February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Eileen Murphy
Irish pop star/actress Samantha Mumba is wise beyond her years when it comes to managing her money. The star of the upcoming film “The Time Machine” has decided to sink some of her dough-re-mi into real estate. Sam has had brokers scouting properties in Dublin and Los Angeles, and we hear that she has signed, or will soon sign, on the dotted line.
According to reports, the Irish pad is a four-bedroom triplex in Dunstaffage Hall, a swanky apartment block in Stillorgan. This is really just a stone’s throw from her childhood home in Dundrum, where her parents and brother Onero still live.
We’re hoping that Sam will take advantage of her proximity to the training ground for the local GAA team, the Kilmacud Crokes, and stop by to watch a few games. Afterward, she can head over to the Goat Grill for refreshments and to rehash the game’s highlights.
Sam’s U.S. base will be a $1.5 million bunglaow in Beverly Hills. It boasts three bedrooms, three baths and the obligatory swimming pool. But the house is less a luxury than a necessity, according to a source close to the actress.
“”She’s getting loads of offers of work from American moviemakers and record producers at the moment,” said the insider.
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“The recording sessions for her new album are being split between the UK and the USA,” the source continued. “So having a home in the States kind of makes financial sense.”
The cost of marriage
You’da thunk that with OK! Magazine handing them buckets of money to cower under blankets on the most important day of their lives, Kerry Katona and Bryan McFadden would have — at least — broken even on the cost of their wedding. But — to quote the late John Belushi — noooooooooooooooo.
It seems that while the lovebirds are used to counting beats and dance steps, the economics of wedding frippery was somewhat beyond their ken. Believe it or not, the pop pair thought that a paltry _300,000 would cover the entire cost of the day. Imagine their chagrin when they discovered — after enduring weeks of slagging by the tabloids for commercializing their wedding — that the event would actually leave them out of picket to the tune of _100,000.
“The tabloids all slated everything we did about the wedding,” moaned the groom. “They even slagged us off for asking the guests to donate money to charity instead of giving us presents.”
Well, OK, we’ll give them credit for that good deed. But it still seems a little churlish to complain about having to pay a mere 25 percent of the cost of your own wedding.
“If the truth were known, we actually lost money on our wedding,” said Bryan.
“Don’t get me wrong, it was wonderful and the magazine was great to us. However, the OK! deal paid us only _300,000 but the whole wedding and honeymoon cost us _400,000. So I actually lost money on the deal.”
And what made it even worse for the poor pets?
“And to top it off, the press were very hard on us,” he sniffed. Well, maybe other press, Bry — but not us. We wuv Westlife.
Kneesy does it for Brosnan
If we’ve told them once, we’ve told them a thousand times: those movie people can play with Pierce Brosnan, but they’re not allowed to break him. But do they listen?
We were most distressed to hear that the 007 star (and People’s Sexiest Man Alive 2001) suffered a knee injury while filming an action sequence for the upcoming Bond movie. We hear that the accident occurred during a stunt that involved water — and we don’t think it was a bubble bath-and-champagne sequence (darn it). Pierce will be laid up for two weeks waiting for his hinge to heal, and if he weren’t a married man, boy, would he have some squad of volunteer nurses tending to his every need. But we digress.
The accident will delay filming, but producers say that they still expect to meet the film’s scheduled opening in November. In the meantime, they’re philosophical.
“Pierce Brosnan has always pursued the character with extreme physicality,” said a spokesperson. And extreme gorgeousness, we hasten to add.
Penn-sive about Oscar
If you’re planning to tune in to the Oscar telecast in hopes of catching a glimpse of firebrand actor Sean Penn, well, just fugeddaboudit. The actor avoids the annual air kiss fest like the plague.
The actor, who’s nominated this year for his performance in “I Am Sam,” has said in the past that he would feel “embarrassed” to do the whole red-carpet thing. The ex-Mr. Madonna has been nominated twice before, but has never shown up.
His missus, actress Robin Wright Penn, was philosophical about it. “I don’t think he’ll be there this year,” she said. We’re sure the rest will try to soldier on.