Candy Spelling has sold the insanely large 73,500 square foot mansion left to her by her late husband, television producer Aaron Spelling. (He died in June, 2006 at the age of 83, leaving less than a million to his daughter Tori and forcing us to endure years of biographies, sponsored children’s birthday parties, home shopping jewelry lines and reality shows as Tori strives to maintain the lifestyle she’s accustomed to.) The Spelling home was built on the site of Bing Crosby’s former residence, which was demolished in the late 80s to make room for the monstrous 123-room dwelling they called “The Manor.” It’s the biggest home in LA county.

Candy has been trying to offload that house for years, and it includes a bowling alley, barber shop, “china room,” flower cutting room, three gift wrapping rooms and an entry inspired by the Tara mansion in Gone With the Wind. She was originally asking $150 million for it, but has reportedly sold it for a little over half the asking price, $85 million, to a 22 year-old British heiress named Petra Ecclestone. Petra is a “fashion designer” and her dad is Bernie Ecclestone, the CEO of Formula One Management. TMZ reports that he has a net worth of $4 billion. Candy will move to two units in a “condo complex” that cost $35 million and are currently undergoing renovation.

Candy Spelling’s massive 57,000 square-foot home has finally sold — for an undisclosed price — to Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone. The home had been shown since 2008 and officially on the market since 2009, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The home was first listed at $150 million, and while we’re not sure of the final sale price, Realtor.com points out that “listing agents Rick Hilton and Jeff Hyland of Hilton & Hyland and Sally Forster Jones of Coldwell Banker stand to possibly make a combined $9 million in commissions” if it’s anywhere near the original asking price.

Candy’s mansion sits on five acres in the exclusive Holmby Hills neighborhood and contains fourteen bedrooms and twenty-seven bathrooms. It contains special rooms dedicated to activities like wrapping presents and storing silverware, in addition to the usual luxe amenities: wine cellar, bowling alley, screening room, library, and gym, according to the Associated Press.

Petra Ecclestone is a 22-year old fashion designer who has been described as “one of the most spoilt girls in Britain,” according to the Daily Mail. Earlier this year, Ecclestone’s father, Formula One CEO Bernie Ecclestone, bought a £56 million home for Petra in London, who claimed it was for her five dogs.

[From The Huffington Post]

Paris Hilton is seething with jealously right now. This Petra girl is engaged, it happened last month and her daddy flew in Rihanna to sing at her engagement party and gave her a custom Bugatti as an engagement present. Her would-be husband is 26 year-old “businessman” Jamie Stunt. I picture her as a blonde Veruca Salt, demanding “I want it now, daddy!” and getting whatever it is until she moves on to the next thing. She’s going to be stuck with this ginormous house for years, but of course she can always tear parts of it down and rebuild.

Here is a video from Candy’s house [via DListed]

Petra, her sister Tamara and their dad, Bernie Ecclestone:

Petra and her fiance:

Petra, her sister and her fiance:

Candy Spelling:

Photos credit: WENN. House photos credit: realtor.com

Over the past month, the tabloids have been wondering aloud yet again if Tori Spelling is “scary skinny”. At first I defended her, as I usually do. But then I saw some other photos of her, and yes, she is definitely at the “scary skinny” phase. But not according to Tori’s mom Candy! Candy thinks we’re all haters or something. Candy’s defense? Tori has always been scary skin. Something like that:

Candy Spelling, 64, defended jabs about daughter Tori, 36, despite the Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood star’s increasingly shrinking size.

“Tori has always been thin,” she told Hot Stuff at the Broadway opening of Promises, Promises in NYC April 25. “This morning, I was lounging around and saw [Tori's 1996 TV movie] Deadly Pursuit. She was thin there.”

Candy also disputes tabloid Star’s recent report that she can’t stand her daughter’s husband of four years, Dean McDermott, 43, and offered Tori $10 million to leave him.

“Our lawyers wrote very strong letters,” says Candy. “It’s not true.”

