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.

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)

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.

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 →

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

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.

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)

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 →

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)

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.

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.”

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.

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

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!

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 →

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.”

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 →

“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 →

“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.

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!

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.

A few weeks back, talking about Unreal Estate and Natalie Wood on Tyler Brule‘s The Monocle Daily podcast, I coined a term, The Culture of Stupid, to describe too much of ours. This week, that inspired my Crain’s New York Business Commentary column, “Discarding the Kards.”

Unreal Estate is featured in the Daily News two days in a row. Tomorrow, its “Best Places” section includes a Q&A with me and reporter Gina Pace about the book and HBO’s plans to make it into a series.

In today’s Daily News, Frank DiGiacomo‘s Gatecrasher column asked me to put my two cents in on New York Times critic Janet Maslin, after spotting my various posts here reprinting e-mails I’ve received about her recent review of Unreal Estate. He also spelled her name right and ran her picture. In today’s New York Post, Jennifer Ceaser visits my apartment for one of the Home section’s weekly peeks at how the un-1% live. And in broadsheet news, a story on A-1 of today’s Times follows my Crain’s New York Business Commentary column last week, “Let’s Talk Horse Sense,” on the … Continue reading →

For the fourth week running, Unreal Estate appears on the bestseller list at West Hollywood’s wonderful independent book store, Book Soup (that’s it, at right).

The latest slam of the New York Times review of Unreal Estate comes from a fellow journalist and author: “I was enraged by that review! Totally unfair. I have very strong views about people in media taking advantage of having a platform that people can’t defend themselves against….What Janet Maslin did to your excellent book’s selling prospects for whatever grudge she appears to have against you is to my thinking totally unfair & intolerable & a disgrace to journalism. Anyone reviewing a bk for the NY Times is wielding strong power over someone’s hard work & usually source of income … Continue reading →

Sunday’s Los Angeles Times features Unreal Estate in its guide to the holiday season’s best gift books.

Yesterday’s post of excerpts of comments on the attempted take-down of Unreal Estate by Janet Maslin (at right) has inspired another one, this one worth reprinting in full. It’s from a bestselling author and journalist whose work frequently appears in, ta-da, the New York Times: “Janet Maslin should stop reviewing. She is getting tired, lazy and cranky. She creamed over a book — Annie Jacobsen‘s — about the history of nuclear tests that was absolutely excoriated by nuclear expert Richard Rhodes, and others, for having fraudulent material in it. She writes reviews like she just wants to get them over … Continue reading →

The reviews of New York Times critic Janet Maslin‘s “review” of Unreal Estate are coming in. Here are some excerpts. I’ve left out the senders’ names to protect the innocent. “It’s one thing to dislike a book but another to trash an entire body of work. What raw nerve(s) did you cut into along the way? And whose, one wonders.” [from a former New York Times reporter] “Insane and ridiculous.” [from a publishing executive] “What on earth did you do to mizz janet’s axe that she has such a terrible need to grind?” [from an LA writer] “Idiotic and absurd.” … Continue reading →

Janet Maslin‘s knickers are in a twist over Unreal Estate. You can read her evisceration of book (and author) here.

Unreal Estate rose to #4 on the Book Soup bestseller list this week, topping the Steve Jobs biography for the first time. And last night’s book party at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller attracted model Ekaterina Trifonova, New York Grand Opera soprano Victoria Miningham and clubland’s Alison Devlin (at right), David Redden of Sothebys, James Atlas, photographer Jessica Burstein, Tracey Jackson, Tara Palmeri of Page Six and many more.

A reminder that on Tuesday night November 29th from 6pm-8pm, Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, 50 1/2 E. 64th St., will hold a champagne reception and book-signing celebrating Unreal Estate, co-hosted by John McWhinnie and Tracey Jackson, and on Wednesday October 30th from 7pm-8:30 pm The Wilton Library, 137 Old Ridgefield Road in Wilton, Connecticut, is sponsoring a talk about the book, followed by a Q&A session and signing. Reservations are recommended for the latter event. Please come!

In today’s Crain’s New York Business, I consider the anti-carriage horse movement. In this week’s Newsweek, I look at the 1%, how they spend their money, and how they feel about it. Both subjects, I feel compelled to add, are more than a little unreal. (The image (right) is the lobby of Fifteen Central Park West, subject of my next book on the wacky world of unreal estate.)

