WHO: Janet Jackson
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $35,000 per month
SIZE: 2,093 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In 1998 Janet Jackson paid $2.8 for a three bedroom spread on the 34th floor of the Trump International hotel and condo tower that looms in all its smoked glass—ahem—glory over the southwest corner of Central Park in New York City. Just three days ago, much to this property gossip's surprise, the Grammy-winning music industry royal* put her Midtown pied-a-terre near Lincoln Center up for lease at $35,000 per month.
Now, children, we know that there are scads and scores of famous people who own homes they lease out. Goldie Hawn, Pierce Brosnan, Leo DiCaprio, Pam Anderson, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne and tons more have all done it out in Malibu. But, seriously folks, we would have fallen over dead with rigor mortis before we imagined Miz Janet Jackson If You're Nasty would make her Big Apple home base available for lease by the weatlhy hoi polloi who can and will spend $35,000 on rent at the Trump International.
Online marketing materials show the efficiently if unimaginatively configured 2,093 square foot condo has three en-suite bedrooms plus a half pooper that, according to the floor plan, opens just about directly (and potentially uncomfortably) off the 28-foot long, L-shaped living and dining area. Floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the apartment make a weak counterpoint the Miz Jackson's semi-opulent and dark-hued day-core but they do provide multi-million dollar views that sweep over the park to Fifth Avenue and Central Park South. The kitchen, accessible from from the living and the dining areas, isn't large—it's pretty small, actually—but it's well-equipped with a washer and dryer stacked in a closet and has an itty-bitty dining alcove in-front of a practically wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling north facing window.
Listing photographs indicate one of the two guest/family bedrooms—our best guess is it's the one between the living room and the master bedroom—was done over by Miz Jackson's team of lady and/or nice-gay decorators as an office/den with dark wood-paneled walls, industrial-style louvered shades, and a built-in entertainment center.
The smallest of the bedrooms is tucked behind the kitchen just off the living room and the master suite sits at the opposite end of the apartment with a total of four closets (one walk-in, two standard and one linen) and a windowless, five piece bathroom that isn't shown in listing photos but Your Mama would bet the farm was done up in a luxurious if purposefully generic high-end hotel style.
Listings show Miz Jackson is willing to let the apartment furnished or unfurnished but tenants are not allowed to bring their pets who might soil Miss Jackson's carpets or tear down the drapery in a fit of feline pique or canine separation anxiety.
Building residents—and we assume that means even renters—enjoy five-star hotel services such as health club access with pool and spa services, maid and valet parking services, a business center, and 24-hour room services from the acclaimed (and high-priced) eatery Jean-Georges, where an assortment of signature dishes selected by the chef runs—in the restaurant—almost two hundred big ones. Anyways...
Once upon a time Miss Jackson owned an ocean front house in Malibu and a mansion smack up on the fairways of the swanky Bel-Air Country Club. But those places are long gone and the only residences we're aware of her currently owning are a 2,400-ish square foot condo at along the Wilshire corridor near Century City and fairy large if perfectly ordinary tract house in a gated development in Henderson, NV.
NOTE: Oddly enough, the listing disappeared from the internets today sometime between four and five p.m.( East Coast time).
*Wikipedia says she has 13 Grammys, IMDB shows she has just one, and this site says she has six. One of the children says, in the comments, it's four. So who knows? Not Your Mama, that's who. She also may or may not have one Emmy (plus four more nominations), a Golden Globe, an Oscar nomination, 16 MTV Video Awards, 21 American Music Awards, 33 Billboard Music Awards, six NAACP Image Awards, and, since 1990, a star on the Hollywood Walk of fame. Whatever the specific numbers are the lady is clearly a decorated veteran of the music industry whether you like her brand of high-gloss pop/R&B or not.
listing photos and floor plan: Brown Harris Stevens