Real LI

Heather Mills will have to buy her own Hamptons home.

In the weeks since a British judge handed down a decision in the bitter divorce battle between Sir Paul McCartney and estranged wife Heather Mills, copies of the judgment have been leaked and have surfaced on the internet. Included in a copy of the judgment found on the Smoking Gun Web site are details of the former Beatle’s assets, including some real estate here on Long Island that Mills sought to obtain in the divorce settlement.

According to the document, in 1998, several months after his late wife Linda’s death, McCartney purchased a home on Pintail Lane in East Hampton. By August 1999, McCartney had taken Mills on vacation to the wood-frame home. That home, according to the document, and another in Manhattan, were among the assets that Mills sought to obtain.

But the judge did not grant Mills's request.

“In my judgment, her case overlooks the fact that all of the husband’s properties were acquired before their marriage, in some cases long before…I see no justification whatever for the homes on Long Island or in New York City.”

Paul McCartney’s links to the Hamptons go back to the early days with his late wife, Linda Eastman. McCartney told the court that prior to his marriage to Heather Mills, his need for a security detail was minimal. “There was an off-duty police officer who provided night cover when I was at Long Island, and on trips to and from the airport ... this was how I lived with my first wife and four children.”

According to McCartney, things changed after his marriage to Mills and the birth of daughter, Beatrice, in 2003. Mills then insisted on a heavy increase in their security detail to shield her from paparazzi. In 2005, he told the court, he spent about $70,000 on security in the United States alone.

In September 2006, the Daily Mail published details of McCartney’s Hamptons real estate holdings, including eight acres of land that surround the house, puchased under the corporate name Oakleaf Investments.

For more on McCartney's longstanding connection to the Hamptons, see here.

In sorting through Paul McCartney's divorce from Heather Mills, the Daily Mail examined the ex-Beatle's real estate holdings, including this house on the East End. The article doesn't indicate where exactly the house is, but there is a family compound in Amagansett. Read more about McCartney's life in the Hamptons here.

Daily Mail photo

According to the judge who decided the nearly $50 million settlement in Paul McCartney’s divorce from Heather Mills, the ex-Beatle, shown here leaving court today, is worth about $800 million. Presumably that amount includes some of his real estate holdings, which includes a family compound in Amagansett where Sir Paul has been vacationing every August for years.

No wonder McCartney has many friends on the East End. He's known to frequent rocker John Bon Jovi's house in the Georgica area of East Hampton. For Labor Day last year, McCartney and Bon Jovi performed in an impromptu jam with Sagaponack resident Billy Joel, Sag Harbor resident Roger Waters and North Haven resident Jimmy Buffett.

Last summer, Mills reportedly rented a nearby home on Georgica Pond in East Hampton so that she could be close to daughter Beatrice while the child spent time with her father. That home is owned by writers Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi, and just a stone’s throw from property owned by fimlmaker Steven Spielberg.

For more on the McCartneys' history in the Hamptons, see here.

Getty Images photo

Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg has added another property to his Georgica Pond holdings in East Hampton, a source tells Newsday. Spielberg closed on the purchase of the three-acre lot this week on Apaquogue Road for a bit less than the asking price of $19.95 million.

Sources say the transaction was handled by Spielberg’s lawyer, California-based Gerald Breslauer, whose company name appears on records for nearby tracts that Spielberg owns. Included in the purchase is a 4,500-square-foot, six-bedroom home that a local agent told Newsday last month was likely being purchased as a tear-down. “It’s all about land value,” the agent said. It has been reported that Spielberg is also in talks to purchase an adjacent lot owned by the estate of the late philanthropist Arthur Ross.

Spielberg’s neighbors include writers Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi, who last summer reportedly rented their home to Paul McCartney’s ex, Heather Mills.

The listing involved a four-way exclusive with the The Corcoran Group, Sotheby’s International Realty, Brown Harris Stevens, and Prudential Douglas Elliman, sources say.

Could director Steven Spielberg be expanding his Georgica Pond real estate holdings?

Rumors are swirling in East End real estate circles that a home on Apaquogue Road in East Hampton village will be Spielberg’s newest acquisition. Spielberg already owns a compound two lots over from this one, which insiders say is being purchased by him through California-based attorney Gerald Breslauer.

Breslauer, whose company's name appears on property records for the parcel that Spielberg already owns, declined to comment.

The asking price for the 4,500-square-foot, six-bedroom traditional dwelling was just under $20 million. An agent familiar with the 3-acre pondfront property said that it is likely being purchased as a tear-down. “It’s all about land value,” the agent says.

The listing involved a four-way exclusive with the Corcoran Group, Sotheby’s International Realty, Brown Harris Stevens, and Prudential Douglas Elliman. Sources close to the deal say they've been told Spielberg is the actual purchaser of the property.

Property owned by the estate of philanthropist Arthur Ross, who died in September at the age of 96, sits between Spielberg's current property and the new one.

Spielberg's neighbors include writers Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi, who reportedly rented their home this summer to Paul McCartney's ex, Heather Mills. Rocker Jon Bon Jovi is also said to own a home in the area.

Media types scrambled earlier this week when the British tabloids reported that music legend Sir Paul McCartney was spotted romancing Nancy Shevell in East Hampton.

Locals know that McCartney is no newcomer to the Hamptons. In fact, he’s been vacationing there for years, spending two weeks every August with his late wife, Linda, and their four children at their Amagansett compound.

Last month, Paul’s daughter, designer Stella McCartney told W magazine: “I've been coming (to the Hamptons) my whole life." She recalls beach parties with kegs and nights out at The Stephen Talkhouse on Main Street in Amagansett when “they’d have Muddy Waters and amazing people play.”

She told the magazine that East Hampton is still a retreat for "the American half" of her family. Her maternal grandfather was lawyer and East Hamptonite Lee Eastman. Her uncle is entertainment lawyer John Eastman, who has managed Sir Paul’s career for 40 years. When McCartney married his second wife Heather Mills in 2002, rumors swirled that the ceremony would take place at Eastman’s Lily Pond Lane mansion. Instead the now-divorcing couple married in Ireland.

Eastman’s clients have included two notable Long Islanders: musician Billy Joel, who owns homes in Sag Harbor, Centre Island and Sagaponack, and abstract artist Willem De Kooning, who worked from a studio in Springs.

McCartney, himself a visual artist, had a longtime friendship with De Kooning. He credits De Kooning with influencing his painting style. The ex-Beatle is quoted as saying, "you have to paint abstract after you've been seeing Bill de Kooning". McCartney's influences also include the scenery at Georgica Beach, the subject of a few of his works. See some of them here.

Author Steven Gaines told the Associated Press earlier this week that "the Hamptons are filled with celebrities. …This is a community that's very protective of those who live here." Apparently McCartney now stays out East after Labor Day, when things quiet down. "October is Paul's favorite month," Gaines said.

Paul McCartney: Christine Cotter/Los Angeles Times; Nancy Shevell: AP photo