[From US Weekly, print edition, May 10, 2010]

Well, I’m glad that’s taken care of. I’m of the generation that grew up on 90210, and while I can say for sure that Tori has always been slender – excepting those hideous implants – she hasn’t always been this thin. This is something that’s been happening over the past year, and denial isn’t helping.

Meanwhile, reports indicate that Tori is working on a deal with ABC for her own daytime talk show. According to the LAT (via Access Hollywood): “The network is said to be looking to create a “Will & Grace” style atmosphere between Tori and a potential co-host, who has not yet been selected.” I hate to say this, but… that’s honestly not the worst idea. I’m sure it will crash and burn, of course, but I could see Tori and some random, bitchy gay dude being absolutely hilarious together.

Reports that long-battling mother and daughter Candy Spelling and Tori Spelling have buried the hatchet are indeed true. Tori confirmed it herself in an interview with E!Online. Candy will be spending time with Tori and husband Dean McDermott, along with their two children Liam and Stella, this Christmas. I wonder if Candy will be using one of her Christmas wrapping rooms for the occasion? I think it’s nice that Liam and Stella have access to their grandmother, but I still can’t help but wonder: how much of this is Tori truly wanting to reconcile with her mom, and how much is a quest for ratings for her reality show? And what about Candy, who has proven herself to be a verbally abusive bitch over the last year – doesn’t she stand to gain some positive PR through this?

Talk about your Christmas miracles.

Tori Spelling and her estranged mom, Candy, are talking again, and the “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood” homemaker feels that the timing couldn’t be better.

“It’s just a blessing that it happened around the holidays,” she told E! News while perusing the holiday goodies at the eBay Mobile Boutique. “And it just makes me think, ‘Wow, it’s an amazing thing and it happened this year and it’s just the best gift we could get.’

“We’re together as a family, and that’s the most important thing. We’re very lucky.”

Not that her 18-month-old daughter, Stella, will believe it.

“Stella is talking up a storm,” Spelling said. “Her latest thing is, ‘I don’t believe this.’ She was eating her sandwich yesterday, and it came undone, and she looks at me and goes, ‘I can’t believe this.’

“I’m like, ‘Me either!’ ”

[From E!Online]

The cynic in me thinks this reconciliation is less of a “miracle” and more of a “sweeps week publicity stunt/Candy Spelling image rehabilitation exercise.” But hey, that’s just me. Time will tell if Candy turns out to be a better grandma than she was a mother. Something tells me that the second Grandma Candy suggests that little Stella needs a nosejob, it’s over – and rightfully so. But at the end of the day, families should be together at Christmas – as long as it’s in the privacy of their own home, without the glare of reality show cameras.

Mike Walker’s gossip column this week in the Enquirer has two pieces of Spelling family drama gossip. Walker’s gossip can be hit or miss – I tend to think the gossip has a grain of truth when he’s talking about the older, more established Hollywood players (like Candy Spelling, Michael Douglas or Mel Gibson) because I think his sources are mostly old-Hollywood. He also has some weird Lohan and Ryan Seacrest fetishes, but I usually ignore that. Anyhoodle, the Spelling gossip was too interesting, weird, funny, crazy and sad to pass up. Here’s the first piece, about Candy Spelling selling her $150 million-plus mansion (gift-wrapping room included):

When I heard Candy Spelling let her dog Madison pick the real estate agent who’d handle the sale of her $150 million Hollywood mansion, I discovered the real story’s even wackier!

According to my source, agents were trotted in to meet Candy and Madison, who snootily rejected each one – until the pooch finally barked approval of a lady agent.

After congratulating her, Candy confided that the idea of letting Madison choose an agent was actually suggested by Aaron Spelling’s ghost! Candy says the minute she made the decision to sell, her deceased producer/hubby materialized and pitched the idea of making it Madison’s choice.

[From the National Enquirer, print edition, September 7 2009]

Before everyone starts screaming “Why would you believe that?” let’s check in with what we already know about Candy – she’s crazy and she’s delusional. Is it such a stretch that she would communicate with her late husband’s ghost about real estate? Or that she would let her dog pick out the agent? There, I said it. I totally believe it.

