HOME SHOPPING NETWORK
Preppy fashionistas got a midcentury modern treat while perusing the paisley chinos of J.Crew last month, where Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann Desert House was featured prominently in the retailer’s catalog and website. We’re only a littledisgusted by the current owners shamelessly cashing in on Neutra’s legacy—after all, Edgar J. Kaufmann himself was a department store tycoon—but we were curious about the impeccable timing of the high-profile exposure, since the 1946 house is expected to fetch around $25 million at Christie’s International in May. A rep from Christie’s claims the J.Crew shoot was coincidental but “certainly welcome,” and tipped us to the fact that the house is also working hard in ads for glam-tastic 7 For All Mankind jeans. Also likely surprised by the shoot were Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner, whose firm Marmol Radziner handled the home’s extensive renovation in the late 1990s. The firm declined to comment about their handiwork being used to sell summerweight cashmere cardigans, but perhaps all the attention will help spur interest in another Marmol Radziner desert property on the block. Their 2005 prefab prototype in Desert Hot Springs has plummeted from $1.85 million to $1.495 million since it went on the market in February.

HEAVEN, WE’RE IN HEAVEN…
And we find that we can hardly speak…when we think about Lord Norman Foster rumba-ing his way across British TV screens this fall. According toBuilding magazine, that is exactly what he will be doing as a contestant onStrictly Come Dancing, Britain’s version of Dancing With the Stars. The article claims that the 72-year-old architect professes a love of ballroom dancing, and pooh-poohs questions about his age, which is, shall we say, rather above the show’s median. While we have never quite understood why anyone in his or her right mind would consent to be a contestant on a reality show, we do fondly recall our abortive efforts to master the cha-cha, and at least it doesn’t involve eating sheep’s eyeballs or jumping through flaming hoops. Well, we wish him luck—shake what your momma gave you, Norman! 

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