, a person who has taken an advance is under pressure to work off that advance by sell the property of the person who has paid the advance.  That’s okay.  As someone in the market to buy property you need to comprehend that such a person will work to limit the properities from which you select.

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Filed under: Estates

This home is so stereotypically Martha’s Vineyard you can practically smell the salt water. The new shingled home is in the Cow Bay area of Edgartown the main town on the small island off the coast of Cape Cod. You don’t get ocean views with this one but you get water views of Sengekontacket Pond. The home also has access to private association beaches of Cow Bay on the eastern shore of Martha’s Vineyard. The five-bedroom home is either very staged or decorated by someone with a keen love of the preppy. Check out the living room complete with model sailboat and the quilt with the nautical flags. There are also two master suites with private bathrooms. The home is on a little over two acres and has a heated inground pool. Pools surrounded by grass don’t exactly light my fire but this is probably just a place to rinse off since you’ve got the ocean so nearby. It is listed at $6.5 million.

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Continue reading Cow Bay, Estate of the Day

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Filed under: Estates

We’ve mentioned before that there are massive hotel expansions underway in Atlantic City, New Jersey but further down the coast the condo market in Diamond Beach, New Jersey is growing too. The Grand at Diamond Beach is a lavish 12-story project that’ll include two 12-story structures and a six-story building. The $500 million project will be completed in three phases with the first move ins planned for the end of the year. Amenities will include a concierge, pools, spa, fitness center, private beach club and hotel style amenities. The units range in price from $682,000 to $5.2 million and 25 to 30 percent have already been sold.

[via Press of Atlantic City]

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Filed under: Estates

Part of the pleasure of doing the estate-of-the-day post each day is searching through the dreck to find truly exceptional homes. This one in Telluride wins me over with its open, light-filled spaces and the use of simple shed and gable structures to create three different spaces which represent a mill, cabin and a bunkhouse and form a master suite, main home, and a garage with a caretaker’s unit above. There is also an older log cabin which has been moved to the nearly five-acre property and set amidst the woods for a private guest experience. The entrance to the home has a timber and steel trestle bridge. There are six bedrooms total and just one fireplace but what a fireplace it is, so massive you could practically curl up inside it. This home is listed at $8.995 million.

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Continue reading Elk Run Mining Compound, Estate of the Day

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Filed under: Estates

Wow, this home on 90 acres is tucked into a small town located about an hour from Pittsburgh. It’s really more of a compound than a home. The main home is over 10,000 square feet and has six bedrooms. It is dominated by a big circular entry that includes a glass elevator which connects o a tower of rooms in the round including a home theater, wine tasting cellar and the showcase, a 360 degree rotating observation view study with a box beam ceiling and an outdoor deck. Other features include a large three-story pool room with a cascading fountain and both a lap pool and a wading pool which are ringed by redwood balconies. The lodge has a stone fireplace so large it needs two animal heads mounted on it and its own indoor barbecue. This massive home is listed at $5 million.

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Continue reading Pennsylvania Compound, Estate of the Day

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Filed under: Estates, Water

Plans have been announced for New England’s largest marina, The Newport Club in Rhode Island. The Newport Club covers 44.5 acres of waterfront property on Aquidneck Island, plus 100 acres out into the cove itself. There will be 1,500 marina slips with retail shops, restaurants, waterfront residences, and marine-related support facilities. The slips will range up to 500 feet in hopes of drawing more megayacht traffic to the area. The Newport Club will feature resort style residences ranging from $395,000 to $2,000,000 and there are plans to build brand-name luxury hotels to create a popular yachting destination.

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Filed under: Estates

I love a good idea home where a bunch of high end designers work on one upscale home, now you can get one in the Hamptons at a discount .Braden Keil at the New York Post broke the story that the 2005 Hamptons Cottages & Gardens Idea House is on the market and was just reduced by $3 million. Hamptons C&G publisher Richard Ekstract and his wife, Eileen are selling the eight-bedroom, 7,500-square-foot Bridgehampton mansion which is on 3.7 acres. The home includes a master suite with a private media room, a sitting room and a dressing room. The lower level includes staff quarters. The ground are also home to a 40-foot-by-40-foot pool. There’s a tiny bit of design house schizophrenia going on here where the rooms don’t really share an overarching theme but its contemporary and impressive in the way that a Hamptons house should be. It reminds me of a bit of the home that Gordon Gekko had in Wall Street. In the Post, Ekstract is quoted as joking that now, at $15 million instead of the original $18 million, the price is too cheap. It is listed by both Corcoran and Prudential Douglas Elliman.

