Madonna shells out $40 million for Manhattan home

madonna 090409

Madonna said she’d move to Malawi if that’s what it took for her to adopt 4-year-old Mercy James. But she’s clearly not planning on making it her permanent home – not that anyone ever thought she would. Madge just plunked down $40 million on an enormous 12,000 square foot townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Because she’s got more money than she knows what to do with, Madonna can obviously still move to Malawi for a bit if she chooses. But still… $40 million… just… damn.

Looks like Malawi will have to wait — Madonna is moving to the Upper East Side, The Post has learned. Madge has signed a contract to buy a four-story, Georgian-style townhouse on East 81st Street for about $40 million, sources said. That’s some $5 million less than the original asking price.

“The townhouse is perfect for Madonna,” according to one source. “She’s trying to recreate London in New York City, and this is in the style of a London townhouse.” But her new home in what brokers call the “Far East” does not appear to be all that much of a bargain. No residence in that area “has ever sold for $20 million, let alone $30 million — or ever will again,” said one broker who asked not to be identified.

The kaballah convert will also find the house has bad vibes — specifically from the Lexington Avenue subway. People inside the 26-room mansion can hear and feel the trains coming through, according to one visitor.

But on the plus side, the double-wide mansion does have a two-car garage, a 3,000-square- foot garden, nine fireplaces, an elevator and a wine cellar with a grotto. And with 13 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, it certainly has the space to accommodate Madonna’s family, which — at this point — does not include even a semi-permanent replacement for ex-hubby Guy Ritchie.

When Mayor Bloomberg was asked today whether he’d send Madonna a thank you note for buying a new place – a boost to the city’s sagging revenues – he said, “No. But we do plan to send her a bill.”

[From the New York Post]

That’s why I love Bloomie – smartass comments like that. Madonna plans to do a lot of remodeling of the place – even at $40 million, nothing is up to her exacting specifications. The Post also noted that it features the “soothing sounds of [the] 4,5, and 6.” Meaning the 4, 5, and 6 trains. How relaxing. I honestly wouldn’t find that to be a big deal – it’s commonplace to hear and feel the trains under you in New York. A lot of dangerous things could happen and I’d just assume it was an F train underneath me. That said, I don’t live over one, and I imagine that could get a bit grating on the nerves. And Madonna strikes me as the type who’s easily annoyed. If it gets bothersome I’m sure she’ll just make the city move the train tunnels or something.

In related Madonna news, while a lot of us tend to see her as rather cold and emotionless, there have been many reports that she’s having an exceptionally hard time dealing with losing her adoption bid.

Putting on a brave face despite her crushing disappointment after her adoption bid was turned down, she spent two nights out in a row in London with Stella McCartney.

A smiling Madonna was spotted arriving at the Mayfair restaurant Cecconi’s to meet Stella. However, once inside, the 50-year-old mother of three reportedly became tearful as she showed her fashion designer chum a photograph of the little girl she had been expecting to bring home with her. “She dug around in her handbag for the photo and was excitedly showing it off to Stella,” a source to a newspaper. “but it was clearly too much, the moment overcame her.”

[From Hello! Magazine, April 20, 2009, print ed.]

It’s strange to hear about Madonna having some sort of human frailty. In so many ways she just seems like a machine: she keeps going no matter what. There’s also such a rigid focus on perfection, and you forget even she’s going to lose people she cares about. It’ll be interesting to see just how committed she is to adopting Mercy, and if she really does move to Malawi.

And at least Madge will have that $40 million house to come back to.

Here’s Madonna taking a helicopter ride from Battersea, England carrying a large Louis Vuitton bag on April 9th, along with pictures of her new digs. Images thanks to WENN.com and Mavrix.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

16 Responses to “Madonna shells out $40 million for Manhattan home”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. lrm says:

    she doesnt seem that cold to me.
    and i can and do believe that she is/was sad about the end of her marriage.
    i think she knows she’s not easy to be married to-like Cher and other celebs with certain strong willed,hard working personalities…and they are women to boot-so i think she full well knows that she has a hard time in relationships.
    but i think she was in it with guy for the long haul,and was trying to bounce back from that by stayign focused on career and the long envisioned adoption of mercy. that story has been mentioned since right after david’s adoption.
    So….in the past she normally reinvents herself pretty quickly,shocking some,repulsing others,and earning some accolades,as well.
    this time,seems she’s having a hard time moving on to the next ‘thing’ or phase. prob. a good thing,b/c she can actually process her emotions for a change,personally,instead of projecting them onto whatever attention getting new look she chooses.

  2. cleveland says:

    You know what burns me about Madonna? Is that she is so cheap to her staff. Recently, 4 members of her staff quit. She only paid them around 8L an hour, or about $11 for the non-Brits. That’s incredibly cheap! David’s nanny (who quit and then was fired) just revealed that one of the problems was she didn’t know French. She also hinted that she was overworked and being stepped on by Madonna. At 11 bucks an hour, she also has to be able to teach French? Then, Madonna turns around and buys herself the best $$ can buy. What a cheap biatch!

  3. Hieronymus Grex says:

    But only $500,000 for her alleged hometown area in Italy. Self- first, last and always, huh Madonna?

  4. Nony says:

    You know, I really want her to move to Malawi? Not because it’ll make her go away (though I could certainly do without the reports of the flavour of the week she picked up)
    But because I want her to care that much about Mercy. I want her to show the world that she is willing to move there, to follow the law, to adopt that girl. I want her to stick with Mercy and make whatever effort (not payment!) it takes to be allowed to adopt that little girl. I want her to care that much.

  5. kiki says:

    40 million
    boy ….celebrities are dumbshits invest in a home or built a home where the house is off the power grid, own solor ( sun) water, wind power own water well energy saving self $ she can spend it anyway she wants

  6. Mina says:

    oh please. I am so, so, so sick of hearing about “Madge” and all the other Hollywood idiots. Isn’t there anything out there worth reporting?

  7. Trashaddict says:

    But, this is a Hollywood idiot blog site, dear.

  8. Julie says:

    Yeah, I’ve heard countless reports about her being a cheap bitch. Apparently she’s known for not tipping her servers at restaurants. That’s just sick, considering she’s worth half a BILLION dollars. And yeah, the Mercy girl, absolute publicity stunt. She needed to clean up her image after publicly flaunting her Brazilian model boy toy.

  9. MJ says:

    I don’t know, I think she’s worked pretty damn hard for that half a billion, so in my mind, she can be as extravagant as she wants. She has pursued fame and fortune specifically so she CAN do crazy things like spend $40 million on a house and then completely renovate it, own homes wherever she wants. That’s the payoff you get for the success she’s had.

    If it’s true she is cheap in terms of paying her staff and tipping servers, well, I admit that is lame. She should be as generous with others as she is with herself and her own indulgences.

  10. Jodi says:

    I’m sure the people of Malawi could of used some of the $40 Million ??

  11. JackieSA says:

    Jodi, she does give millions to the people of Malawi, how much do you give to charity?

  12. Davo says:

    If Mina’s really sick and tired of reading about Hollywood idiots shouldn’t she be avoiding websites such as Celebitchy? Have you tried reading the CNN website instead? 😉

  13. Jesus! $40 million dollars? I wouldn’t be surprised if that was more than the sum of the entire town I lived in growing up! She needs to have a reality check…

  14. Interesting info . will definitely visit again

  15. Anh says:

    Oh stop it you guys. Don’t try to sound too jealous here. 🙂
    Malawi will surely profit from her being there. It’s free publicity…

  16. This is very nice !!