Nicky was sentenced in August.

A high profile plastic surgeon has been hovering over a gorgeous home listed by Doris Jacobs. Price tag: $4,999,999.

OK, that is a lot but as we all know plastic surgeons pull in big bucks because, while people cannot seem to afford to pay for their pap smears and yearly checkups and gall bladder operations and kid’s tonsillitis, they do manage to drop $15,000 for face-lifts, $8,000 for boob jobs, and thousands for Juvederm and Restalyne and Botox. And I am not complaining one bit because I am an avid consumer of all those products and services. In fact, I got great Botox about two weeks ago. The greatest thing about our health care system, really, is that it frees up discretionary income for plastic surgery. Nor do I think plastic surgeons should earn a penny less because they are exceedingly bright and train forever at great expense and deserve every morsel they earn, unlike insurance company CEOs. Besides, plastic  surgeons beautify America!

So yes, we are not surprised that a fabulous surgeon whose services are in highest demand (and whose wife is also a physician)  would be looking at such expensive a home. Here is a man relatively untouched by recession. I am told he put a bid on this home, then extended the option period twice, then backed out the other day at 5:01 for p.m.

Everyone has cold feet. Met a businessman who travels extensively last week, he told me the entire country is basically on hold until the November elections. There is no certainty, only uncertainty; no major business decisions  being made, very little hiring. About the only influx of newcomers we have in Texas is the expats escaping the drug cartel wars in Mexico. Maybe we should all go to the beach ’till November?

He found this tidbit in “Deadline Hollywood” and it’s rather exciting neighborhood news: Kim Gatlin’s “Good Christian Bitches” could very, very well become a weekly TV series. No kidding: three networks are bidding on it and the script has already been written by Steel Magnolias and The First Wives Club scribe Robert Harling, based on the book Kim wrote.

Which was given to me by the darling Brenda Baugh (cast her!) when she was listing 3500 Beverly. I read the book in about five minutes.

The project is being called a “Desperate Housewives in Dallas. Cannot wait. It center’s on Gatlin’s character,  Amanda Vaughn, a divorced mother of two who leaves her philandering Hollywood hubby to come home to Mama and Daddy in HILLSIDE PARK, where she tries to purge her bad marriage by plunging into the charity circuit. She winds up the victim of malicious gossip, bad Botox, and fraud, all because she’s a beautiful, sexy, vivacious woman who her friends cast as their rival. Enough good-looking single women over 30, they say, we don’t need another one. And of course, it all starts at Bible study.

You’ll never guess: the richest oil guy in town falls for her, buys her a Maybach.  And her charity event is sabotaged. What’s weird is I was thinking of this book during last year’s Cattle Baron’s fiasco – remember?

But this could be very good for Dallas real estate right about now. Another TV series highlighting our enhancements and homes? Location scouts, listen up: I’ve got the perfect house for  Amanda’s “rental”: 4441 South Versailles.

PS: I looked up Kim’s address, is it true she lives in Rockwall?

These are folks who listen to the symphony made — yes, they call it a symphony — when 12 Aston Martin cylinders snap, crackle and pop. By Sunday, I heard the music, too. People admired the vintage tool kits that must be intact with each auto in order to qualify — judging classes are arranged by type, manufacturer, coach builder, country of origin, or time period.  Judges select first-, second-, and third-place finishers for each class in the event, and confer the “Best of Show” award on one car from the group of first-place winners. There’s more — folks who have made significant contributions to the automotive industry or motor sports award a number of subjective awards to recognize standout vehicles regardless of class ribbons, and memorial awards are created, handed out. You see auto bodies so bright they gleam, learn automotive trivia, view an original condition Mercedes covered in hay and hidden in a French barn for 15 years; a car still bearing World War II headlight covers (to hide light during air raids); Pierce-Arrow cars and two P-A 1918 touring vans with sinks, beds and bathrooms that beat the Airstream by about 20 years; Packards and Duesenbergs and Studebakers and Bonneville Racers. I learned that you pronounce the “u” in “Jaguar” and that prior to World War Two, the British-manufactured Jaguar was called the “SS”;  I saw vintage Jags with “SS” emblems on the trunks and you can bet those were never seen again after WWII. If Jaguar could shed such a horrific image after 60 years, there’s hope for AIG and Goldman.  More than 250 impeccably-groomed vintage autos and motorcycles were on display, which reminds me: there was quite a Dallas crowd in attendance: for the first time ever, a Dallas company, Heritage Auction Galleries, was a Concours sponsor. I saw  Heritage’s Heather Walther, appraiser Meredith Meuwly, Tim Layzell and Nick Earl manning the booth. Dallas-based interior designer Trisha Wilson, who told me she has a home in the area she just remodeled, was there, along with Sherry Hayslip and Cole Smith. Ken Schnitzer, chairman of Park Place Dealerships, was also enjoying the cooler temps and checking out luxury autos he’s fairly familiar with such as McLarens, Porsche and Maserati.  Ebby agent extraordinaire Joe Kobell also has a house in Pebble Beach that I intend to hijack for next year’s Concours. Joe was supposed to be in attendance, but had clients in Dallas. Also in the high net worth crowd, Ratan Tata, the man who bought Jaguar, director Roger Corman, Jeremy Piven, Erik Estrada and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Personally, I think I found the best. And now Jay knows  he can pick up an 11,698 plus square foot home with 12 -car garage in Dallas…  for less than $6 million.

