Penthouse

Billing it as a "last chance" to see Liberace's Hollywood Hills estate, Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services staged a fund-raiser at the late entertainer's aerie Sunday--before its new owner erases much of its Liberace-ness. For the occasion, the flocked-wallpaper-lined, nine-bedroom house (with enough chandeliers to convince you Liberace really did live here) was filled with music once again.

The top two floors of a Century City residential tower still under construction have been sold for a record $47 million to Candy Spelling, the widow of TV mogul Aaron Spelling. A $47-million price tag may seem like an enormous sum, but this is all about downshifting in the fast lane.

MIKE ADKINSON is a chain-smoking, fast-talking multimillionaire in sneakers and a golf shirt. If there were a World Series of Real Estate Gamblers, he'd be a serious contender. Adkinson, 58, has known boom and bust, wealth and want. He has managed the Texas investments of Kuwaiti royalty and built thousands of homes in Florida. He has spent time in jail over a savings and loan scandal, won an appeal and walked free.

Worst finishes by defending champion at British Open (1970-1998): 1. Mark Calcavecchia tied 101st in 1990 2. Mark O'Meara tied 99th in 1999 3. Seve Ballesteros 76th in 1989 4. Tom Watson 67th in 1976 5. John Daly tied 66th in 1996 6. Justin Leonard 55th in 1998 Source: World Features Syndicate

GREETING guests on his penthouse rooftop, Eugenio Lopez Alonso seems to have all the requisite props for his jet-set playboy lifestyle. Swingin' bachelor pad crammed with expensive artworks? Check. Second home in Beverly Hills, done up in chic, high-Modernist style? Check. Two yippy dogs, named Jasper (as in Johns) and Pollock (as in Jackson)? Yup. Posse of glamorous, attractive pals hanging out nearby? Check. Private source of steady income? Um, you're kidding, right?

A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a judgment under which Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione won $129 million from Dominion Federal Savings & Loan, wiping out a decision that had threatened to force the McLean, Va.--based thrift out of business. The original judgment, handed down last year in a suit brought by Penthouse International Ltd., exceeded Dominion's net worth. Had it been upheld, it might have forced regulators to step in and compel a sale of the institution.

Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger lost his bid today to prevent Penthouse from distributing its December issue but filed a $10-million suit against the magazine, charging that it contains an unauthorized interview with him. The holiday issue has already appeared on some newsstands, and Justice Beatrice Shainswit of the state Supreme Court ruled that it was too late to grant the restraining order.

Construction has begun on a $1.6-million penthouse spa and members' lounge as additions to the Club Donatello, a proprietary-interest club occupying the top floors of the Pacific Plaza hotel at Post and Mason streets in San Francisco. When completed in December, the 3,600-square-foot penthouse will also contain a club lounge and conference room, a Grecian-style gymnasium with exercise equipment, private indoor and outdoor tanning facilities and a classic Roman bath of white travertine marble.

Penthouse International Inc., publisher of adult magazines since 1965, said U.S. regulators opened an investigation of its accounting three weeks before the company sought bankruptcy protection for its publishing unit, General Media. The company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the SEC informed it July 23 that an inquiry was being raised to a formal probe.