Just know that I’m sure this post will get like five comments, but I love writing about real estate, especially when it’s crazy-amazing real estate. George Clooney bought his Italian mansion – on the edge of Lake Como – in 2002. He bought it for a steal at $10 million from the Heinz family, and ever since then, he spends most summers in Italy. Como is often where he finalized the contracts (ha!) on his girlfriends and the girlfriends often made their debuts on his arm post-Como. The Italians love him too – they call him Giorgio, they respect his privacy and Como has even introduced harsher laws towards the paparazzi, mostly to protect George and his guests. George did bring in Vanity Fair photographers years ago to do a photoshoot on the property – you can see some photos here (and the VF cover, above, is from the same 2003 shoot in Como). It’s a really beautiful estate and it’s easily the jewel in Clooney’s real estate portfolio. So… could Clooney ever sell?
George Clooney might sell his beloved Lake Como estate at the end of the summer amid concerns over paparazzi constantly photographing him and wife Amal there. Sources tell Page Six that Clooney is thinking of accepting an offer of as much as $100 million for his lakeside, 18th-century Villa Oleandra, which he bought from the Heinz family in 2002, reportedly for around $10 million.
The star is hugely popular in the northern Italy area — “He’s like the mayor of the lake,” a source said — but he’s troubled by the attention he gets when he’s at the gorgeous, cream-colored, shuttered mansion in Laglio. Photographers have recently caught George and Amal saying farewell to Robert De Niro after he and wife Grace Hightower came over for dinner. Then, this week, Clooney was photographed shirtless as he and Amal caught the sunset with a friend.
A source told us, “George loves the area and the people who live there, but is conscious of the attention he gets when he is in town. He has received a huge offer for the villa, which he is considering, and he would buy another, less accessible property in another area of Italy.”
In April, it was reported that Laglio mayor Roberto Pozzi had established a no-go zone around the Oscar winner’s villa and Villa Margherita next door, which Clooney also owns, and anyone caught snooping within 300 feet of the property would be fined $550.
In 2007, Clooney had considered selling the villa after then-mayor Giuseppe Mantero tried to turn a boat dock next to the house into a park “for viewing George Clooney’s place,” the actor said, adding that residents including himself signed a petition against the plan. Clooney told Australia’s news.com.au, “And I said, ‘If you want to go forward with this, and if it’s my fault that it’s happening, then I should leave.’ I don’t want their town being ruined.” The mayor ditched the plan. Lakefront villas in the area rarely come on the market and it’s common for wealthy house hunters to make huge offers. Clooney’s rep didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.
Well, now we know that after George’s all-boys road trip down Route 66, he went to Como and met up with Amal. Amal must have been exhausted after working for two weeks straight in London! Yes, it was time for another break. Honestly, I could see this going either way. If you bought a home for $10 million and you were offered $100 million for it… that’s an incredible investment. I could also understand if Clooney wanted to keep the Como house, just because he loves it so much. Plus, it now has some sentimental value – George claims he met Amal in Italy two summers ago and that’s how they started up. And if you believe that…
Photos courtesy of VF, WENN.
House is beautiful but it clearly needs a new roof.
That was my first thought too!
Or Amal was like, I am your final contract and I don’t need to be reminded in the press that is how it was with your ex’s.
That was my thought….too many of THOSE memories haunting the house.
Elisabetta was/is still my favorite. She was a wonderful train wreck!
Trust me, the Italians won’t be mourning the loss, especially of her…
Wow. How much money must you have if you can overpay for a house by $90 million? Obscene.
Well not only has the property appreciated, but George himself got it for a ridiculously low price. Now, I don’t know the actual value, but it’s worth far more than what Clooney actually paid for it.
100 Million is a drop in the bucket for some people. It would be a wonderful place for some very wealthy person who is not well known. They would not be hounded by paps like George is. It is time to sell the place if you can’t even see guests off without being photographed. As he said, he can find somewhere else that is less accessible to paps.
It is one hell of a profit, isn’t it?
Lake Como is such a special place; I would never leave. But I suppose you could find another estate with more privacy.
If he wanted privacy he wouldn’t have made such a spectacular 3 day show of his wedding.
Can’t have it both ways – George.
That was Amal’s day and she loved being photographed as any bride would be. I doubt George could have cared less about having a spectacular wedding. He did it for her and I think that’s kind of sweet. He obviously loves her very much.
Sabrina you are such a naive !
