Author Archives: Michael Gross

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Next stop, Sternville?

Posted on by Michael Gross

Robert A.M. Stern long ago put his mark on New York real estate with his monumental set of books about the city’s changing architectural face. Now, he may be about to put his mark on a micro-neighborhood. Following his huge success with 15 Central Park West (subject of my next book for The Free Press), several sources tell me he’s been approached to design a replacement for the white brick non-entity at 220 Central Park South. The focus of a dispute pitting two of the city’s development giants, Extell and Vornado against each other (Vornado owns the site, while Extell … Continue reading

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Unreal Estate is “Entirely Un-Put-Downable,” says Darlings author

Posted on by Michael Gross

I just bought a new novel called The Darlings by Cristina Alger (at right, from Penguin Press), so it was a double thrill to discover she’d told Jeff Glor of AuthorTalk at cbsnews.com that she is reading Unreal Estate. “I always find his books entirely un-put-downable,” Alger said. I expect to return the compliment soon.

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What’s a half-a-million at 740 Park? About one-third the taxman’s bill.

Posted on by Michael Gross

So, it turns out that the sale of Courtney Sale Ross‘ double duplex apartment at 740 Park–first reported here–was indeed closed for “about $52 million,” as reported elsewhere–$52.5 million to be precise–and not the asking price of $60 million, as Gripepad initially heard. The buyers, reports Kim Velsey of the New York Observer, are Howard Marks, head of the Oaktree Capital investment firm, and wife Nancy. Gripepad’s favorite fun fact from the official city filing? Real estate taxes on the transaction totalled $1,483,125. That won’t buy you much at 740 Park, but elsewhere in Manhattan, it’s the price of a … Continue reading

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EZ-Money Men

Posted on by Michael Gross

Robert Stiller, founder of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, was ousted as its chairman this week after stock sales that violated its rules. Stiller and Burt Rubin, his partner in an earlier entrepreneurial venture, EZ-Wider Rolling Paper, were two of the characters who didn’t make the final cut in my history of the Baby Boom, first issued as My Generation, then re-published as The More Things Change, which got a mention in this Bloomberg story on Stiller. Click the links to read my original interviews with Stiller and Rubin.

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The Art of the Dis

Posted on by Michael Gross

Monday night’s Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum garnered less press attention than in previous years, but from the armchair view of one of the uninvited, the celebrity petting zoo was still a spectacle worthy of Rome. My favorite snapshot was of Marc Jacobs in a lacy see-through Comme des Garcons dress, Colonial-style buckled shoes and a pair of Brooks Brothers boxers (pictured). It reminded me of the night in 1990 when the Met Ball’s current mastermind, Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, turned up at a Giorgio Armani party at MoMA in a bright yellow sequined scuba-style dress by Karl … Continue reading

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Unfit to Serve?

Posted on by Michael Gross

What do Rupert Murdoch and Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. have in common these days? More than you might think, I propose in “Time’s up, news moguls,” my latest Commentary in Crain’s New York Business. The image, however, is from an old Vanity Fair.

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Unreality TV

Posted on by Michael Gross

My latest column for Crain’s New York business is about the relative reality of reality tv.

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When Scoops Collide

Posted on by Michael Gross

My scoop late last week on the sale of Courtney Sale Ross‘s double duplex at 740 Park Avenue has since been picked up and linked by The New York Observer, curbed, and Business Insider, all of whom were kind enough to credit Gripepad. It was also picked up five days late and a credit short by The Wall Street Journal today. The Journal set the sale price at $52 million, slightly below ask. Eventually, city records will show who got that right. As far as credit goes, as the merchant John Wanamaker once said, “Courtesy is the one coin you … Continue reading

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740 Park: Back in Business Big Time ($60 Million Worth)

Posted on by Michael Gross

Could it be the halo effect of Sandy and Joan Weill‘s unloading their 15 Central Park West penthouse for $88 million? The proverbial little bird chirps that Courtney Sale Ross has finally found a buyer for her double duplex apartment at 740 Park–and got her asking price of $60 million via Kathy Sloane at Brown Harris Stevens, whose listing for it is here. Officially listed last November, though it was available as a semi-secret pocket listing long before that, the apartment is on the 12th and 13th floors of the fabled co-op. Ross and her late husband, Warner Communications mogul … Continue reading

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From Watergate to…Muppetgate?

Posted on by Michael Gross

The selling of Greg Smith, formerly of Goldman Sachs, is the subject of my Crain’s New York Business column this week. Is he the next Michael Lewis…or the next Jayson Blair?

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Astor Settlement: Everybody Wins!

