It’s one thing for a palatial estate to brag scads of beach frontage or eye-watering asks—and certainly many of these compounds tout those qualities as the least of their exorbitant features—but sometimes there’s nothing to get the well-heeled vacationers into an over-priced rental quite like dropping a name. Whether Howard Hughes once owned the place or Bob Marley took solitude there, a rental with a star pedigree never has any qualms about asking, oh, $408K a week. Below, 32 choice rentals vying for the world’s billionaires any way they can. If that means shouting “Edward Cullen” from the rooftops—well, then that’s the just the real estate world we live in.
RENTABLE NAME-DROPPERS
1. FRANK SINATRA
1148 EAST ALEJO ROAD, PALM SPRINGS, CA 92262
WEBSITE
Designed for Frank Sinatra and his first wife, the 1947 Twin Palms Estate not only brags true midcentury desert bones—Sinatra reportedly walked into the office of architect E. Stewart Williams “wearing a sailor’s cap and licking and ice cream,” and said, simply, “I wanna house.”—but also that famous piano-shaped swimming pool. Anyway, the place fell into disrepair after Sinatra owned it, and it was bought in 1997 for just $138K. After a hefty restoration, the house now asks $2,600 a night—a flip story so inspirational it nig brings a tear to the eye.
2. JAMES BOND
VIA DEL BERSAGLIERE, 58100 ALBERESE, GROSSETO, ITALY
WEBSITE
Villa Le Torre near the Tuscan town of Talamone was featured in 2008’s Quantum of Solace. The rough-hewn seaside villa sleeps eight in four double bedroom suites, and rents for $1,936 a day.
3. KATE MIDDLETON AND PRINCE WILLIAM
HOLYHEAD ROAD, ISLE OF ANGLESEY, UK
WEBSITE
At the beginning of their romance, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge rented the Bordorgan Home Farm on Wales’ Isle of Anglesey. Back then known as the humble Prince William and Kate Middleton, the couple rented it for about $1,200 a month (by today’s conversion rates), though now that it’s back on the rental market (the pair and baby George are poised to move to their Kensington Palace apartment, after all), it’s expected to fetch much, much more.
4. MARILYN MONROE
Holyhead Road, Isle of Anglesey, UK”
1870 SUNSET PLAZA DRIVE, LOS ANGELES, CA 90069
WEBSITE
Marilyn Monroe once lived in this estate 1.53 miles above Sunset Blvd., with awesome views of downtown and the Pacific Ocean. Rent for the Devoe House starts at $6,500 a day. Then again, Marilyn was always a lady of luxury.
5. BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON
1870 Sunset Plaza Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90069″
WEBSITE
This August the Clintons rented this wildly expensive Sagaponack, N.Y., estate in the Hamptons from (surprise!) huge Republican donor Michael Saperstein for a rumored$200K a month, which is its current ask. The 3.5-acre property happens to be one of the most expensive rentals in the country right now.
6. LANCE ARMSTRONG
40 CENTRAL PARK SOUTH, NEW YORK, NY 10019
WEBSITE
The penthouse at 40 Central Park South recently returned to the rental market asking$22K a month. For a rather humdrum (if gloriously sited and rather expensive) apartment, the unit boasts an impressive celebrity pedigree trifecta, having been home to Lance Armstrong, Liza Minnelli, and Broadway bigwig Michael Bennett.
7. BING CROSBY
70375 CALICO ROAD, RANCHO MIRAGE, CA 92270
WEBSITE
The Bing Crosby Estate, located in Rancho Mirage, the same Palm Springs, Calif., neighborhood as Frank Sinatra’s old place, has gained a reputation as the “Playground of the Presidents,” and given that it once played host to—scandale!—Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy, it’s not hard to understand why. Naturally, the listing also brags about the decorative White Christmas crooner memorabilia, which, at $3,000 a night, is rather expensive to stare at.
8. BELLA AND EDWARD CULLEN
AVENIDA ORLANDO CARPINELLI, 1, PARATY – RIO DE JANEIRO, 23970-000, BRAZIL
WEBSITE
In Breaking Dawn, newlyweds Bella (neé Swan) and Edward Cullen honeymoon in this isolated modern spread on the edge of Rio de Janeiro. Highlights: more than 720 feet of private beach and exclusive access by way of boat or helicopter. Oh, and it’s gorgeous—though it kind of has to be for $4,000 a day.
9. MARC JACOBS
40 MERCER STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10013>
WEBSITE
Earlier this year, fashion designer Marc Jacobs looked for a well-heeled New Yorker to lease his condo in Jean Nouvel’s 40 Mercer Street building for $37,500 a month. It’ssince been rented but that’s not to say it won’t be available at some point again: rumor is that Jacobs lived here only until his West Village home could recover from the beating it took during Hurricane Sandy.
10. BRUCE WILLIS
LEEWARD HIGHWAY, TKCA 1ZZ, TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
Actor and action movie requisite Bruce Willisis one of a handful of celebrities who own vacation rentals at Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands. His six-acre oceanfront compound packs in a five-bedroom main house and two three-bedroom guest villas. All this, plus a 70-foot heated negative-edge swimming pool goes for an eye-watering$20,873 a night.