Now, for the sad piece of information – it seems while Candy and Tori have been at each other’s throats for the past year(s), Randy Spelling (Tori’s younger brother) is totally miserable. So miserable, in fact, he’s developed something of a drinking problem. The worst part might be that Randy is a “life coach” – but his family refuses to take his advice.

Pity poor Randy Spelling, caught in the vicious blood battle between mother Candy and sister Tori. A certified “life coach” working in LA, he “literally begged” Mom and Sis to bury the hatchet, but because his real-life coaching has failed miserably, says a friend: “Randy is drinking more and more, and there’s no one to tell him to stop. Tori and Candy are so concerned about their stupid spats, he gets no love.”

[From the National Enquirer, print edition, September 7 2009]

Poor Randy. The forgotten Spelling. Does he beep on anyone else’s gaydar? Maybe he can find a nice boyfriend who will pay attention to him. That way he can just release himself of all the Spelling drama, and concentrate on his “life coaching”.

Here are Candy and Randy at the Friendly House’s Luncheon held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel last October. Header of Candy at the Carousel Of Hope Ball in Beverly Hills in 2006. Images thanks to Fame Pictures .

Last month, Candy Spelling sent her daughter a really snotty, bitchy open letter through TMZ. Candy’s complaints were mostly of the woe-is-me, my-daughter-sucks variety, but Candy did go off on a bitchy tangent about how Tori is “middle-aged” and insinuated that Tori’s reality show is anything but fresh and updated. Candy’s words were: “My husband taught me that the plots have to be fresh and updated. The same old whining gets tired after a while. Enough complaining about what may or may not have happened during first grade or YMCA camp, or what vegetable you were forced to endure, especially when you are privileged enough to be on TV and get paid for it. For all the reality show personalities, please remember that real life doesn’t get edited to make things better or worse or get better ratings. You’re responsible for what you do. Life isn’t just a show. And your families can’t just be props. Make your own season finale without creating conflicts you will regret later.”

So Candy doesn’t think much of Tori’s reality show, or reality shows in general. Surprise, surprise – Candy has a new television show in the works. But she wants us to know it will not be “unscripted”. Candy snots: “I wouldn’t do reality.” How apropos, in so many ways. So what exactly is the concept then? Just a scripted show about a gift-wrapping room?

In an exclusive interview Candy Spelling revealed to RadarOnline.com that she is going to have her very own television show. Even though the mother daughter duo have been famously estranged lately, Tori Spelling told us that her mom having her own show “would be great.”

As the wife of television mogul Aaron Spelling, Candy is no stranger to hit shows. At the I’m Every Woman non-profit organization book signing on Saturday Candy talked about her possible foray into TV, saying “Yes, there is,” going to be a show. But Candy is not following in her daughter Tori’s footsteps – her show will be scripted. “I wouldn’t do a reality show,” the author of Stories from Candyland said.

Later Saturday night at the Much Love Animal Rescue & Secure-A-Pets Summer fundraiser, Bow Wow Wow of Howlywood, Tori was suprised by the news that her mom was going to have her own show but was supportive, saying “I wish her the best.” Maybe a reconciliation between the two women isn’t too far off?

[From Radar]

I’m going to admit something – I watch Tori and Dean’s reality show. Not religiously or anything, but if there’s a marathon on, I’ll get into it. Tori comes across as a princess trying not be a princess. Dean comes across a devoted husband and father. It’s actually a really cute show, and Tori often cracks me up. I find her naturally funny, without a script. I can’t even imagine how supremely boring Candy’s “scripted” show is going to be.

Here’s Candy shopping on April 15th. Credit: Fame Pictures

I still have no idea how Tori Spelling got such adorable children – little Stella doesn’t even look like either of her parents. Stella does seem to have inherited her grandmother Candy’s diva attitude, though, because this baby is not happy to be on the Malibu beach. These photos are from a little visit Tori and her family had over the weekend – Tori looks good (for her) and seems happy in the photos. Stella, not so much. Looks like Stella’s having herself a Malibu tantrum on the sand. The baby needs a little hat, perhaps? Her little scalp is going to get sunburned. I bet that sand is hot too.