Posted on by Michael Gross

According to the Associated Press, $100 million of Brooke Astor’s fortune will now go to organizations like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library. But though his share of the estate has been halved, the AP says, son Anthony Marshall, who is appealing his conviction for, in part, engineering changes to her will when her mental capabilities had allegedly eroded, still gets $14.5 million. That may be an heircut, but it’s still a tidy sum. I wonder if he’ll leave anything to his son Philip, who engineered the public exposure of this private mess? Read the … Continue reading

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Marshalling His Friends: Brooke Astor Settlement Revealed

Posted on by Michael Gross

A New York Times reporter has just broken the news of an (as yet undisclosed) settlement in the Brooke Astor estate battle in White Plains. His source? Philip Marshall (pictured), who put the family dispute in the public sphere when he accused his father of mistreating his grandmother, sent a text to the man from the Times. UPDATE: I;m told that News 12 in Westchester actually had it first. I’ll add details of the settlement once I have them.

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Bob Dylan: Hipster?

Posted on by Michael Gross

This Bob Dylan Spring is a great excuse to return to the subject of my 1978 biography for my latest Crain’s New York Business column.

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The New York Review of Hypocrisy

Posted on by Michael Gross

Regular Gripepad readers will recall that two years ago, in an afterword to the paperback of Rogues’ Gallery, my history-cum-expose of the board and benefactors of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, I speculated on how the vice chairman of that board got her hands on one of the embargoed advance copies of the book. Which led to a pre-emptive threat (that thankfully proved empty) to sue my publisher and me for “gratuitous and false character assassination.” George Gurley of The New York Observer subsequently confirmed my suspicion that the embargo-breaker was Robert Silvers, the esteemed co-founder and editor of … Continue reading

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Australia Gets Unreal

Posted on by Michael Gross

In the March issue of Wish Magazine from The Australian, Carrie Kablean calls Unreal Estate, “A literary peek into the estates of the rich and/or famous that’s raised a few hackles among its glittering cast of characters. High life, low life and a fascinating tale.”

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My weekend in Palmhampton

Posted on by Michael Gross

Private jets! Republican gossip! Italo-Asian-Middle Eastern fusion food! If it’s Sunday, it must be a Palm Beach Story in my latest column for Crain’s New York Business. Thanks to the Brazilian Court Hotel for inviting me back to its Author Breakfast series to discuss Unreal Estate.

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The Sales Just Keep on Coming

Posted on by Michael Gross

Unreal Estate continues its unreal performance at Book Soup in West Hollywood, hanging out its shingle as the #5 bestseller this week.

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A new hat

Posted on by Michael Gross

In today’s New York Post, Jennifer Gould Keil announces that I’ve joined Avenue Magazine as Real Estate Editor, to write a monthly column on….ta-da…luxury residential real estate. A stretch, I know.

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Unreal Estate a 13-week bestseller

Posted on by Michael Gross

It’s back up to #12 on the Los Angeles Times non-fiction bestseller list for Unreal Estate this week. It’s now been a bestseller for 13 weeks.

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The 800-pound gorilla on Fifth Avenue

Posted on by Michael Gross

What’s the latest cause celebre at 1000 Fifth Avenue, I ask in my latest Crain’s New York Business Column. Is it (right-wing) donor David Koch? Or the Metropolitan Museum’s imperial mind-set?

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“Positively Dickensian,” says the Los Angeles Review of Books

Posted on by Michael Gross

The Los Angeles Review of Books has just posted a long, thoughtful and fair consideration of Unreal Estate. Even though it’s not entirely positive, it is the kind of review most writers hope to receive now and then, but do all too rarely, especially nowadays when ever-fewer media outlets do that job. The site, which is currently in preview mode, clearly deserves attention and support. And I say that not only because it says, “Gross isn’t selling us a bill of goods; he’s just asking us to enlist him as our trusted cicerone, to let him guide us through the … Continue reading

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Back in the soup

Posted on by Michael Gross

It’s back to #2 on the Book Soup bestseller list for Unreal Estate this week. Mmmmm. Good.

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Back in the L.A. groove

Posted on by Michael Gross

After a brief absence, Unreal Estate returned to the Los Angeles Times bestseller list today, to make its run there a neat three months long.

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Unreal Estate Live! at the Pacific Design Center

Posted on by Michael Gross

On Monday February 13th, I spoke about Unreal Estate, the book, and the houses that inspired it, at the Aaroe Architectural Forum at the Silver Screen Theater in West Hollywood’s Pacific Design Center. My comments about a Mark refer to Mark David, aka The Real Estalker, who introduced me at the event but is not included in the video. Thanks to him, Bret Parsons and John Aaroe.

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Unreal Revival

Posted on by Michael Gross

I should visit L.A. more often. Unreal Estate today vaulted back to #5 on the Book Soup bestseller list.