Playboy photographs

I am still trying to find out who she worked for or with in Dallas commercial real estate. If anyone knows, please email me! I checked with her high-profile L.A.-based  attorney, Gloria Allred, and this is, in part, what she replied:

“Ms. Fisher has no plans to comment further about this matter, nor can I provide additional information about her.”

Meantime, Playboy has released the photos Fisher made in 1980 from its Girls of the Southwest Conference, shot by David Chan, and my memory may be off,   but I wrote a book about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in 1982 and I swear David shot some photos for the publication. Anyhow, that modeling career  ought to make for an interesting discussion with Fisher’s  son: “Mommy made some bad choices back in 1980. She tried to make a living off her body , probably not the wisest choice, but honey, it sure beat standing on my feet at Foleys selling rags.”

Or something along those lines. Hey, what about the girls who finance their educations by working at Baby Dolls?

The Smoking Jacket reveals that while a student at Tech, Fisher had aspirations for a law career via Harvard Law School. Even better, she wanted to be the first lady president, or a corporate lawyer or politician.

Meantime, the Wall Street Journal reports that HP employees from the Dallas EDS arm are calling Brownwood, Texas-born Fisher a hero! They didn’t like Hurd’s cost-cutting policies (employees never do, of course) even as he lined his own bank account. Yeah, some of these guys must be blind. Make a few million and think they are masters of the universe. One former EDS employee is glad Hurd will have to spend his bonus bucks on attorney’s fees:

Judging from the comments, much of the animosity appeared to come from EDS, the software company that H-P acquired in 2008.

An ex-EDS employee writes: “God he deserved it. The way we (EDS ) employees were treated after the merger, was just terrible. HP made their numbers basically through the EDS division and we got rewarded with a 20% pay cut. Mark also took a pay cut on his base salary – note base salary not on his bonuses! I am glad that he will be using his bonus money to pay his lawyers.”

Or his pay-off to Ms. Fisher, who is, after all, a single mother. Maybe there is some justice in the world!

Meantime, here is more on Jodie Lin Fisher to help spur your memories.  Born in Brownwood, Texas, 7/17/60; went to Texas Tech; dad was in oil and gas production. She is now living in New Jersey, working with her mother, Polly McDonald, for a an employee placement firm called TeleSearch, which Polly founded, that claims zero tolerance for any sexual harassment.

Foster apparently worked in the Dallas commercial real estate world. I have searched TREC and do not see where the woman who got the ball rolling on the ouster of,  as of Friday,  former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd, has ever held a Texas residential real estate license. Jodie Fisher is the gal who filed sexual harassment charges against Hurd and then settled the case, Hurd (annual income $42 million) reached out to her with some settlement cash, but Fisher claims she did not have sexual relations or an affair with him.

What could he have done to instigate a sexual harrassment lawsuit?

 According to the San Jose Silicone Valley News, Fisher’s attorney, Gloria Allred, a super high-profile LA divorce attorney, said Fisher recently held a lofty position in Dallas:

“Fisher has a degree in political science from Texas Tech and has worked in sales for a Fortune 500 company, according to Allred, who said her client was recently a vice president for a Dallas real estate firm.”

The guv made a good real estate deal, probably based on some info from his friends,  no different than any other rich guy. And as for that commission business, commission rates are always negotiable between the parties in Texas.