Tori has really grown on me the past year – I really like the way she handles herself in the press, and I do think she’s trying to be good, low-maintenance mother and wife. As Tori’s mom Candy goes on a daughter-bashing tour, writing open letters and complaining to every media outlet, Tori lets most of the criticisms pass her by. When Tori does speak up, her tone is usually conciliatory and good-humored. Such is the case with Tori’s latest interview. Tori spoke to OK! over the weekend about her mom’s latest anit-Tori publicity tour, and she even spoke out about her mom calling her “middle-aged”:

Refreshed from a recent trip to the Four Season’s Punta Mita [sic] Resort in Mexico, Tori Spelling, accompanied by hubby Dean McDermott, opened up to OK! about her delicate relationship with estranged mother Candy Spelling in an exclusive interview.

“I definitely want to reconcile with my mother, but that’s the wrong word,” Tori confessed to OK!. “There’s nothing that really happened that made us fight. It’s just time, distance and media that have come between my mom and me.”

Speaking to OK! at the grand opening of A Hollywood Spectacle earlier this week, Tori explained, “I just think that as long as we both keep it private from here on out, reconciliation is imminent. It will totally happen and I hope that she wants that.”

Candy claimed to have e-mailed prior to missing Stella’s first birthday party, but Tori was almost brought to tears as she discussed how she holds out hope for her mom to come around for her own children.

“I am proud of my kids, but I also want to make my mom proud of me. I’m still a momma’s girl at the heart of the situation,” Tori dished to OK!. “I look forward to the relationship that Liam and Stella will have with their grandmother one day and I’m confident that it will happen.”

And if Candy calling her daughter a “middle-aged woman” was meant as a put-down, Tori doesn’t seem to be taking the comment too seriously. “When you’re in your twenties, you can still wear things like this and then I become a mother of two and wear these six-inch Fendi heels and I’m falling all over the place,” she joked to OK!.

All kidding aside, husband Dean spoke candidly about his own relationship with his now-deceased father and how he can relate to his wife’s heartbreaking situation.

“I know the hurt because I have gone through it,” Dean revealed. “I know what it’s like to hold out hope and for it to not pan out and to get your feelings hurt again and again. After a while, at the end of the day, you really have to protect yourself and see that it’s not healthy for us… Your family can cause you a lot of pain and heartache.”

[From OK! Magazine]

See, I just think Tori handles herself well. She never “goes on the attack”. She’s never an outright bitch about anything. I’m not sure if this is Tori’s natural state, or if this is the image she’s concocted, or whatever. I know some people think that Candy and Tori are playing some kind of joke on us, just play-fighting as a way for both of them to get attention. It doesn’t strike me that way – I think Candy really is that much of a harpie, and Tori is really trying to be the opposite of her mother in every possible way.

Here are Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott enjoying the day at Malibu Beach yesterday. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Someone must have gotten a hold of Candy Spelling and told her that she’s been coming across as a total bitch lately. The worst incident to date was the time when Candy claimed Tori had basically killed her father. After that, it was only skip down the primrose path to sending Tori an “open letter” through TMZ, where Candy whined about how she didn’t want to meet her granddaughter for the first time on her “middle-aged” daughter’s reality show. Last week, Candy backtracked a little, telling the press that still loved her daughter, but didn’t agree with all of her life choices. I theorized at the time that Candy was off her meds. Think about it – she goes out, has a hissy fit, says outrageous things, then backtracks, whines, and plays the victim. Rinse and repeat.

Candy’s still playing the same old song this week. As she was appearing at a book signing Saturday night, Candy wouldn’t shut up about Tori. Candy told the press that she would “never” stop “trying to reconcile with Tori” but that Candy is “a punch line on the scripted reality show and that’s kind of not what I bargained for.” Candy also claims Tori is doing fine financially, so she should just shut up. Boohoo.

As a bright and cheery Candy Spelling signed copies of her new tell-all Candyland and greeted anxious fans at Susie Cakes in Brentwood, Calif. on Aug. 8, she took a moment to talk with OK! about her take on a reconciliation with her estranged daughter Tori Spelling.