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Schedule change

Posted on by Michael Gross

My talk at the Beverly Hills Women’s Club on Sunday February 12th has been cancelled, but I will still speak on Monday February 13th at the Aaeroe Architectural Forum at the Pacific Design Center. See the Unreal Estate page for details on how to reserve. The event is almost at capacity, so book soon to ensure entrance!

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R.I.P. Joseph Brooks

Posted on by Michael Gross

New York Magazine’s Daily Intel has resurrected “The Great Zatzby,” my 1992 profile of Joseph Brooks (nee Joe Zatz), the former boss of Lord & Taylor and Ann Taylor, who died last week at age 84. This morning’s obituary of Brooks in the local community newspaper omitted most of the blood, sweat, tears and juice in his biography, but thanks to New York and Google Books, you can wallow in them here.

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Coming into Los Angeles

Posted on by Michael Gross

Attention Angelenos: Click through for the details on my February 12th appearance at the Beverly Hills Women’s Club and the next day’s Aaroe Architecural Forum lecture at the Pacific Design Center’s Silver Screen Theater. (That’s Lynda and Stewart Resnick‘s Sunset House under construction, at right)

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Back on the block, still on the list.

Posted on by Michael Gross

Unreal Estate is now (unreally!) in its eleventh week on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list. My new Crain’s New York Business column is about the persistence of beach books. And in case it’s not obvious, Gripepad is off the beach (at right) and back in business.

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Later…

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Unreal Estate is “an astounding history,” says New York Social Diary

Posted on by Michael Gross

David Patrick Columbia has written briefly about Unreal Estate before. Today, he offers a lengthy review, and it’s as provocative as I tried to make the book. “Houses are fascinating because houses are people,” he writes. “And when there’s the more, there’s the merrier, not to mention hucksters and hustlers, money managers and lawyers, and the misled, the misplaced, as well as the maudlin, and even murderous. It’s life on the other side of the real fence, and it’s not like yours or mine. That’s what you get in this book; the hot skinny and with caviar and creme fraiche. … Continue reading

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Hey, Mitt: How do I fire my health insurer?

Posted on by Michael Gross

My new column in Crain’s New York Business is about the unfortunate politics of health insurance.

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Unreal? No, unbelievable!

Posted on by Michael Gross

For the ninth week, Unreal Estate is holding the fort on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list. This week, it’s at #7. Thanks again, California. I look forward to saying that again in person on February 12 at the Beverly Hills Women’s Club and the 13th at the Aaroe Architectural Forum at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

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L.A. on Park Avenue

Posted on by Michael Gross

Star Corcoran broker Wendy Sarasohn hosted a book party for Unreal Estate on Wednesday night, where I spoke to a crowd of New York real estate heavyweights including Corcoran CEO Pam Liebman (at left in the photo with Wendy and me) and New York’s highest-earning realtor (and go-to guy for 740 Park apartments), John Burger of Brown Harris Stevens. The New York Observer’s Elise Knutsen was there and reports on the festivities here. And Guelda Voien of The Real Deal has a report and photos, too. (Photo above by Richard Lewin)

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Hand-fed but lacking in nutrients

Posted on by Michael Gross

Today’s announcement of a new head of contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in its in-house newsletter, er, sorry, the Arts section of the New York Times, was heavy on hand-fed detail but sorely lacking in context. The Met’s relationship to contemporary art has been contentious almost from the day the museum opened, and is an unlikely foundation for its emergence as “a Major Player,” as the C1 headline has it, yet art-world reporter Carol Vogel (who has gone far since her days as an assistant to caricature-quality fashion editor Carrie Donovan at the Times’ magazine) chose to … Continue reading

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Appearing this week at Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport…

Posted on by Michael Gross

That’s Unreal Estate front and center in Burbank. Meanwhile, on the right coast, Elise Knutsen offers up a squib on my next book, House of Outrageous Fortune, for my new publisher, The Free Press at Simon & Schuster, on observer.com. And as if all that isn’t enough attention for one Wednesday, The Fame Game has named me the week’s #1 literary Mover and Shaker, edging out James Frey and Candace Bushnell. The great Gay Talese and the egregious Ann Coulter round out the top five. (Photo by the The Real Estalker aka Your Mama)

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Unreal staying power

Posted on by Michael Gross

In a post-Christmas surge, Unreal Estate has vaulted back up to the #6 position on the Los Angeles Times non-fiction bestseller list.

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Unreal is #2 (again)!

Posted on by Michael Gross

Former #1 Steve Jobs has dropped from the top ten, but Unreal Estate is showing staying power at #2 on the nonfiction bestseller list at Book Soup this week. The people of L.A. approve and one author rejoices.