11. GORE VIDAL
VIA PETRITO, 84010 RAVELLO SALERNO, ITALY
WEBSITE
Gore Vidal’s estate on the Amalfi Coast, a villa known as The Swallow’s Nest sits atop a 1,000-foot hill, and has played host to the likes of Tennessee Williams, Andy Warhol, Greta Garbo, and Mick Jagger. It’s been sold to a luxury hotelier, but is, for now, being rented by some private gazillionaire. The ask is hush-hush.
12. LEONARDO DICAPRIO
23736 MALIBU COLONY ROAD, SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, MALIBU, CA 90265
WEBSITE
It’s hard to fill the shoes of mega-talented, mega-rich, mega-handsome actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and it turns out it’s just as difficult to fill his beach spread in Malibu. Late last year DiCaprio hulked the beachfront manse onto the rental market for $75K a month. It’s even harder for short-term rentals; if you want it for less than six months, the price skyrockets to $150K a month.
13. DAVID COPPERFIELD
GEORGE ST., NASSAU, THE BAHAMAS
WEBSITE
Magician extraordinaire David Copperfield rents out his private island in the Bahamas, which sleeps 24 in an English Colonial-style main house, for heart-thudding $367,500 a day—and that’s for the off-season. For Christmas, New Years, and other holidays that price shoots up to $52,500 a day.
14. GLORIA ESTEFAN
40 EAST STAR ISLAND DRIVE, MIAMI BEACH, FL 33139
WEBSITE
Latin pop icon Gloria Estefan is not only renting out her guest house on Miami’s Star Island, but also her main manse, which she recently listed for $75K a month. On offer: seven bedrooms, 330 feet of ocean frontage, and a private dock. Oh there’s a pool, too, but for a megamanse in Miami that’s kind of a given.
15. PAMELA ANDERSON
23445 MALIBU COLONY ROAD, SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, MALIBU, CA 90265
WEBSITE
Baywatch star Pamela Anderson may have listed, aggressively restaged, and re-listed her Malibu spread, but apparently her cold feet—”I most likely won’t sell … I had too many people interested … it scared me,” she once told the Post—have determined she will try to rent out the place for $27,500 a month.Last time she tried out as a celebrity landlord she asked $50K a month, so we’ll see how this goes.
16. CHEVY CHASE
48 FOX LANE, MOUNT KISCO, NY 10549
WEBSITE
Earlier this summer, actor Chevy Chase thrust his home in Mount Kisco, N.Y., on the rental market for $20K a month. That being said, the listing seems to have disappeared, which seems to indicate that he’s found a renter. There’s always next summer, National Lampoon fans.
17. CHARLES MINGUS
5 GREAT JONES STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10012
WEBSITE
This 2,400-square-foot loft, the former home of jazz great Charles Mingus, recently asked $8,750 a month. If the jazz connection does nothing for you, consider this: it’s also where puppeteer Kermit Love set up studio, building prototypes for Big Bird and Snuffleapagus (!) in the master bedroom.
18. BARACK OBAMA
142 WEST 109TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10025
WEBSITE
Barack Obama paid $180 a month to live in a crappy apartment on NYC’s West 109th Street in his Columbia days. Unit #3E hit the rental market for $2,400 a month last year. It’s no longer available, but the current tenant can only hold on to the political connection for so long before tiring of the completely unremarkable apartment.
19. ONE DIRECTION
15105 MULHOLLAND DRIVE, SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, LOS ANGELES, CA 90077
WEBSITE
Shortly after Curbed covered the listing of this hideous L.A. manse (“a booze cruise to nowhere”) a little, barely known band known as One Direction rented it out for $27K for seven days. Not too shabby for an insane party palace.
20. RIHANNA
932 RIVAS CANYON ROAD, PACIFIC PALISADES, CA 90272
WEBSITE
After a few too many run-ins with a stalker (“her future husband”) Rihanna decamped from her manse in Pacific Palisades, Calif., which she bought for $12M at the end of last year, opting instead to rent it out for $65K a month. No word if there’s been any takers.
21. MERV GRIFFIN
MAIN STREET, LISDOONVARNA, CO. CLARE, IRELAND
WEBSITE
Forget New York lofts or private islands: TV host Merv Griffin’s 45-acre country house in Ireland boasts a 12-room guest house. Also on the property: a golf course, “ample mature woodlands for private walks,” hunting and fishing, and horseback riding. It’s rentable for $36K a week.
22. CHRISTIE BRINKLEY
LEEWARD HIGHWAY, TKCA 1ZZ, TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
WEBSITE
On the same strip of Turks and Caicos’ Parrot Bay as Bruce Willis’ digs is Christie Brinkley’s Lucky House, one of 18 luxury properties owned by the supermodel. This particular villa boasts access to a 13,000-square-foot open-air yoga studio, and it’s a damn good thing: one will most certainly need a lot of namaste after spending $8,107 a day.
