- The real estate market is in the crapper all across the
United States, even for castles. That disappointing news came courtesy of Brandon and Kate
Smith of Fenton, Mo., finding a new home just down the block from their old one
and that new home being Stuart Castle, a 7,800-square-foot structure in Eureka,
Mo., equipped with peepholes, secret passageways and a stone tower, all for a
mere $395,000. "I went to
high school right down the street and never had a clue about it," Brandon
Smith said. His new domicile castle has four bedrooms, seven bathrooms and
eight fireplaces, all while sitting on six acres of land and sporting with a
gourmet chef's kitchen, an indoor barbeque and a pool. Its wooden floors and
granite countertops should push the price much higher, but selling a home is
difficult and Smith, a mortgage banker, was told about the property years ago
by a friend in real estate. He and his wife could not afford the $2 million
asking price at that time, so they waited. "I was 24, 25 and I was like,
'That's really cool,'" Smith said. "I kept an eye on it for years and then long story short, it became available."
The castle is legit, having been originally built by Wallace Stuart, a
now-retired dermatologist, who bought 111 acres in the area in 1968. It was
later owned by George Warren Brown, the founder of the Brown Shoe Company, who
used it as a summer vacation spot. The castle now encases the 4,500-square-foot
summer home Brown built in 1918 and to add a romantic note to the story, Stuart
built the castle for his wife, and high school sweetheart, Joan. "My
nickname for her was 'Princess,'" Stuart, 78, said. "I asked her what
kind of house she'd like to end up living in and she said she wanted a big
white house on a hill. I said well a princess should have a castle and someday
I'll build you one." The castle sat vacant from 1980-95 and was often
vandalized by local teens. A security guard protecting the property was shot
and killed as well, adding to the home’s troubled history. Maybe now a new king
and queen can write a new chapter for it………..
- Finally, the most important man wearing New Orleans
Saints black and gold right now has his money. Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints
have reached an agreement on a five-year, $100 million contract with a guaranteed
$60 million for the All-Pro, Super Bowl champion and owner of the NFL record
for most passing yards in a season. Brees and the Saints went back and forth on
a new deal or the team using its franchise tag on him, which would have forced
him to play for one year at the average of the top five players at his
position. Mickey Loomis and Brees' agent, Tom Condon, hammered out the deal
after weeks and weeks of back and forth and both knew a new deal needed to get
done. "I appreciate the diligence and steadfast efforts by both sides to
get this deal done," Brees said. "I love my organization, team, and
the city of New Orleans. Thank you especially to (owners) Gayle and Tom
Benson for the opportunity. Now I need to go earn it." He had until Monday
at 4 p.m. ET to reach a long-term contract with the Saints or his only option
would have been to play in 2012 under the terms of his franchise tender of
$16.371 million. He insisted he would not report to training camp under those
terms, but now he will report and receive a 2012 salary of $40 million that is
fully guaranteed, breaking down as $37 million in bonus and $3 million in salary. The team gave itself a three-day out to waive Brees after
the 2013 and 2014 seasons, which seems unlikely but it always possible in the
N(ot) F(or) L(ong). Signing Brees was vital with head coach Sean Payton and
starting middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma out for the season, assistant coach
and interim head coach Joe Vitt out for the first six games and defensive end
Will Smith out for four games for their roles in the team’s bounty scandal.
Having their emotional and locker room leader around will help the Saints
immensely during a time of uncertainty………..
- The battle of the airwaves goes on and it is turning
extremely nasty in the war between Viacom and DirecTV. DirecTV accuses Viacom of
attempting to raise its prices and thereby cause higher bills for DirecTV
customers and Viacom accuses DirecTV of not negotiating in good faith for a new
contract. That means millions of DirecTV subscribers have lost access to the
likes of VH1, MTV, Comedy Central and other popular channels. But hey, fans of
shows on those networks can always go online to watch episodes, right? They
could……until Viacom yanked full episodes of shows like "SpongeBob Squarepants"
and "iCarly" or "Jersey Shore" and "The Daily Show"
from its website. The move has further infuriated the 20 million DirecTV
customers who continue to find a dark screen when they change the channel to Viacom-owned
nets "Viacom is now not only holding DirecTV customers hostage, but all online
viewers as well," according to a statement from DirecTV. "Is this
just another underhanded negotiating tactic, or does this mean that Viacom will
no longer offer its content free online?" The move could be a double-edged
sword for Viacom, which has seen ratings for its star performer, Nickelodeon,
drop double-digits in the last year while some of its popular shows were
available online for free. After looking at those numbers, DirecTV decided it
was not interested in paying the 30-percent increase Viacom wants for all of
its channels. The two sides failed to reach a new agreement before their old
contract expired last weekend and Tuesday night, all 17 Viacom channels went
black on the satellite provider. "That's over $1 billion on top of what
you were already paying for not only MTV and Nickelodeon, but also all of their
other channels that you might never watch. You should be able to decide which Viacom channels you want and which
you don't," according to a statement on DirecTV's website. Viacom has
remained mostly silent so far, although a company spokesman did insist that
many shows are still available online. This dispute doesn’t sound likely to end
any time soon………
- Harry Potter is coming back to the world of fantasy
movies adapted from popular books. No, J.K. Rowling hasn’t revealed a long-lost
new chapter to “Harry Potter.” Instead, Daniel Radcliffe has taken a role in “Horns,”
is an adaptation of a book by Joe Hill, son of acclaimed horror writer Stephen King.
Radcliffe will play the peculiarly named main character Ig Perrish. “Horns” is
the story of a man, Ig, who becomes the primary suspect in the investigation of
his girlfriend's brutal rape and murder. The fantasy side of the story is that
Ig wakes up from a night of drinking only to find a set of horns growing out of
his head. The horns bestow upon him the ability to make people confess to their
sins and give in to selfish impulses, skills he puts to use in the search for
the truth about what happened to his girlfriend. Director Alexandre Aja ("The
Hills Have Eyes") will lead the project and has spoken about how much of
an impact the book had on him after reading it. "After reading Joe Hill's
cult book, I couldn't resist temptation to dive into the devilish underworld and
reinvent a universal myth," Aja said in a statement. " 'Horns' is a
wild ride of sin and crime, with a love story in its heart." Although it
does fall under the fantasy heading, “Horns” is drastically different than
“Harry Potter,” which explains why it appealed to Radcliffe, who has made a
point of avoiding any roles with even a remote similarity to playing the
teenage wizard. “Horns” is obviously much darker and so is his next film, "Kill
Your Darlings," a murder mystery of a different sort, following the real-life
pioneers of the Beat generation………..
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