If Jenna Jameson's house (still on the market at $2.7 million) is out of your price range, you could pick up her couch this week on eBay. Jameson, who is expecting twins with fighter Tito Ortiz, has listed her beige silk Casa Armani couch with a minimum bid of $9,500. The listing says that the original purchase price was at least double what it is being auctioned for and they promise free shipping to those in the Los Angeles area. The auction ends November 30.

[via ONTD]

In an effort to give back in troubled times, Wal-Mart has just announced it will donate 90 million pounds of fresh food to America's biggest anti-hunger org, Feeding America.

The company won't seek a tax deduction for the gift and intends to increase its annual giving to 3 billion pounds of food over the next few years.

Their donation this year is the equivalent of 70 million meals, at a time when food banks have reported a 20% increase in demand.

And Wal-Mart isn't just providing food. Because it's donated protein and produce, unlike the canned goods and bags of rice you expect at the local food bank, Wal-Mart has also donated $2.5 million to buy freezer trucks and help prepare for new food storage challenges.

It's a nice start to the season of giving.

It's not an easy time for Zale's, the ubiquitous jewelry seller. Jewelry sales are down across board, Zale's is part of the widely circulated e-mail cautioning gift card shoppers, and with a bleak holiday season ahead they have created a couple of new offerings to tempt shoppers.

Zales has also introduced new pendants and charms to show support for the troops including a sterling silver engraved dog tag with the option of 1-3 initials featured on the front face of the tag, a round charm offered in both 14K gold and sterling silver with a choice of service emblem and a sterling silver military cross pendant, again with the choice of branch.

Their big advertising effort is focused on the Celebration Diamond, a new patented diamond cut that features 102 facets. Celebration Diamonds are available in round and princess cuts and each is set in an 18 karat white gold cathedral mounting with platinum prongs and "Celebration" inscribed inside the ring. The complete line includes engagement rings, solitaire earrings, and necklaces with prices from from $1,499 to $44,995. The holiday season is often a popular time for engagements and Zale's is hoping the economy won't scare off the would-be betrothed.

[via Rapaport]

If you've got a weakness for Aston Martin cars then this is an accessory to put on your holiday list. The Sabelt for Aston Martin Racing shoes are casual racing shoes in soft calfskin and suede with a curved design and inserts of silver lamé fabrics that echo the sleek lines of the cars. Sabelt has been working for the Aston Martin Racing squad for almost three years. The shoes come in colors ranging from bright to subtle. The pair shown above sells for 139 euros.

[via Classic Driver which is giving away a pair of black-on-black shoes to one lucky reader]

We know truffles are luxurious and tasty but using them effectively is a bit of an art. By the end of Truffle camp at the La Toque restaurant at The Westin Verasa, Napa you'll exactly what to do with the prized fungi. Ken Frank, executive chef and owner of La Toque restaurant will teach eight students at a time over the course of three days. It begins on a Sunday evening with a reception and dinner prepared by Chef Frank. Monday morning there is a hands-on cooking class followed by lunch and a trip to to Long Meadow Ranch to tour the farm and taste produce. The next day there is another class and lunch followed by a trip to a local winery for a private tour and barrel tasting. Dinner is at La Toque where a truffle-centered menu will be paired with different wines. It winds up on Wednesday morning with a a farewell breakfast of truffle omelets and the bestowing of a truffle "goodie bag" to create your own truffle specialties at home.

Ken Frank's Truffle Camp at La Toque is $2,900 per student based on single occupancy or $4,800 per couple based on double occupancy and is held January 11-14, 2009 and January 18-21, 2009. The price includes three night's accommodations at The Westin Verasa, Napa in a deluxe one-bedroom suite, the five meals mentioned above, two hands on cooking classes with Chef Frank, the field trips to the farm and winery, goodie bag, recipes, wines served during the event and gratuities. The only thing that's missing? A truffle hunt to source the musty treasures.

I've been thinking a lot about the nose recently after reading Avery Gilbert's "What the Nose Knows" which is a fascinating look at scent from a scientific point of view. He talks about how the nose gets accustomed to certain scents and basically stops smelling them (which explains how people can work in some pretty smelly places and not go completely nuts). All the more reason then to sample the endless amount of perfumes in the world. The International Herald Tribune recently had an interesting piece on bespoke fragrance in Paris. Bespoke fragrances have a variety of price points but to get the attention of a classically-trained nose you will have to pay couture prices. At the top of the line we find Cartier. At Cartier in Paris, Mathilde Laurent is the in-house "nose" creating "made-to-measure" scents. For custom designs Cartier sells a set of two Baccarat flasks of five fluid ounces, three small spray bottles and two refill bottles, enough for three to five years for $75,500.