I know how this stuff works:  the developer, Troy Fraser, probably gave Perry a good deal at $300,000 for the “cheapest” lot so he could flaunt Perry’s name to influence other buyers to sign on the dotted. That’s the way the game is played. I was at a presentation not so long ago for a new development in South America where I was told, off the record, that Tina Fey had bought a lot there. Guess why the developer dropped Fey’s name?  Buyers tend to flock to where the rich and famous roost. Sometimes developers even give them special deals and freebies — it’s all marketing.

We have friends with homes st Horseshoe Bay, and it is indeed the Pebble Beach of Texas. The Hill Country is right there and Lake Lyndon B. Johnson is loaded with boats and jet skies and mega million dollar homes. Horseshoe Bay is one of the reasons why Ilano County is one of the top five U.S. places listed by Forbes magazine where, based on IRS data, the rich are moving.

So Perry buys the upscale lot for $300,000 in 2001: sleepy market. He sells it to a willing buyer for $1.15m in 2007 for a nice profit — back in 2007 the real estate market was steaming hot, if you will recall.  The buyer tried to flip it fast for $2.65 m — no go, and then he got caught when the real estate bubble burst. That owner, Alan Moffat, is still trying to sell that lot today, and has it on the market for $1.65m. I wish him the best of luck. Horseshoe Bay real estate is not moving like it was in 2007. Perry was smart to get out when he did. Did he know John Paulson?

As much as it pains me to say it, Perry’s timing was perfect.

The Sunlight Foundation’s Miller, a 30-year veteran of studying the influence of money in national politics, contended the variances from market values amounted to gifts that Perry should have disclosed on his personal financial reports.

“It sounds to me like something they should have avoided, should not have done and depending on the state law, should have been reported,” she said.

Something they should have avoided? Is it illegal for the governor of Texas to make a shrewd real estate deal?

As for the appraisal hoopla: we bought property in Blanco County in 2008, and it was tough obtaining an appraisal — the appraiser was having a tough time obtaining comps. But we did not buy lakefront property. I would be interested to hear what other appraisers have to say about this report.  I seriously doubt that Alan Moffat is the only man in the nation who bought property in the heyday with a slightly inflated bank appraisal. In 2007, remember, we thought the party would never end.

And let’s not get our panties in a wad over the commission deal. Sometimes developers, and even agents, waive commissions — they are always negotiable and usually only charged by licensed agents, brokers or lawyers. There are some exceptions.

Perry did not pay a real estate commission on his sale to Moffatt. Mitchell said the waiver of the fee was a favor to Moffatt. The fee, typically 6 percent of the sales price, could have amounted to as much as $69,000.

About the only part of this whole piece that I found fishy — or at least really stupid on Perry’s part — was the lawyer he had appointed who didn’t charge him for appealing the appraised property’s value with the Llano or Burnet Appraisal District. I mean, she wasn’t even a real estate lawyer:

Perry asked attorney Colleen McHugh to handle his tax appeal. A corporate labor lawyer from Corpus Christi, McHugh had just been appointed by Perry as chairman of the Texas Public Safety Commission. … McHugh was not compensated for the appeal because Perry had paid her $2,850 for earlier work on the property purchase.

That appeal, says the News, kept Perry’s value at purchase price level while he owned the property. Cry me a river. Let’s get real: raise your hand if you volunteer to raise the appraisal on your home just so you can pay more in property taxes. Meantime, he did do the state a favor: when he sold that parcel for $1.15m. Moffat   probably coughed up way more cash for property taxes.

Thoughts?

Here’s Roger Staubach’s Horseshoe Bay pad:

Property Description: With a primary goal of creating a timeless environment rather than a specific style , the builder s intent with the creation of this property was to design a home that would mold itself to the owner, not the other way around. A home that would be defined by its owner and their personal sense of aesthetics. This home does not dictate style, but instead is an elegant, well constructed canvas for the owner. Capable of hosting grand-scale events*

Directions: South on Preston. Left on Beverly, home is on NE corner of Beverly and Auburndale Private Remarks: *in an open-air environment with the ease of beautifully finished elevators, elegant formals, elaborate wet bars, and open, spacious rooms, this home also exudes the warmth and includes the amenities that combine livable with luxurious space. Owner financing available. Owner financing!

Dave Perry-Miller and Ebby are happy campers.