Sabrine- That wedding was all for Georges benefit, no one elses. He wanted the world to see how big and estravagant wedding he could put on. He wanted to outdo Brad and Angelina as much as he could. This guy is so arrogant and full of himself and his own importance. He thinks hes the biggest moviestar in the world, what a joke.
Very well stated, Maya. He paid for that beard, guess he really wanted to show it off.
It’s so crazy how different the rich live. I can barely afford an apartment, and he’s wondering if he should sell one of his many properties for $100 million. I can’t imagine even visiting some place as beautiful as that, let alone living there.
Don’t mind me, I’ll be having a mini pity party now.
Can I join the pity party, I have booze and snacks. I am also willing to press my face against the fancy rich people glass windows to see how the other half live.
I”ll join you too. Let’s throw rocks through their windows and steal their cake!
Here is one of your five comments on this story:
HA! –> “amid concerns over paparazzi constantly photographing him and wife Amal there.”
Maybe that’s true if you change the name “Amal” to another name. But I think we are officially past believing the “she is just a shy flower” tales because how many pap photos have you seen of her beaming in London, LA, NYC? Now. how many of them in Como? Of her fleeing paps in Como? Of them supping in Como and ducking from the cameras in shy consternation? Of them meeting in Como? Them falling in love in Como? Her hugging human rights victims as she shelters them in Lake Como? Uh……..none?
Maybe he is selling for the money. Maybe selling pre-divorce. Maybe selling because she knows it is his very special bolt-hole and she does not want him to have a very special bolt-hole unless it is a fine NYC hotel. Maybe selling because his shtick is no longer being the soulmate-lonely deep misunderstood playboy with back pain? Now he is to be the settled man with home and privacy hedges in posh London like a real, oh, ambassador-type politician capable of being on the world stage because he has married a “world famous hottest attonery” and can ride a motorbike again like a properly healthy candidate type fellow?
Yeah. I am not buying other story lines. Nope! Nope!
Maybe it is PR & he couldn’t get the 100 he asked using papz to get more money from it
Fa, that is a very solid theory too. He strikes me as at least a sound businessman if nothing else. No way would he toss this beautiful prime place he loves aside for a silly reason like pap access which is already seemingly under control. But PR like this could possibly help whip up the interest and thus, actual market value. Esp to rich people who require privacy and control too. Tequila investment cash?
🙂
If you don’t write for a living, you should! (Bowing before your keen wit and pithy, well-turned phrases)
🙂 I think we all should!!
My theory is he is selling up because the big bucks isnt coming his way as much as it used to. He also has a very high maintenance wife to keep, and probably needs the cash to keep her happy. I remember George saying in an interview one time, that if the worst came to the worst he could always sell his Villa in Como, maybe that time has come, his films are flopping, hes no longer mr popular, and he is starting to loose his looks and charisma. Have to say he looks good in that Vanity Fair pic.
Cash in while you can, is what I think.
George shirtless….ugh
Couple of possibilities. Mrs. Clooney might not like all the ghosts in that house and he has to get rid of it and a $100 mil pay day is not a bad thing since his films have not exactly been huge hits lately. BUT, since he owned it before marriage, it is all his and if, not saying they will, but if they ever split, it would still be all his and his sanctuary.
I also think he likes being an Italian Prince with his villa. Paparazzi have never been an issue before, why would they all of a sudden be a concern. They have never tried to avoid them before. Who knows how he will deal with it if this is in fact true.
I took your first paragraph literally for a minute. It’s HAUNTED!!!
It is…with the ghosts all of his other companions. Like Cabo in winter with Rande and company, they all made the same summer trips to Como.
Please get the scoop on the trump. Trump is getting messy and dropping tea on Macy’s and the president of NBC.
There have always been paparazzi photos of Clooney and his guests at that property, so that’s nothing new. If he’s actually going to sell now, it has to be because something else has recently changed. (Or a $90,000,000 profit margin is just too tempting for anyone to turn down.)
That place is incredible. Too bad my extra $100 mil is spoken for, or else I’d snap up the place.
This is when I wish I was George’s friend. I’ve read interviews or sightings of so many celebs who he just turns that place over to when he’s not there and says, go stay there, have fun. One couple said they thought it was so gracious his offer of his Italian home but were stunned when they went there that George even had his chef there to take care of them.
Say what you want about George, but the man is generous. I want to be invited to that gorgeous mansion in Italy with a private chef.
Honestly, I would rather be George’s friend than his girlfriend/wife – the shelf life of a Friend of George is much longer than the women he’s been involved with.
