Walter Cronkite Dies at New York Home

SPECIAL SATURDAY EDITION--Legendary News Anchor Walter Cronkite died yesterday at his home in New York. He was 92 years old. Known as "Uncle Walter," Cronkite anchored the CBS evening news for many years and is best remembered for breaking the news of John F. Kennedy's assassination and covering the early days of America's space program. He was also an avid sailor. Trolling the internet, we ran across a beautiful photograph of a house in Edgartown (on the Vineyard) identified as his summer home:

R.I.P. Uncle Walter.

CHOW & CIAO!

It was an eventful first week for us here at Celebrity Digs HQ! Lots of juicy bits on all sorts of famous folks and how they're livin'. We'll see you back here on Monday.

Before we go, we have to identify our first CHOW--Celebrity Home of the Week:

You guessed it! Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch! We love it and we love him!

Ciao!

Late Steve McNair's Estate in Limbo?

As we all know by now, married superstar football player Steve McNair was shot and killed on July 4th in a murder-suicide by his 20-year-old girlfriend, Sahel Kazemi. Now The Tennessean reports that McNair died without a will and that the probate court gave his wife Mechelle McNair control of his estate, on behalf of herself and their two sons.

Problem: Steve has two other children from previous relationships with two other women. At least one baby mama is planning to file a claim against the estate today.

Looks like McNair -- who earned more than $75 million in the NFL -- did no estate planning. Apparently, his personal affairs were as messy as his other personal affairs.

Maybe his baby mamas and children should just move into that $3 million, 9-bedroom, 14,000s.f., monstrosity (shown above) that he left behind in Green Hills, Tennessee.

Stedman Cruises Around Oprah's Hawaii Digs

So they ARE still together! Oprah's longtime beau Stedman Graham was recently spotted biking around Oprah's posh Hawaii home, shown here:

And what a gorgeous home it is--albeit a little generic in decorating. Enough with the horses and roosters already!

I guess we can't blame Stedman at all for sticking around for all these years. Photos: Michel Arnaud. Visit Oprah's site for the slideshow.

Bling Burglary at Orlando Bloom's Hollywood Home

TMZ reports that sexy Orlando Bloom's home in the L.A. Hollywood Hills was burglaraized last night. Burglars reportedly entered through a window and made off with watches and jewelry worth $500,000. There are rumors that it might have been an inside job though. Check out his digs:

Celebrity Homes in Foreclosure

CNN reports today that 1.53 million U.S. homes are in foreclosure so far this year. And we're only halfway through the year. Unfortunately, even celebrities aren't immune to these rough economic times.

Photo: Vincent DeSalvio/Journal News

According to the Journal News, Actor Stephen Baldwin and his wife, Kennya, are in default on their home (pictured above) in Upper Grandview, NY. They owe more than $800,000 on a house that only cost them $515,000.

At first we thought only somebody like Stephen could let that happen to him, especially since we aren't talking about a terribly expensive house. And we suppose this could happen to anyone. But what we can't understand is, why his brother Alec (who is reportedly house-shopping in NYC) and the rest of the Baldwin clan can't help him out. Anyway, more details here.

Other celebrity homes in foreclosure include those belonging to Bravo's unReal Housewives of Atlanta and Orange County.

Nevermind that none of the Real Housewives of Atlanta really lived in Atlanta. They still faced the real issue of wannabes pretending to be high-rollers. Sheree Whitfield's ginormous home in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs, GA, reportedly went into foreclosure in February, eventually selling via auction for $1.1 million.

We might as well mention that the trashy Atlanta Housewife NeNe Leakes lost her digs too earlier this year, but she was just a renter anyway. That was just more proof of her wannabe status.

Finally, Real Housewife Jeana Keough of Orange County -- another wannabe and a freakin' realtor -- also fell behind on her ostentatious home and various rental properties, but at least she was smart enough to seek a loan modification and put her home up for sale. For more details and photos of her less-than-stellar interiors, go here.

Looks like REALITY is the New Reality TV. Good luck to all of them in finding new digs.

Grand Style for the Granddaughter of Cosmetics Giant Estee Lauder

For its July/August 2009 issue, Elle Decor magazine visits with Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, senior VP and creative director for Estee Lauder. She not only graces the cover (OMG those chairs are fabulous!), but she gives us a 2-for-1. Readers get a peek inside her Manhattan apartment as well as the East Hampton, NY, weekend country home she inherited from her famous grandmother.

First up, her Manhattan digs. Okay, so she was stuck with that ugly 18th century tapestry for the entry hall below. It's so busy you can barely even make out the flowers on the table! It's probably an heirloom worth a fortune, though. Fortunately, that's about the only we didn't like.

This place is FABULOUS! Take a look:




As for the weekend digs: it's a Greek revival home in East Hampton retaining many of the original interior design features (grandma Estee used famed designer Mark Hampton). It has that classic, and allegedly timeless, style. Yawn.

But we really love the fresh updates to the kitchen and kids' bedrooms. And that library is so chic! Not bad for a weekend place. Not bad at all.


Photos: Simon Upton

It's still early yet, but these digs are already in the running for our Celebrity Home of the Week (CHOW). Be sure to check out the full article and tour as well as Aerin's style tips on Elle Decor's website.