Small perfume company, l'Artisan Parfumeur is planning to introduce in January a line of single-edition perfumes. Only one bottle of each will be made and sold through the Paris store. Bertrand Duchaufour is the nose behind the Mon Numéro line which will be sold in one-off bottles designed by Pascale Riberolles, an artist and master glass blower and sell for about $20,000.

But the person in the article I'd most like to sniff out just might be Francis Kurkdjian, who doesn't work out of a boutique but has a website and a mobile laboratory which he travels around the world with to meet clients. He has worked on fragrances for Kenzo, Armani, Yves St. Laurent and others and has the type of obsessively passionate devotion to scent that is a hallmark of the best noses. Kurkdjian's bespoke scents are conceived, blended and matured over 6 to 10 months, and priced at $10,000 for two 60-milliliter flasks which are hand-engraved with a name or personal message.

Actress CCH Pounder and her husband, an anthropologist, have put their home in the West Adams area of Los Angeles on the market. According to the Real Estalker, Ms. Pounder, perhaps best known for shows like Law and Order: SVU and The Shield purchased this 1915 house with her husband in 2004 for $602,000. The home is located in the West Adams Terrace Historic Preservation Overlay Zone which means that the neighborhood is protected from dramatic alterations which could change its charming look. The three-bedroom home is fairly small by Hollywood standards but does have beautiful vintages fireplaces, an antique chandelier in the dining room and a lovely vintage feel with gleaming dark wood floors. It looks like Pounder and spouse are quite the collectors and the home is full of artistic treasures. It is listed at $1.25 million.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

It's been a long journey but the Montage Beverly Hills is finally ready for guests. The company opened the Montage Laguna Beach in 2003 and have been working on their Beverly Hills location since 2005, fighting a battle in order to begin construction. The Montage Beverly Hills is a 201-room luxury hotel situated in the "golden triangle" of Beverly Hills and it is the first new luxury hotel to be built in Beverly Hills in more than 16 years. The hotel has a Spanish Colonial Revival design and features details like hand-painted ceilings in the Marquesa ballroom and the Library and a curator-assembled art collection. There are three restaurants and a two-level spa with a fitness facility, relaxation area and beauty salon.

The guest rooms and suites are designed to reflect the glamour of old Hollywood but with the latest in technology. Rooms range from 500 to up to 5,000 square feet. Guest services include 24-hour check-in, complimentary John Lobb shoe shine, custom-designed suit hangers and Agraria's golden pomegranate scented bath products. Guests who book Corner Suites and higher can borrow Mercedes-Benz cars to use during their stay.

The restaurants include Parq, an 88-seat restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and signature dishes include Marinated "Japanese Kobe" Cobb, Cannelloni of Braised Short Ribs and Cedar Plank Medallions of Spiny Lobster. For dinner, the 44-seat Muse serves exotic seafood and prime meats. Bordering the rooftop pool, The Conservatory Grill offers all-organic options for breakfast and lunch.

Hotel Chatter reports that rooms, which usually start at a steep $595 a night, can be had for a $425 introductory rate.

Given the recent lackluster art auctions, people are understandably wary about the Art Basel Miami Beach show next month but the warm weather art event still hopes to attract the wealthy. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Cartier, which is the only jewelry sponsor of the event, will debut two jewelry collections, a high jewelry collection with tasseled pieces using sapphires and red spinels and Hypnose, an Art Deco-inspired line of black and white rings, pendants, bracelets and drop earrings. The collections will be displayed at the fair inside the Cartier Dome, which will feature a new visual installation, Diamonds, Gold and Dreams created by the filmmaker David Lynch, from Dec. 3 through Dec. 7. The piece includes a seven-minute "floating diamond" projection that will be displayed each hour accompanied by a musical score in an atmosphere that includes golden-fabric walls, gold-printed carpeting, gold trimmed display cases, an ornate curved display case for thePatiala necklace, and gold-accented furniture with reflective glass tops. The jewelry pieces will arrive in Cartier boutiques in March.

In an open letter to the board of trustees at Los Angeles's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times is hardly circumspect about his message: give money, and give a lot of it.