“I have been trying and I’m never going to stop trying to reconcile with Tori. I love her. She is my child,” Candy tells OK! But, despite a lonely mother’s plea to get her daughter back, Candy had much to say on her absence at grandaughter Stella’s first birthday party. Although Candy sent back a clear cut “yes” RSVP for her granddaughter, whom she has yet to meet, Candy was still a no-show at the over-the-top lady bug-themed fete.

Defending her actions, Candy revealed to OK! that it wasn’t a last minute cancellation.

“I sent Tori the email and she opened it at 10:38 in the morning,” prior to the actual party, says Candy.

As seen on Tori’s reality show, Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, Tori anxiously awaited her alienated mother’s presence throughout the entire bash and ended up in tears when her mother failed to arrive.

“I’m a punch line on the scripted reality show and that’s kind of not what I bargained for,” Candy tells OK! of the show’s plot. “I’m telling the truth. It killed me, but that’s what I had to do.”

Despite hopes for a future reconciliation with her beloved daughter and grandchildren, Candy still has a few issues with Tori’s lavish lifestyle.

“Everyone is complaining that they don’t have any money now, and here Tori is doing these grand parties,” Candy dishes to OK!. “She even rented a house for Stella’s party.”

And while she doesn’t approve of being a character on Tori’s show, Candy hasn’t counted out the idea of her own reality TV program.

“If it was the right thing and it was scripted, I would do it,” Candy explains to OK!. “I would not let someone follow me around all of the time. That would make me nuts.”

[From OK! Magazine]

I tend to think Tori is a better person than me – if I had Candy as a mother, I would have done an epic tell-all about my mom’s insanity a long, long time ago. I would have totally burned that bridge and never looked back. Thank God my mom is nothing like Candy Spelling, at all. I can’t even imagine. The only point I’ll give Candy is that I don’t think Tori is hurting for money – I do think Tori just plays at being the poor little formally-rich girl, when she and Dean are still doing very well financially. Gah! I hate giving Candy any credit.

Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott are shown with their children, Liam and Stella, at LAX airport on 8/8/09. Credit: WENN.com

It was a little more than a week ago that Candy Spelling wrote a snotty letter to her daughter Tori, through TMZ. Candy’s hissy fit was mainly about Tori sending her an invitation to baby Stella’s first birthday party. The party would have been part of Tori and Dean’s reality show, so of course the Spelling reunion would have been on-camera. So, instead of moving heaven and earth to meet her granddaughter for the first time, Candy sent the snotty open letter, calling Tori “middle-aged” and Tori’s kids “props”. She also seemed to be disrespecting Tori and Dean’s show all around, as if criticizing them for conducting their private lives in public – something Candy would never do – like, say, in an open letter posted to TMZ. Anyway, I was just thankful Candy didn’t say Tori killed her father again.

Now Candy seems to want to “make nice”. I’m starting to think she might be off her meds, the way she overreacts, has a hissy fit, then back-tracks. It makes me appreciate Tori even more. Granted, Tori has her issues, but she seems like a relatively nice, intelligent person who just happens to have a whack-a-doodle for a mother. In this new interview with USA Today (via US Weekly), Candy is back to playing the victim, and woe is she that “Maybe someday [Tori] will get it.” Candy also claims to wearing her little fingers to the nub calling and texting Tori, to no avail. Who buys that?

Seems Candy Spelling is ready to make nice with her estranged daughter Tori.
“I love you, and I always will,” she tells her in a new interview with USA Today.

Candy’s remark comes a week after she penned a scathing note to Tori, 36, on her website, slamming her for treating her children, Liam, 2, and Stella, 1, as “reality show props.”

She said she was just angry at the negative way she was portrayed on Tori’s Oxygen reality show Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, which Candy, 63, called “scripted.”

On the show, Tori laments that her mom was a no-show at Stella’s birthday party. “I’m mad that I actually got sucked back into holding out hope once again after 36 years,” she cries. (Candy has maintained that she didn’t want her reunion with her daughter to be filmed.)

Candy said she and Tori don’t speak because “my daughter doesn’t like the telephone. She doesn’t answer. I text her. I have left messages. I’ve e-mailed her, and she doesn’t respond.”

