How to Live Like a Mogul

It's no longer a big deal to be a millionaire in Hollywood. Nowadays, it's really all about who is topping the billionaire list that makes the difference. Billionaires aren't a dime a dozen, but there are quite a few Hollywood "let's do lunch" executives who have managed to ensconce themselves onto the oh-so-important billionaires list. I'm not talking about actors, either. Nope! The truth is that the real movers and shakers in LA LA Land wouldn't dream of having a camera aimed at their perfectly coifed selves. Indeed, it's these power brokers that make even the rich seem poor, and at times they even manage to bring the actors to their knees in shame.

It goes without saying that, when you've finally made it, you definitely want to keep it or, at least, keep up appearances. It's important to spend, trade, spin, and be seen whenever and wherever possible, be it buying an island in the Mediterranean, paying cash for an outrageously overpriced house, or just blowing through a cool million on a staircase for a chateau.

For the most part, billionaires seem to enjoy trading their real estate the same way women like to change their shoes. However, Ted Turner seems to be more into collecting it. Turner reportedly owns over 1.8 million acres, thus earning the distinction of being the largest landowner in the United States. His properties range from Colorado to Florida to Georgia to Montana. He is also worth a fortune at $1.9 billion, but it is said that he has given at least $1 billion to the United Nations.

During Turner's career in the entertainment industry, he has acquired the MGM library and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, and his many mergers have given him even more in the way of power. His Turner Endangered Species Fund has made a real difference in reintroducing animals back into the wilderness. Finally, to add a little more flavor to his life, this billionaire opened a restaurant. It's called Ted's Montana Grill, and you can even find a bison burger on the menu.

Now consider another of life's simple pleasures: an island of your very own. Not just anyone can buy their own private island, but it was recently reported that Madonna was going to give it a go with some of her millions. Aristotle Onassis' island, Skorpios, is up for sale by his daughter, Athina, and Madonna is interested in buying it for over $300 million. Skorpios is 2,965 acres of prime real estate with three villas, a chapel, a small marina, and a jetty. It also has something that most other islands won't be able to boast: Aristotle Onassis' bones.

Madonna, no doubt, does her island hopping using her Marquis private jet card; membership is $109,000 per year, which gets her 25 hours of flight time.

As for island shopping, Clint Eastwood, too, has a yearning for his own piece of paradise and is reportedly looking to buy an island near Croatia, where neighbors could be Princess Caroline and her husband, the Prince of Hanover.

While owning a second home is no big deal (just about everyone in Hollywood is doing it, but so are people with more modest profiles), there are a few moguls who top the mogul show-off list just because of their outrageous home purchases, be it how much or how many. Or just how they did it. David Geffen stunned everyone when he made real estate history by paying for his new home the old fashioned way - that's right, $47.5 million in cold, hard, cash for his 100-room mansion.

It wasn't until the late Marvin Davis put his home on the market for $70 million that anyone had ever listed a home for as high as Geffen paid for his. Davis, who bought and sold 20th Century Fox and the Beverly Hills Hotel and also had a $20 billion bid in at one time to buy Vivendi Universal's U.S. entertainment assets, finally managed to sell his Beverly Hills mansion for a meager $59.5 million. This extravagant home boasts 10 acres of property, with a 25,500-square-foot main house and multiple guesthouses, too. A tennis court, gym, spa, two swimming pools, and a pool pavilion round out the amenities.

Some moguls you have just got to love. Topping this writer's favorite list is Peter Guber, once the head of Sony Pictures and now king over at Mandalay Entertainment. Of his indulgences, he says, "I have indulged myself with experiences. My currencies are in the sense that I am renting even though the world says I own it, whether it's a boat or an apartment or a house. I just look at them as devices to generate experiences. My indulgence is throwing myself into experiences, whether it is being able to take ten friends and run the big red Colorado River, or go to Africa on safari, or go to Vietnam on a bike trip - which I did last year. The type of life adventure that this business affords you - and I don't mean afford you just financially - just opens you up to it. You make a film with real gorillas in the middle of Africa and you have to have developed a different sensibility. Then the next minute you are in Argentina or India doing Seven Years in Tibet. These experiences become more part of your life than just punctuation."

But Guber's life experiences include material indulgences as well, such as owning real estate, which he enjoys buying and selling. He sold his Aspen spread (preferring his Hawaii digs) to Roland Arnall, a man listed as one of forbes.com's 400 richest Americans. Guber's Aspen property consisted of 650 acres of land, a 15,000-square-foot home, a 3,500-square-foot barn, and, for good measure, some vacant buildings. The property was listed at $63 million, but Guber sold it for $46 million, a 25 percent discount to the highest bidder.

And perhaps he has tired of his Hawaiian home (Tara Plantation), for this $46.5-million mansion is now on the block, too. The Tara property is 171 acres of oceanfront property in Kauai, with a 15,000-square-foot main house and two 4,000-square-foot guesthouses. The property also boasts a swimming pool, beach cabana, yoga studio, horse stable, and corral. After all, you wouldn't want to get bored just sitting around the house.

Guber has spent time collecting minor league baseball teams, too. His company, Mandalay Sports Entertainment, owns the Shreveport Swamp Dragons, Las Vegas 51s, Lake Elsinore Storm, and the Dayton Dragons.

