Pricey California Dirt

No, not that kind of dirt. The stuff you stand on and say, "I want the ten-car garage over--there." No brown matter is hotter than that of Carpinteria, an otherwise sleepy beach front stretch east of Santa Barbara, says the Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Karp: "Carpinteria's arrival on the luxury-estate scene illustrates how California's gold coast is defying the downdraft in the national housing market." As local realtor Wendy Gragg of Distinctive Real Estate Agency tells him, "We're now at the level of selling dirt to the tune of $15 million."

John Cleese's 16-acre ranch nearby in Montecito (close to where Oprah just threw a fund raiser for Barack Obama at her $84 million spread) is listed at $28 million. But the guy who can claim to be a local boy made good is Kevin Costner, with the 17 acres he bought for $28 million last year. I visited him there this summer for a magazine profile. Well, actually, we spent most of our time in his not-too-shabby modern house just down the beach. Having moved out of a Los Angeles home a few years back (he's still got around 165 acres of good Aspen dirt), Costner told me, "I just felt like I needed a place with grass under my feet. If you want to equate it to an old dog coming home, I lived in upper Ojai back in those mountains there growing up."

Costner may or may not sell off a patch of his newer acreage to hedge-fund manager Bruce Kovner to ease the cramped conditions on Kovner's adjoining $83.3 million, 15-acre spread. Let the big dog eat! Meanwhile, Costner's been in New Mexico shooting (and producing) Swing Vote, described by its makers as "a populist comedy with very timely ideas", in which he'll play a single father put in the world spotlight when the presidential election comes down to his very vote. Costner financed it, and Disney's picked it up to release during the coming election year. With Dennis Hopper as the Democratic candidate (campaign managed by Nathan Lane) and Kelsey Grammer as the Republican incumbent (Stanley Tucci runs his, er, strateg-ery), and cameos planned from the likes of Willie Nelson and Keith Olbermann, it sounds almost as nutty as real politics.

Finally, Costner, who weathered a less-than-hoped for reception for his Mr. Brooks earlier this year but is still doing it his way, made the web site "If I Blog It They Will Come" very happy by sending along a rather somber picture of himself bearing witness to another picture of himself on the site, for which they promise him a tee shirt and the pledge, "Your sending of these photos constitutes (sadly for us) the end of your obligation to "if I Blog It They Will Come".