23. SIR RICHARD BRANSON
ROAD TO LEVERICK BAY, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
WEBSITE
Described as “a raw emerald anchored in a pool of turquoise” and “a vision of Eden” with “tapering sandbars and shallow coves [to] punctuate the shoreline, and flat planes of sugar white sound form an almost unbroken garland of pristine beaches,” Richard Branson’s private island in the British Virgin Islands—which makes a weird kind of sense considering Branson made his piles of money founding Virgin Group—is available to rent for, um, $408K a week. Interestingly, Branson very recently showed off his newly rebuilt luxury home on Necker Island; after all, the original one burned to the ground two years ago while Kate Winslet was visiting. Embarrassing.
24. ROBERT REDFORD
ALPINE LOOP ROAD, UINTA-WASATCH-CACHE NATIONAL FOREST, TIMPANOGOS CAVE NATIONAL MONUMENT, PROVO, UT 84604
WEBSITE
Actor Robert Redford founded Utah’s Sundance compound in 1969, and now both houses rent for $25K a week, or $15K a week for the three-level main house alone.
25. 007
A3, ORACABESSA, JAMAICA
WEBSITE
This villa in Oracabessa, Jamaica is the true birthplace of Agent 007. Writer Ian Fleming created James Bond here and wrote many of his 14 Bond novels in this pile at the edge of a cliff overlooking a private beach. But that’s not the only name this estate drops: a dozen years after Fleming died, reggae legend Bob Marley moved in. Sean Connery’s Dr. No and Roger Moore’s Live and Let Die were filmed nearby, too. The estate now asks anywhere between $40K and $77K a week.
26. HARPO MARX
71111 LA PAZ ROAD, RANCHO MIRAGE, CA 92270
WEBSITE
Another Rancho Mirage gem sidling up next to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra’s midcentury pads: the Harpo Marx Estate, designed by architect Wallace Neff in the mid 1950s. The rental website describes the desert homestead as a place “as tranquil and quiet as the superstar himself,” with an “abundance of vibrant, picturesque details [to] catch your eye and capture your imagination.” Translation: a tennis court, horse shoe pit, two waterfalls, lagoon with cross-bridge, and 27-foot vaulted ceilings. Oh, and because it isa midcentury Neff, there’s the requisite walls of glass and a “resort-sized” pool. The ask? $25,990 a month.
27. JAMES FRANCO
6000 SANTA MONICA BOULEVARD, LOS ANGELES, CA 90038
WEBSITE
In a successful attempt to create buzz around its L.A. offerings, online room-rental hotspot Airbnb recruited James Franco (as well as actress Anjelica Huston and supermodel Molly Sims) to design one of several pop-up suites in the city’s notable locales. Franco’s “mausoleum” in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery comes with wall-sized paint-by-numbers work and “YOLO” written on the wall. It’s, in theory, available for rent, but it seems there’s no option on Airbnb, perhaps because it’s already booked solid. A shame; it probably would have been the only reasonably affordable rental on this map.
28. KEITH RICHARDS
LEEWARD HIGHWAY, TKCA 1ZZ, TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
WEBSITE
Rock legend Keith Richards is another Parrot Bay-er, and his Rocky Point Villa, available for $8,107 a night, boasts two acres of beachfront property, a garden tiki hut, and—count ’em—three claw-foot bathtubs.
29. ORLANDO BLOOM
2645 OUTPOST DRIVE, LOS ANGELES, CA 90068
WEBSITE
Earlier this summer, newly single actor/pirate/elf Orlando Bloom hulked his scandalous all-black house in L.A.—the one once burgled by the now very famous Bling Ring—on the rental market for $16,500 a month. While still more than likely available as a rental, Bloom more recently placed the “awe inspiring totally private compound” on the market for $4.5M, perhaps because now his separation from model Miranda Kerr has gone public.
30. HOWARD HUGHES
RIM ROAD, PALM SPRINGS, CA 92264
WEBSITE
This home’s list of celebrity tenants is long and storied: Smokey Robinson vacationed here, actress Eva Gabor of Green Acres fame once owned it, The Godfather’s Robert Evans honeymooned here, and, of course, business magnate and aviator Howard Hughes. The three-level abode asks about $3,775 a week.
31. STEVEN SPIELBERG
31100 BROAD BEACH ROAD, SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, MALIBU, CA 90265
WEBSITE
Back in June director Steven Spielberg—Saving Private Ryan, Indiana Jones, Lincoln—nudged his Malibu beach compound on the rental market for a quiet $125K a month. The compound comes with a 7,237-square-foot Craftsman-style main house and accompanying two-bedroom guest house.
32. MICK JAGGER
BELMONT ROAD, SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
WEBSITE
Finally, here’s Mick Jagger’s Stargroves compound on the island of Mustique, part of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Japanese-inspired estate, on the beachfront of L’Ansecoy cay, was built in 1983 for the rocker, who named it after the 16th-century English manor he bought in 1970. (Life is tough as a Rolling Stone, clearly.) Rent on the island ranges from $16K to $22K a week.
Source: www.curbed.com
