Dwight Manley’s long list of VIP friends ranges from Jesse Jackson and Jerry Brown to Dennis Rodman and Jim Jannard.
Add Lady Gaga, reports Business Journal Editor at Large Rick Reiff.
Last month, the Brea developer/entrepreneur/philanthropist won a date with Gaga—for $500,000. Manley was the high bidder in an auction at the Soho House West Hollywood benefiting her Born This Way Foundation. (Moments earlier at the event Manley had been playing poker alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.)
Manley said the time and place of their date has yet to be determined, but Gaga will be cooking whatever he wants without any time limit. “She’s a 10,” he says, “by which I mean she’s a really sweet, nice person and extremely charitable.” And, he said, “She’s totally single.”
More Manley, by way of Reiff: Photo-shopped with a crown, scepter and gold coins above the caption, “Brea King … native son savior or its mad monarch?” Manley has also made the cover of OC Weekly. And not just any cover, but possibly the last OC Weekly cover ever, as the alternative paper announced its closing just as the edition was hitting the street.
“The irony is they did a cover of my being a monarch with king-like powers and then they’re shut down. You can extrapolate anything you like,” Manley said. “I think it’s hilarious.” But Manley, who nearly started a Brea newspaper, bemoaned the decline of local news coverage: “It kills me.”
Expect more coverage of Manley in the Business Journal shortly; our Peter J. Brennan has a feature on another Manley venture in the works teed up for later this month.
Kia Motors America President Michael Cole touts the upcoming release of the Seltos crossover utility vehicle (base price: about $22,000) in Kari Hamanaka’s front-page feature this week.
On the other side of the world, a slightly more expensive vehicle with some OC ties recently made waves—the $12 million sale of the 4,000-hp Thor24 custom truck, described, on its own website, as “the most epic big ride truck ever built.”
The sale took place at an auction held late last month in Saudi Arabia. The new owner’s identity hasn’t been disclosed.
Caribou Industries’ Mike Harrah last week noted that he helped design Thor24; reports said he was part of the team that put a reported $7 million into its creation. It features 24 cylinders, weighs 32,000 pounds, and has been featured on Jay Leno’s Garage.
More car talk: Marc Haddad was subject of a recent Wall Street Journal feature, which touted the Laguna Niguel resident’s 2019 Koenigsegg Agera RS Final Edition, the fastest street-legal customer car in the world—others have approached 278 mph.
His cost $4 million, according to the report, which cited Haddad’s involvement in e-commerce platform MyDailyLive.com.
“We use our cars for cruises or dinner nights, but also at car shows that benefit charities. We want the cars to be community cars, not just personal cars,” said Haddad, echoing the community-building ethos of his father, Emile (who has also collected some notable cars, too).