Ellen Olivier‘s SocietyNewsLA has posted a report on the launch of Unreal Estate at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills.

Unreal Estate has risen to #6 on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list for hardcover non-fiction this week.

Here’s the last part of my appearance on Connie Martinson Talks Books, talking about Unreal Estate. Click below or any Unreal Estate link to see the first two segments.

In Sunday’s Connecticut Post (as well as the Stamford Advocate and the Greenwich Times), Ellery Queen Award-winning book critic Joe Meyers reviews Unreal Estate. “Gross seems to be picking up where the late, great Dominick Dunne left off in his fascination with the ways that high life and low life come together,” he writes. “Gross gives us the lowdown on an incredible cast of characters…[He] is such a good storyteller that he makes the lives of Los Angeles players most readers have never heard of just as compelling as the accounts of the celebrities.”

The New York phase of Unreal Estate’s debut begins next week. Please join me at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, 50 1/2 E. 64th St., on Tuesday night November 29th from 6pm-8pm, for a champagne reception and book-signing co-hosted by John McWhinnie and Tracey Jackson, and at The Wilton Library, 137 Old Ridgefield Road in Wilton, Connecticut, from 7pm-8:30 pm on Wednesday October 30th for a talk about the book, followed by a Q&A session and signing. Reservations are recommended for the latter event. “The author is the pre-eminent chronicler of America’s rich and powerful and in his latest offering, he uncovers … Continue reading →

Here’s Part Two of my interview with Connie Martinson, which appeared on WNYC here and LA Citview in California.

Jesse Kornbluth, an old friend, touts three books by old friends of his today on headbutler.com, leading with Unreal Estate, which he deems a page-turner. “Why didn’t today’s owners of the great LA estates get together and offer Gross a house of his own not to write the book?” he asks.

Clueless but kind friends often ask authors, “Why don’t you go on Oprah to promote your book?” Aside from the fact that Oprah is no longer on the air, when it came to authors she usually only called the fictional, the famous or the famously dysfunctional. Which is better than the TV shows that favor the criminal and their relatives. Which is why I love Connie Martinson, who puts authors on television simply because they’ve written interesting books. Here is Part One of our interview about Unreal Estate. I’ll post more later, or you can visit Yourtube to see more … Continue reading →

Unreal Estate came on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list at #13 today. Unreal!

My publisher at Random House ran this ad for Unreal Estate in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times (click–perhaps a few times–to read it). Print lives!

Unreal Estate stormed to the #2 spot on the hardcover nonfiction bestseller list at Book Soup, the great independent bookstore on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, today. It’s also featured in this week’s Montecito Journal, where columnist Richard Mineards calls it “a page-turner.”

Last week at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, Luxe Interiors + Design Magazine, the City of Beverly Hills and the Friends of Greystone, one of the starring estates in Unreal Estate, co-hosted a launch party for the book. Today, New York Social Diary’s Nancy Stoddart covers the party and says, “Unreal Estate has it all: movie stars, murders, strippers, pimps, playboys and Mafiosi alongside the founding members of Los Angeles society…The book is a great read for anyone wants to know more about the storied mansions located in the golden triangle of Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills … Continue reading →

The Sunday Daily News featured Unreal Estate yesterday in Sherryl Connelly‘s For Your Consideration column, alongside Stephen King and Bill Maher. “Very telling,” she said.

“The latest dishy page-turner from Michael Gross,” says Stephanie Murg of the design blog UnBeige, is “a scandal-studded survey of 16 trophy estates in L.A.’s best neighborhoods.” Read our interview here.

Click here to listen to the interview about Unreal Estate that shocked the little old ladies of Pasadena.

In “What To Read While You’re Hibernating,” Daily Candy, touts Unreal Estate. “You know you want to press your nose up against the windows of those fabulous Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills, and Bel Air megamansions,” it says. “Author Michael Gross gets you access with his juicy, secret history of L.A.’s wealthiest, glitziest, over-the-top enclaves. Get behind-the-scenes details of the lurid luminaries of La La Land with an engaging read that starts with the mob history of Beverly Park.”