I think he would be fool to sell – a property like that comes along once a decade or so (hence the price someone else is apparently willing to pay for it), you can’t just go down the road a few miles and find another one.
Sounds to me like he’s sending a message to the paparazzi or the townspeople helping them. He’s be telling them to back off a little or they’ll lose what little access they get now when he’s in Como, and if it gets worse he could just leave and they’ll be out luck.
woah crazy price.
100,000,000 is so hard to understand. even if you break it into parts of a huge sum like 5,000,000 its still like this:
5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000
I love this!
What a beautiful place. He certainly has courted his share of publicity, especially recently, but should still be able to enjoy his private home without people intruding on his privacy.
I won’t read anything more into this than $90,000,000 profit (!!!!!!!!!!!!). Seriously I don’t care what the real story is or isn’t. That is more than enough motivation.
The villa de beard is for sale?! Sign me up.
LOL!!! Villa de beard-LOL! Love it, thanks for the laugh….
I love reading about real estate. It’s my porn.
You want to have fun go on google Earth and “travel” around the lakeshore looking at the buildings. Much fun. Pretty streets.
Calling bs on this..if he’s selling it’s strictly because he needs the cash, and has nothing to do with pics…the Mrs makes the exes look like amateurs in the schedule the paps/fame ho business. Old quotes that were probably bull then, and still are.
Totally agree! How can he keep up 4 properties? And the 2 last movies were bombs, even with all the creative accounting on MM.
Yep, MTE, boredblonde…
As I wondered in another thread, where’s George getting the money for his and Amal’s new mansion outside of London and their suddenly more extravagant lifestyle? He’s never had as much wealth as people think, always reinvested in film projects that didn’t necessarily do big BO or put it towards his causes. I dunno, maybe the Casamigos business really is making him a pretty good profit?
In any case, this all seems like a PR ploy to drive up the price of the LC property.
(I mean, he’s gotta do something to make up for the spectacular failure of Tommowland…)
Can’t imagine his tequila doing well in a very crowded market. Patron has a much higher image and sponsors tons of events.
His price points are well above other celebrity brands. Casamigos silver is $42 vs Cabo Wabo $20. Who really buys a second bottle for that price?
Actually when I said needs the $ I was thinking how his production co made a sudden exit from the Tom Ford deal giving lame excuse. They were pitching a tv show, but that’s history and the upcoming no-date ‘planned projects’ are all political stuff that rarely does well. His film with Jodie foster directing looks pretty bleh, and if there was $ to go along, it had to be shared with Julia R. Should also consider profits from sale would be fair game in a split, while house is not.
emmet, I’m more a bourbon girl, and $35-a-bottle is a lot for me but about my price point…
This past Cinco de Mayo, I was going to splurge on some Patron because I tried it once and loved, then I thought I’d compare it to Casamigos. Not being a tequila drinker at home, though, I was shocked (shocked, I tell you!) to see how expensive a bottle of good tequila can get!
As it turns out, both are good, according to reviews, but overpriced compared to what else is on the market, which is already crowded as you mentioned it, with tequila having its heyday now. (Gin and rum are also happening…)
So, yeah, boredblonde, maybe George really does need the money from an LC sale?
No comment on Clooney selling his villa but he was really handsome on the VF cover. VF did good stories back then too. Gore Vidal ,Dominick Dunne and Christopher Hitchens writing articles ,those were the days.
I enjoyed VF in those days too, and I remember seeing that cover and thinking how very classic “movie star” he looked.
I haven’t read the magazine in ages, so I don’t know how it is anymore.
Those were the days. I was reading some Tina Brown vintage issues I found in a friend’s library during the winter. SO good, gossipy, daring, pithy, bold and demi-shocking, ripe and funny, with really stunning interesting photos. The old stories were still great. (And yes, Dominick Dunne forever.) The writers and editors back then seemed to fearlessly wrangle surprising pay dirt out of every subject.
By chance, I got a VF subscription for Christmas from a friend. It’s okay-ish, a bit better than it was when I stopped looking at it about six or seven years ago, but IMO it’s still seated in the bland bleachers, and still kissy-media-deal-safe, not as crisp or witty or daring as one would expect. A dry vermouth chuckle over grilled fish at 7 p.m., NOT a call to a friend at a party to go get a copy NOW because you won’t believe what they said about —–(fill in blank). Even the snark is soft-pants sleepy.
It seems like it’s paginated with a spatula, too.