So when putting together her recent book Stories From Candyland — which featured stories written by friends and son Randy — she didn’t even bother asking Tori for a submission.

“It just didn’t seem comfortable to ask her,” Candy said. “I had written her so many times and really never received any kind of response.”

In the book, she wrote a letter to her grandchildren because she “wanted them to know some of how their mother grew up, and some of our wonderful memories.”

“I don’t really know what she tells her children about me, and it was important for me to say something positive to them that someday they may read,” she said. “I’m hoping that someday they see a different side than what they may have been told.”

So could Candy and Tori ever reconcile one day?

“It could be years of disappointment. Maybe someday she’ll get it,” Candy tells USA Today. “She’s my daughter. I may not approve of everything she does, but I love her.”

[From US Weekly]

Jesus, Candy. She needs that tiny mouse playing a tiny violin for her. I don’t really think Tori expects her mother to be completely behind every life choice she makes, but I do think Tori hopes that her mother stops being such a raging bitch. My favorite part is when Candy is whining about what Tori must be telling the kids about their grandmother. Because that’s all that’s important to Candy – what people are saying about her, not actually showing up and supporting your kids and grandkids, regardless of what they’re saying or doing.

Here’s Candy giving a reading of her book in April. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Candy Spelling is at it again! Candy has been taking issue publicly with everything about her daughter Tori for years now. It got a lot worse when Tori wrote her autobiography, which included some slightly harsh remembrances of her mother. It escalated further and further over the past few years, to the point where Candy has never met her granddaughter (Tori’s daughter) Stella. I honestly can’t remember all of the nasty stuff that’s gone with the Spelling family, but one of the worst incidents, in my mind, was when Candy basically said Tori killed her father. That kind of made me Team Tori for life. But even if that hadn’t happened, this would surely do the trick. It seems Candy decided to write an “open letter” to Tori, and gave it to TMZ to publish:

EXCLUSIVE TO: TMZ.COM
TO: MIDDLE-AGED REALITY SHOW STARS (LIKE MY DAUGHTER)
FROM: CANDY SPELLING

I Know many middle-aged people have issues about their parents and their upbringing. I did. My memories didn’t match all those of my mother, and, funny thing, it’s the same way with my daughter.

Life has consequences. What you say is on the record. Other people have feelings.

I have a vested interest in this subject. My daughter, Tori’s, two-part season finale revolves around my granddaughter’s first birthday party and how she has made what seems like an agonizing decision to invite me.

Cue music. Cue sideways glaces. Cue [sic] Lights.

I did get an invitation just in time for the RSVP deadline. I’m sure its delivery will be on next week’s episode with some comment about my house or driveway or street or something they won’t like. I wonder if that will be spread out over one part or two. Sigh.

A big party wasn’t how I envisioned meeting my granddaughter for the first time; but, hey, this is Hollywood, and my grandchildren have become reality show props, too. At the time I emailed “yes,” I didn’t realize I was being set up for a two-parter, even though it was clear I was being invited to be part of a segment for my daughter’s reality show.

Spoiler alert. Don’t read this if you plan to sit through an hour of people looking at their watches and saying “she’s late.” I decided my first meeting with my granddaughter should be on home video, not primetime cable; so I emailed that i would not be attending.

Back to other reality stars. My husband taught me that the plots have to be fresh and updated. The same old whining gets tired after a while. Enough complaining about what may or may not have happened during first grade or YMCA camp, or what vegetable you were forced to endure, especially when you are privileged enough to be on TV and get paid for it.

For all the reality show personalities, please remember that real life doesn’t get edited to make things better or worse or get better ratings. You’re responsible for what you do. Life isn’t just a show. And your families can’t just be props. Make your own season finale without creating conflicts you will regret later.