Oprah Winfrey enjoys buying and selling homes, herself. She recently paid $50 million for a 42-acre estate in Montecito, Calif., the place all the Hollywood types are calling home nowadays. But the home itself is modest - 7,000 square feet with five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a 40-foot lap pool.

Said to be worth $1.1 billion, Winfrey's holdings also include $8 million worth of property on the island of Maui and, elsewhere in Hawaii, 102.09 acres she bought in 2002 for $11.68 million. She sold a farm in Indiana for about $8.5 million that was complete with a swimming pool and orchard, the 9,700-square-foot home sitting on 164 acres.

Certainly no list of moguls would be complete without Stephen Spielberg; he ranks up there with the best of them. In terms of homes, Spielberg has a few. He is well known and loved in the Hamptons, where his neighbors include Ronald Perelman and Calvin Klein, and he has a horse ranch in Brentwood. To get from one place to another quickly, he jets around in a rented Bombardier Global Express by Marquis Jet.

Spielberg spends his money on a variety of pretty things. He collects Norman Rockwall art for one, but a source recently reported he also has a Madigliani worth at least $1 million. The cost of the frames, alone, for his art - $2000 plus, each - is more than some people spend on their monthly mortgage payment. He also once owned the restaurant Dive!, and nowadays he shops at billionairetoystore.com.

Art Collectors

Speaking of art, it has become a real "mogulish" thing to do lately. As in collect it. While many people, rich or poor, don't have a clue what they are collecting, the mogul at least has the money to pretend.

You can't put a price on your own work, of course, but wacky Tim Burton takes pride in the pieces he created, and frames both his photography and drawings on a regular basis. He also takes it one step further and frames the dolls from his movies as well.

New Line's Michael Lynne is said to be one of the top 200 collectors of art in the world. He owns works by Delvaux, Picasso, Francis Bacon, and Diane Arbus, worth millions of dollars in total.

Doug Cramer has a collection of over 600 pieces. While the value of the collection is not published, it's interesting to note that his newly remodeled Connecticut home features art in the entryway and a Cary Grant frontal nudity portrait by Kurt Kauper in the hallway.

Other Hollywood figures who indulge themselves collecting big names in art include producer David Hoberman (Jean Dubuffet, Rothko), David Geffen (Rauschenberg, Johns, Twombly), and Madonna (Picasso and Rivera).

Wineries

Francis Ford Coppola might have made his name in the film industry (think Godfather and Apocalypse Now), but it's his wine that is making a name for him nowadays. In fact, Coppola is so into vineyards that he's become a heavy-duty landowner up Napa Valley-way with about 260 acres of fine vine land. It all began when he purchased some of the Inglenook Estate Vineyard in 1975, founding his own vineyard called Niebaum-Coppola Estate. The estate produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and a prize Rubicon which sells for $100 bottle. He purchased even more from that estate, including the chateau, in 1995. Coppola has increased the value of the chateau by putting in a $1 million staircase made of hand-hewn wood from the jungles of Belize. And to remind him of Hollywood, he has props from his film Bram Stoker's Dracula and the Tucker automobile from the movie Tucker displayed at his winery.

Then in 2002, Coppola reportedly paid $31.5 million for the J.J. Cohn Vineyard in Rutherford, Calif. This property consisted of 84 acres of vineyard and a large house, but he now owns only 60 acres of it; Coppola's partner got the house and 24 of the acres. In total, Coppola produces about 250,000 cases of wine a year under a variety of labels.

Other Hollywood types have bought into the wine craze as well. TV producer David Gerber owns the largest vineyard in Calaveras County, east of San Francisco. It covers 100 acres and not only has vines, but animals that include three horses, fifteen cows and one potbellied pig.

Director Scott Hicks has a vineyard in southern Australia; 120 acres in Adelaide Hills that produces about 800 cases per year, including Shiraz and popular favorites Merlot, Pinot Nior and Chardonnay.

Rich Frank, former chairman of Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications, owns two wineries and three vineyards. He produces up to 12,000 cases a year of Cabernet, Chardonnay, and Zinfandel. He also allows visitors to taste his wine for free as well as visit his winery, which is complete with stone cellars dating to the 1890s and antique champagne-making equipment.

Executives That Never Get Any Credit, Except the Cash

Kirk Kerkorian, 86 years old, is the proud three-time owner of MGM. He has sold it twice and bought it back each time for less than he sold it; the last time at $3 billion. He also buys and sells airplanes, which is how he originally turned $60,000 into a $6 billion kingdom in the early years. He owns 55 percent of MGM Mirage since buying the Mirage Resorts for $6.4 billion.

Said to never be without at least $10,000 walking-around money in his pocket, Kerkorian also pays $150 every 10 days for a hair cut. He does his fair share to support the needy by giving millions of dollars to charity. He gave $150 million to funds for Armenia and another $1 million to Turkey after the devastating earthquake several years ago. To get around, he keeps his private jet handy.

Mark Cuban, the Dallas Maverick's owner, and his business partner Todd Wagner have made spending history by purchasing two cable channels and the old Landmark movie theaters, and investing in movies and film companies. All this was made possible by the $5.7 billion proceeds from their sale of Yahoo.

Does having money mean fame, fun and all that comes with it? Not necessarily. Being filthy rich has just as many pitfalls as being poor; you just face your problems in more expensive clothes, faster cars, and with more of a posse. But as Guber says, "You find ways to not necessarily indulge yourself, but to participate in life at a very aggressive and ambitious level."