Man-of-many-hats André Benjamin (stage name: André 3000) is donning a wig this time to portray iconic guitarist Jimi Hendrix in an upcoming biopic penned by Red Tails screenwriter John Ridley.
• A month after it was reported that Bernie Madoff's Montauk home had gone into contract, an unidentified buyer has closed on the purchase of the oceanfront manse. The five-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home, which had been listed for $8.75 million, ended up selling for $9.41 million. [ABC, NYDN]
• Writer/director John Ridley has finally unloaded his condo at 15 Central Park West. The 2,237-square-foot pad, which Ridley bought for $6.65 million in July 2008 and listed for $13 million just a few days later, has sold for $8 million to a company listed in property records as Moral Hole LLC. [Cityfile]
• Oil exec Tom Edelman has placed his 11-room apartment at 770 Park Avenue back on the market, albeit for quite a bit less than when he last put it up for sale a year and a half ago. The eighth-floor co-op, which Edelman listed for $16.75 million after picking up a bigger apartment at 775 Park, is now being offered for $11 million with Brown Harris Stevens' John Burger. [NYT, BHS]
• Late fashion designer Abbijane Schifrin's former townhouse at 141 East 19th Street has gone on the market. The five-story manse, which is currently divided into two units, is listed for $8.75 million. [NYT, Sotheby's]
• It looks like Abigail Disney has found a new apartment to replace the West End Avenue co-op she recently sold: The Disney heiress and her husband, Pierre Hauser, are paying $12.16 million for a 16th-floor apartment at 15 Madison Square North. [Cityfile]
• Writer/director John Ridley paid $6.65 million for a 2,237-square-foot condo at 15 Central Park West in July 2008, relisted it a few days later for $13 million, and then dropped the price to $9.995 million last December. Now he's cutting his asking price some more: The three-bedroom pad is currently listed for $8.5 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Writer/director John Ridley paid $6.65 million for a three-bedroom apartment at 15 Central Park West in July, relisting it just a few days later for $13 million. He seems to have had a reality check: He's dropped the price down to $9.995 million. [WSJ, Corcoran]
• Scott Kleinman, a partner at Leon Black's Apollo Management, has paid $5.8 million for a 20th-floor apartment at 15 Madison Square North. [Cityfile]
• Goldman Sachs managing director Tim Furey and his wife Catherine paid $3.145 million for a seventh-floor condo at 215 West 88th Street. [Cityfile]
Today, screenwriter John Ridley responds to the four pages of hyperventilating comments that his Esquire excerpt provoked by . . . uh, we're still not sure. The title of his new essay is 'Nigger v. Queer: How Gays Got it Right," which seems to imply that he equates the way gay people have "reclaimed" the word queer with how he wishes black people would nullify the stigma associated with "nigger." Wait, is that what he's saying? "There is not one individual on this planet who can make a black into a nigger. We can only do that to ourselves."