[From TMZ]

“My husband taught me that the plots have to be fresh and update,” Candy writes as she bitches and moans about all of the same old crap. Tori didn’t fall far from that tree, did she? I’m saying that even though I, Team Tori – do think it’s a little gross that Tori and Dean let their kids be such a big part of the show. But I’ve also watched the show, and they seem like great, involved parents. Unlike, say, the Gosselins or whatever. Or Candy Spelling. Because at the end of the day, I kind of think that if a woman really wanted to see her granddaughter for the first time, there would be nothing that could stop her. Not even some cameras, old plotlines or bad back-lighting.

Tori Spelling and her family are shown out in Malibu on 7/26/09. Candy Spelling is shown at the ESPY Awards on 7/15/09 and shopping on 4/15/09. Credit: Fame Pictures

It’s no secret that things have been very icy between Tori and Candy Spelling. Over the past few months, there’s been a ton of back and forth between the two women, so much that I don’t even want to do a proper recap. It was a lot of Candy calling Tori a horrible person, and Tori calling Candy a bad mother, et cetera. The last chapter in the saga happened about a week and half ago, when Candy went on a radio show and said, “My daughter one day decided that she wasn’t speaking to my husband, myself and my son and that’s how it’s continued for the last, oh gosh, four or five years. It was sad because that’s what killed my husband actually.”

Tori responded to that pretty well, considering her mom basically said Tori killed her father. Tori just sort of publicly detached, not really offering a comment about the whole situation. It looks like Tori was trying to privately mend some fences, though – she invited Candy to granddaughter Stella’s first birthday party. Candy proclaimed a few months ago that she had never even met her granddaughter – so this was a golden opportunity. Unfortunately for all, Candy once again confirmed to all of us that she’s the biggest megabitch to ever buy out Rodeo Drive. Candy at first RSVPed the party invitation, and her people even began making arrangements with Tori’s people. But in the end, Candy cancelled – just one hour before the birthday party of the granddaughter she’s never met:

Hoping to end their ongoing feud, Tori Spelling invited her estranged mother Candy to daughter Stella’s first birthday party this past Saturday in Encino, Calif., sources tell Usmagazine.com.

Candy’s camp RSVPed yes, but she never showed up (despite complaining in many interviews that she has never met her granddaughter).

Sources add that Candy’s camp even called in advance and asked if camera crews for Tori’s Oxygen show would be present. Tori assured them she would be respectful of her mother’s wishes if she didn’t want to be filmed.

“She still chose not to come,” says a source.

A Candy source tells Us, “Candy did RSVP to the event but decided not to attend when she found out there would be cameras there. She wanted it to be an entirely private meeting.”

But a Tori source says Candy “knew there would be cameras and had her people call a week before to have the photo releases sent over.”

“She waited until one hour before the event to notify Tori, by email, that she wasn’t attending,” adds the source. “Tori was busy preparing and didn’t get the email until after the party. She was waiting for her mom the whole time.”

As for Candy’s concerns for privacy, the Tori insider tells Us, “It was a big party and there was plenty of opportunity for a private meeting.”

Tori and Candy have been estranged for some time.

Their feud took a new twist late last month when Candy remarked that Tori had abandoned her father before his 2006 death and “that’s what killed my husband.”

Tori has never revealed the reason she doesn’t talk to her mother. (She has vaguely said they just “don’t go together.”)

In April, Candy — who released her frank memoir Stories From Candyland a few weeks before Tori debuted her book, Mommyhood — posted a public letter to Tori on her website, pushing for a reconciliation.

But Tori told Usmagazine.com in April, “If I said one thing to my mother, it wouldn’t be public because if she does intend to have a relationship with her grandchildren — which I am totally open to — I just would like her to approach us privately.”

[From Us Weekly]

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – Team Tori. I don’t think Tori is God’s gift or anything, I just think that with a mother like that, it’s amazing that Tori is a functioning member of society, much less a woman with a certain amount of humor, intelligence, and, dare I say, grace. I didn’t think I would ever use the word “grace” with the words “Tori Spelling,” but there it is. From this point on, Candy has absolutely no right to ever use her grandchildren as some sort of issue to use against Tori.

Tori Spelling is shown out with Stella in LA on 6/3/09. Credit: Johnstone/Buchan/INFphoto.com. She is also shown on 6/5/09 at an event. Credit: WENN.com