The Gekko Lair

One of the most iconic film figures of the eighties, Gordon Gekko (brilliantly played by Michael Douglas) was the quintessential master of the universe in the original Wall Street, living in a world filled with power lunches, limos, money is no object and illegal insider trading. With his "greed is good" mantra, Gekko became the personification of an era run amok. And audiences loved it.

Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Michael Douglas

He's back this week in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Twentieth Century Fox) fresh from a twenty year stint in prison and facing an all too real collapse of the financial system. Gekko sets out to repair his relationship with his daughter (Carey Mulligan) while tutoring his protege who just happens to be her fiance (Shia LaBeouf).  I am seeing an advance director screening this week (opens in theaters on Friday)  and hope it lives up to the original.

As a design enthusiast, I enjoyed the original Wall Street as it was filled with all sorts of wonderful "deconstructionist chic" (a term coined by director Oliver Stone) that we saw in character Bud Fox's (Charlie Sheen) hi-rise apartment. Production designer Stephen Hendrickson (who is currently designing the hit show The Good Wife) employed coffee tables with jagged glass, faux brick with touches of gilt and contemporary artwork all selected by interior decorator Darien (Darryl Hannah) and ready for a House and Garden spread.

Eighties Deconstructionist Chic 

Hendrickson's designs for Gekko's Wall Street office

This time around we see Gordon Gekko's new Manhattan lair and it's quite wonderful, understated, modern, clean and non-pretentious.  Kristi Zea and Diane Lederman (production designer and set decorator respectively) used a neutral color palette of taupe and creme, accented with a few choice pieces of artwork and sculpture and still makes a power statement for Gekko. You have seen Kristi's work on such diverse films as Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Departed and Silence of the Lambs while Diane's sets grace the films Remember Me and When in Rome.

Mulligan and LaBeouf's apartment

Photo credits: Twentieth Century Fox, Stephen Hendrickson
Barry Wetcher photographer on Money Never Sleeps

For those of you who enjoyed my piece on Edith Head last week, be sure to catch Silver Screen Modiste this week as Edie will be celebrated in  the theater! Also check out my friend and design editor of Veranda Linda Sherbert's piece on Edith here.

The Greystone Estate

Since I am off to LA this week and time is of the essence, thought I'd reprint some excerpts from Veranda magazine of a past piece I wrote on the magnificent Greystone Estate. No doubt you will recognize the location and the true story of the history of the mansion is as fascinating and as mysterious as the mansion itself.


For the frequent filmgoer, it's an elegant house seen countless times on the big screen. Jack Nicholson made mischief in its grand living room in The Witches of Eastwick. Jude Law courted Cameron Diaz over a meal in the romantic comedy The Holiday - although they were supposedly in England. Even the house's bowling alley made an ominous appearance in There Will be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in an Oscar-winning performance as an oil tycoon in Southern California. (Other films included Death Becomes Her, The Bodyguard, An Indecent Proposal and What Women Want just to name a few).

Diaz and Cameron in The Holiday

Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick

There Will Be Blood

The storied house in question is Greystone, the largest family estate ever built in Beverly Hills. Situated on a hill above famed Sunset Boulevard, the majestic yet mysterious manor was a gift from real-life oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny to his son and daughter-in-law, Edward "Ned" and Lucy Doheny, during the Roaring Twenties. Built on a 429-acre estate, the mansion became an imposing icon of wealth and power in California's early oil-rich days. "Of all the lavish gifts Edward Doheny gave his beloved son, the fifty-five room baronial castle was, by far, the most extraordinary, considered to be the most luxurious residence south of William Randolph Hearst's spectacular estate at San Simeon, California," says Margaret Leslie Davis in her Doheny biography, Dark Side of Fortune (University of California Press, 1998 and 2001).

You can read the rest of the story  here.

The mansion and grounds (shown here in 1928) are open to the public

Master Bedroom in 1945

One of the many Great Rooms used for film interiors

The Card Room boasts a scenic wall panel 

and black and white patterned marble floors

For more on the Greystone Mansion and Park, go here.

For more on Veranda's Designer Showhouse at Greystone, go here.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of Friends of Greystone, Veranda, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Courtesy of Katherine Timme Photo Collection