Continuing on with our effort to weigh in over this holiday weekend on items that others have written about but we have neglected up until now, we wanted to alert our readers to the news that comedian John Cleese finally has unloaded his 15.47-acre Stalloreggi ranch in Montecito, Calif. for a reported $16,500,000. 
The Los Angeles Times' Ann Brenoff broke the story of Cleese's sale of the ranch, which is at 2349 and 2351 E. Valley Road in Montecito, in her "Hot Property" blog on June 25. And Brenoff reported the $16,500,000 sale price, which isn't available in public records and which if true is a far cry from the $28,000,000 that Cleese was seeking for the property when he placed it on the market last summer. We wrote about Cleese's listing back on July 8 -- almost exactly one year ago. 
Records show that Cleese and his wife, from whom he now is estranged, purchased the ranch in two pieces -- a 14.62-acre parcel and a 0.85-acre parcel -- in early 1999. Features on the property include a 16,000-square-foot great barn with a full-length, completely padded central corridor for all-weather workouts, a large tack room with plenty of storage, two indoor-outdoor-accessible exercise rooms -- one with a lunge area and one with a European hot walker -- two separate offices and a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with a living room, kitchen and views of the Santa Ynez Mountains, according to listing information. Also on the property are two large, dual-level apartments, each with two bedrooms and full kitchens, paddocks, a large arena and a Mediterranean-style home with three bedrooms, four bathrooms and a swimming pool, according to listing information. Check out an online listing sheet for Stalloreggi -- complete with photos. Public records show that on June 10, Cleese sold the ranch, which is just down the road from Oprah Winfrey's palatial Montecito spread. The deal was recorded with Santa Barbara County on June 12. The buyer is identified in public records as something called the Pines Trust, which is based in Kirkland, Washington. Brenoff reported that the buyer was cellphone pioneer Craig McCaw, and while we can't independently confirm that, we could hardly dispute it, especially since the company that McCaw now runs, Clearwire, is based in...Kirkland, Washington! Stalloreggi is just 1.75 miles down the road from Oprah Winfrey's huge spread at 1633 East Valley Road in Montecito. The talk-show queen paid a reported $50 million through her Tara II LLC company in late 2001 for the 41.77-acre property at 1633 East Valley Road, and she added another adjacent, 1-acre parcel to her compound in late 2004 by buying the 2,560-square-foot house next door at 1637 E. Valley Road for an undisclosed price through her Promised Land LLC company, according to public records. Cleese continues to own a three-bedroom, three-level beachfront home at 1813 Fernald Point Lane in Santa Barbara, which he purchased in 1994 for just over $1 million, according to public records and news accounts from that time. He briefly had owned the four-bedroom house next door at 1815 Fernald Point Lane, which he sold in early 2003 after having listed it for close to $5.5 million.