Good news/bad news for ultra-luxury real estate agent John McMonigle: He just repped both sides of OC’s richest home deal ever—the $41 million sale of Corona del Mar’s Portabello estate from Seattle high-tech entrepreneur Frank Pritt to Newport Beach high-tech entrepreneur Fariborz Maseeh. Presumably that means a million dollars or so in commissions for McMonigle. But meanwhile, Comerica Bank has sued his McMonigle Residential Group for defaulting on a $3 million loan secured by its Newport Center headquarters. Comerica says McMonigle missed a $250,000 principal payment and other deadlines. “I feel confident we will work through it,” McMonigle says of the lawsuit. “It’s not a function of cash, it’s a function of who’s responsible for the note.” McMonigle didn’t elaborate, but the Insider notes that he recently split from Coldwell Banker …
Wouldn’t you rather live here, too? The movers told Bon Appetit Research Editor Lorna Corpus Sullivan she had company: In the past week they’d moved five households from Los Angeles to Irvine. Sullivan was relocating with hubbie and new OCBJ Managing Editor Jerry Sullivan …
Former First Lady Laura Bush is scheduled to be at the Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin Jan. 10 for a luncheon benefiting Covenant House …
UCI Chancellor Michael Drake hosts UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and former California Gov. Gray Davis Dec. 7 at a 10th anniversary celebration of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. Calit2 is a joint venture of the two UCs. Fox, a chemistry prof, is back from the White House, where President Obama presented her, Chapman U physicist Yakir Aharonov and eight other scientists with the National Medal of Science …
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former Veep Dick Cheney, along with wife Lynne, headline the Victory of Freedom gala Dec. 6 at the Nixon Library …
Power couple Diana Martin and Mark Tomaino have gone bicoastal. Tomaino, previously with healthcare software company TriZetto Group in Newport Beach, has joined private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in New York. Diana Martin Gifts remains in Costa Mesa but Martin now commutes to the Big Apple …
Kirk Gibson’s bat from his memorable 1988 World Series homerun sold for $575,912 in online bidding conducted by David Kohler’s SCP Auctions of Laguna Niguel. Chad and Doug Dreier of Santa Barbara paid a total of more than $1 million for items from the ex-Dodgers star, with proceeds going to Gibson’s sports and education foundation …
More 20th anniversaries: Doug Rankin and Irvine Barclay Theatre, Sjodin Communications, Newport Beach, and Saddleback Canyon Riders, Trabuco Canyon …
Hilton Orange County GM Shaun Robinson visited his native England for a pub crawl and Liverpool Institute High School reunion that was arranged for him on-air by his buddy and BBC Radio personality Billy Butler. The high school is the same one that Beatles Paul McCartney and George Harrison attended.