MOCA's endowment is rumored to have fallen a startling $40 million or so in the past several years, and the museum has publicly contemplated renting or even selling its significant collection of art, functioning merely as an exhibit space in the future.

It's also mentioned folding in to LACMA, making the city of LA -- population nearing 4 million -- a one-museum town (yes, the Getty is nearby, as is the Norton Simon, but neither of those specialize in contemporary art nor are they geographically LA proper).

Mr. Knight urges board members to gather together and "stay in that room until you have cobbled together at least $25 million." Interestingly, that was the amount Mercedes Bass gave to the Metropolitan Opera two years ago after it announced its own financial woes. "It's really the duty of a board member to support the institution in a time of need," she told The New York Times.

I'm sure Mr. Knight and art lovers everywhere hope MOCA's board will remember those words.

Russian oligarch Sergei Rodionov married a notorious Moscow femme fatale named Olga and then commissioned famed French photographer Bettina Rheims to do a big bucks X-rated photo shoot. He liked it so much he talked Rheims into two more photo shoots, and the results have just been published in book form, to a decidedly mixed reaction from Moscow society.

Russian billionaires are not shy about displaying their wealth, and surely The Book of Olga (right), which is so incendiary we can only show you the cover here, is just another such exhibition of prized assets. Of course, as a limited edition of 1,000 signed and numbered copies for $500 each, it also stands to make some money. If it succeeds, perhaps other Riussian oligarchs will follow suit and such books could become the hot new status symbol.

Cigar Aficionado's Big Smoke New York City 2008 will be held on Tuesday, November 25. Included in the $240 ticket price are a variety of premium wines, spirits and beer to sample; a variety of food "appealing to an aficionado"; and these premium handmade cigars:

Alec Bradley Tempus, Arturo Fuente, Ashton, A. Turrent Six Generations, Aurora 1495, Bravo, CAO, Carlos Toraño, Cuvée Rouge, Defiance by XIKAR, Diamond Crown, Don Tomas, El Rico Habano, Flavours by CAO, Fonseca, Hoyo de Monterrey, La Caya, La Flor de Ynclan, La Flor Dominicana, La Gloria Cubana, Macanudo 1968, Nub, Oliva Serie G, Padrón, Rocky Patel Premium, San Cristobal, Tabacos Baez, Te Amo World Selection

Session I is from 4:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. and Session II is from 7:30 p.m. - 10 p.m. Both will be held at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square (attendees must be 21). All the puffing will support a good cause: A portion of net proceeds will benefit the Prostate Cancer Research Institute.

There are very few places left in NYC to light up legally, so go and enjoy!

RxArt held its big bash/silent auction at the Milk Gallery in Chelsea earlier this week, drawing a crowd that took its time bidding but ended up supporting the non-profit group to the tune of $350,000. RxArt installs art exhibits in children's hospitals to relieve stress and create inspiring environments.

Founded in 2000 by well-known gallerist Diane Brown (at right with board member Cynthia Rowley), the non-profit tries to de-institutionalize hospital spaces with original art, usually colorful exhibits by artists like William Wegman and Frank Stella that stretch across every wall and ceiling possible.

The group produces coloring books for patients drawn from every installation, so kids can focus on emotional healing while docs aim to do the rest.

The news that Madonna is the latest star to pose for Louis Vuitton has been floating around for a week or so but now there are some more concrete details. The soon-to-be-divorced music icon will be paid a rumored $10 million to be the new face of Louis Vuitton's 2009 marketing campaign. The photographer is Steven Meisel, who Madonna has worked with many times, most famously for her naughty 1992 book, "Sex." View on Fashion has a couple pics of Madonna cozying up to a Louis bag. Filming took place this week at L.A.'s Café Figaro, and the stylist for the session was Marie Amelie Sauve, fashion editor for Vogue Paris and consultant for Balenciaga.

If this bag reminds you of a smokey bowling alley and ill-fitting, overused bowling shoes than this won't be your cup o' tea. But personally I like the retro-chic, mod look of Miu Miu's Cutout Bowling Bag. It may be a bit of a literal spin-off of its name but the neutral, simple tones and basic design make it a daily bag for popping around town or heading to a business lunch. The compact size but rounded shape give you ample space to bring your makeup, water bottle, wallet and apple but it isn't big enough to weigh you down or get in your way. For $1,430, the double zip top closure with padlock, silver accents, and satin lining make for a great basic handbag. (16" x 11" x 8" with 5" strap drop)

[via What's Haute]