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Continue reading Bridgehampton Idea Home, Estate of the Day

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the NY Post’s Gimme Shelter:
–Actor/musician Steven Van Zandt, who is a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, and his wife, Maureen, have bid on a three-bedroom, three-bath penthouse in a former church on West Fourth Street. The apartment with stained glass windows has an asking price of $5.99 million.
–Actress Frances McDormand and her filmmaker husband Joel Coen have listed their Hudson Valley hideaway. The home on a country road in the town of Esopus, NY has three bedrooms, a screened porch and an old-fashioned kitchen. It is listed at $895,000. The charming home is shown above and the listing is here.
–The Russian Federation have purchased one of Manhattan’s pricier townhouses for $35 million. The 25-foot-wide residence at 36 E. 75th St. was built in 1893 and has six bedrooms.
–The price has dropped on the 2005 Hamptons Cottages & Gardens Idea Home. Hamptons C&G publisher Richard Ekstract and his wife, Eileen, have lowered the price of their eight-bedroom, 7,500-square-foot Bridgehampton mansion on 3.7 gated acres. It is our estate of the day later this day.

From Berg Properties Huge Time Listings:
–Tobey Maguire has purchased a 0.93-acre vacant parcel in Brentwood.
–Comedian Carlos Mencia has purchased actor Eddie Cibrian’s Encino mansion which was listed at $4.395 million. Cibrian has paid $2.5 million for a mansion in Calabasas.
–Actor John Leguizamo has paid $5,750,000 for a town home in Manhattan’s Washington Square area.
–Turns out that Mark Harmon did not buy a new place in Malibu, it went to someone else with a similar name.

From the NY Observer’s Manhattan Transfers:
Dr. Marlene Krauss and her husband, Dr. Zachary Berk have paid $7.65 million for the triplex penthouse at the Claremont Home, a 1980’s-era condo on East 72nd Street between Park and Madison avenues. It was our estate of the day in December 2006 when it was listed at $8.995 million. The couple own the floor below the penthouse, and are combining the two units into a four-level apartment. The couple has put their 15th floor home on the market for $4.75 million to raise money for renovations. The listing is here.

From the Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties:
–As the Real Estalker Mama previously reported, the motion picture producer Jon Peters is asking $39.5 million for four adjoining Beverly Hills parcels he purchased in 1996 but never fully developed. The listing is here.
–Limited Brands marketing chief Ed Razek has purchased an oceanfront villa in the Turks & Caicos. Thetvilla is in Dellis Cay, a 560-acre, residential development being constructed on a private island with a master plan by Pritzker prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid.
–Baseball player Steve Finley, has trimmed 3.4 acres from his home for sale and reduced the price to $13.95 million. The listing is on the Barry Estates website.

From the Real Estalker:
–Jessica Alba has paid around $4.05 million for a new Beverly Hills home.
–Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have been spotted home hunting in Los Angeles.
–Another huge estate hits the market in Los Angeles. The Singleton family has put their Holmby Hills home on the market for $85 million. The main home, designed by Wallace Neff is 15,520 square feet with 10 bedrooms. It is on over seven acres. The listing is here.
–Kate Hudson has reportedly been looking at real estate in TriBeCa.
–Producer Max Mutchnick and partner Erik Hyman are set to buys a major estate in Hancock Park.
–Television writer Juanita Bartlett has put her Martha’s Vineyard home on the market for $12.95 million. The listing is here.
–Writer and producer Aaron Sorkin recently picked up a beautiful home in the Sunset Strip area of Los Angeles for $6.1 million.
–Tennis star Pete Sampras and his wife actress Bridgette Wilson-Sampras have listed their Beverly Hills mansion for for $25 million. The listing is here.
Actor Harvey Fierstein has put his Brewster, New York home on the market for $749,900. The listing is here.
–via the London Sunday Times, the Toprak Mansion in London has been sold for

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