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“Compulsively readable,” writes Liz Smith in The Chicago Tribune

Posted on by Michael Gross

Unreal Estate leads Liz Smith‘s column today for the Chicago Tribune and wowowow. It’s “a sprawling, delicious chronicle of how L.A. evolved real estate-wise, how the land became valuable, how the great neighborhoods were designed,” Smith writes, “….compelling and overflowing with gossip. Gross doesn’t just give us sites and architecture. He tells of the innumerable scandals that each house spawned: the epic divorces, murders, suicides, bankruptcies, sexual excess, family plotting, betrayals and crooked land and water deals. It’s fun! And quite astonishing to read….Unreal Estate is compulsively readable.”

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Comfort the Afflicted: Feed the Rich!

Posted on by Michael Gross

Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal inspired my first Crain’s New York Business column of 2012, proposing that we cut the uber-wealthy even more tax breaks. Elsewhere, today’s New York Post looks at one of my earlier column subjects, a leading anti-carriage-horse activist, revealing his use of campaign contributions to buy City Council support for his agenda.

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Unreal Estate: A bestseller s’more

Posted on by Michael Gross

Unreal Estate is now in its seventh week on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list. I love L.A.!

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Business Insider peeks inside 740 Park

Posted on by Michael Gross

There’s a snappy slide show of real-estate-listing photos of apartments now on sale at 740 Park on Business Insider today. There’s even a news hook for it–announced the day before–the listing of Vera Wang‘s fab duplex there. And since the item claims that I “run a blog about the building,” I figured I’d better link to show it’s still alive, even if my attention has moved elsewhere, to the west coast, for instance. But what the hey, I say. New babies tend to hog all the attention. Today’s the six-year-old’s turn. Proving there’s life in this not-quite-abandoned old blog yet.

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Unreal Estate #2 in L.A.

Posted on by Michael Gross

In the week ending on Christmas, Unreal Estate hit #2 on the nonfiction bestseller list at Book Soup in West Hollywood. Riot on the Sunset Strip!

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Coming Attractions: Unreal Estate on the Road, Winter 2012

Posted on by Michael Gross

I’ll be giving talks and signing copies of Unreal Estate: Money, Ambition and the Lust For Land in Los Angeles in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Palm Beach in weeks to come. On Sunday evening February 12th (from 6-8 PM), I’ll give a talk at a buffet dinner at the Beverly Hills Women’s Club. On February 13th, I’ll speak at the Aaroe Architectural Program at the Pacific Design Center’s Silver Screen Theater, on the Second Floor at 8687 Melrose Ave. That program is from 10:45 AM– 12:30 PM. And on March 2nd, I’ll join one of my favorite writers, Sally … Continue reading

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Curbed.com suggests an unreal stocking stuffer

Posted on by Michael Gross

Curbed National today takes notice of the great Times review of Unreal Estate which, it reminds, “might be best described as what would happen if Us Weekly and Architectural Digest had a love child that was much smarter than either.”

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WHOSE Times? WHY silence?

Posted on by Michael Gross

Looks like I’m not the only one with a Christmas gripe against someone at The New York Times. The Newspaper Guild’s letter to Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is astonishing. But it’s vital to remember a lesson I learned while writing my penultimate book Rogues’ Gallery on The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some took that book as an attack against the institution itself when all I did was try to accurately describe the background, motives and actions of the often-flawed individuals who support it and allow its greatness to flourish. Today’s…what shall we call them?…issues at the New York Times–mine and now, … Continue reading

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The Los Angeles Times raves about “gilt-y pleasures” of Unreal Estate

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“We’ve heard it before — Americans don’t like to read, they just want to ogle celebrities and watch shows about houses on TV. So how about a book that allows the reader to ogle celebrities and their homes to bring them back to reading?” asks Alana Semuels in The Los Angeles Times today. “That’s just what Michael Gross has provided in ‘Unreal Estate.’…It can sometimes read like real estate porn, with paragraphs of jaw-dropping details about a type of extravagance that might have been scorned even by the very wealthy on the Titanic. But he also leaves the reader with … Continue reading

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Absent malice

Posted on by Michael Gross

“It’s a message to the press: Don’t ask questions,” says Robin Wright early in David Fincher‘s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, speaking of the demonization of reporter Mikael Blomqvist that drives the narrative. Thank goodness that can’t happen here.

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Still a bestseller: Unreal!

Posted on by Michael Gross

Unreal Estate is now in its fifth week on the non-fiction bestseller list of the Los Angeles Times. Happy holidays and thanks to all who’ve put and kept it there!

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Old L.A., New L.A. at the Bel-Air

Posted on by Michael Gross

In the January issue of Travel + Leisure, I check into the re-imagined Hotel Bel-Air and check out with a story about its illustrious past and its new look for the future.

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