Another former great lively sly VF voice (also a former Tatler article writer) — Vicki Woods. Here, her piece on Angelina Jolie, for VOGUE:
http://www.vogue.com/865473/december-cover-angelina-jolie/
AND, HER COMMENT ABOUT GEORGE CLOONEY BEING IDEAL AS “AN ACTOR WE (UK) COULD VOTE” FOR:
“There is no British equivalent of George Clooney or Robert Redford, the sort of hero on whose broad manly chest a woman might occasionally want to bury her head.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/vickiwoods/3554171/What-we-need-is-an-actor-to-vote-for.html
I am a long time VF subscriber and yes, during Tina Brown’s reign the magazine was so much better.
Graydon Carter doesn’t hold a candle to her. His hair is more interesting than Tina’s though.
Blackcat, I agree with everything you’ve said. He doesn’t hold a candle to her! But his hair IS quite spectacular, like a luxurious endless beach towel.
I loved VF then, but I am still a subscriber because their investigative stories are great. Truly wonderful. Grayson Carter’s “voice” is different from Tina Brown, to be sure, and I feel like under his lead the celebrity coverage is more fawning and less thoughtful. But VF endures!
He was so handsome and witty. I remember Ellen Degeneres was stalking him with celebrities and tricks trying to get him on. Brad Pitt was even involved in some trick. She finally got him on. Here he is so handsome and funny on Ellen back six years ago in 2009 when finally on and talking about getting Brad Pitt back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEJTZWJ1QdQ
So true…
I have stacks of old VFs from the mid-90s through 2000s when I used to subscribe and read it almost religiously, less so for the celebrity covers and more for the incredible journalistic content. If you’ve read it as long as I have, you’d probably remember some of the crazy stories from it that you wouldn’t ever read about anywhere else.
(Maybe all my copies will be collectible someday…)
Save them!! My friend has theirs bound.
I have a collection of Tatlers from the mid to late 80s I found online and again, amazing articles. But yeah, VF had some crazy stuff. Gloria Von T&T stories alone were worth the price of admission.
Actually I looked at that cover and wondered, “WTF did he do to his face?!” and whether that was really his body. Then I realized it’s about 12 years old. I love VF too, especially all the true crime stories involving rich people. The winner had to be Klaus and Sunny von Bulow.
Amal’s clothes budget is bankrupting George. LOL
hahhaha “MORE cartoon shoes?!? Damn, girl! Rande, time to sell Como! Let’s ask a hundred million! hahhahah! More tequila, buddy?”
Or, Theory #2: he and Amal care about human rights, and are going to personally bail out Greece!
If it’s gonna bankrupt him, it should look better than that!
Amal worked for two weeks straight? What kind of crisis are we in?
You have to make tens of millions a year to be George Clooney. Perhaps it’s time to free up some cash.
I think he’s smart to sell. His career is in toilet and she can’t make the payments.
I agree, the future isnt looking too bright in his career, and he needs the cash.
If I’m not mistaken, he has always been renting out the place most for most of the year:
http://www.luxuryretreats.com/destinations/europe/italy/lake-como/como/villa-oleandra-115172
I doubt he wants to sell- it’s his only true hideaway, paps or not. He knows when they are there, and where they are. And the locals don’t bother him. And as far as I understand, his wife doesn’t mind a camera, or two. But there was another story about him looking for a house in France…maybe his wife fancies a new place without all the sweet memories George might have;-)
Heehee, I looked at the photos, George Clooney has a room with a Hello Kitty picture in it!
The way she allegedly likes to shop, George is probably considering selling it to pay all of Amal’s bills.
If he does sell it, it would be the stupidest thing he has ever done. He loves that place and he won’t find another home that’s so magical for him. He shouldn’t abandon real estate for a woman.
If George is a smart guy he would hold on to the Villa, it is his free and clear.
His career is in the toilet, and if he plan to run for Political Office, his chances now are not so great now.
Oh, I’m voting for she doesn’t like visiting the housing equivalent of his little black book.
Loved Vanity Fair back then for sure. When I first saw the cover I thought of Cary Grant a la It takes a Thief but of course he spent his private time with his Rande- Randolph Scott. Wouldn’t it be a blast to join him there so we can short sheet the bed and put fake doggie do on the carpet… you joker you. Do he and his Rande sneak up behind each other and throw them into the pool. 100 mil for a movie star frat house . Just wondering if Amal puts saltpeter in his drink when he’s not looking.