Never Say Never to Neverland Ranch

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When Elizabeth Taylor married Larry Fortensky at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in 1991, Trip Haenisch was one of the members of her wedding party.

The founder of West Hollywood interior design firm Trip Haenisch & Associates said it was a surreal moment, especially after he went into Jackson’s home.

“I walked in and there was an open kitchen that looked out to the living room and there was a monkey sitting on the sofa watching television with a plate of food,” said Haenisch, 59. “It was so weird, and that was before phones when you could take pictures.”

The experience was so strange that even his associates didn’t believe he was there when he told them.

“People in my office were asking and I said, ‘Yeah, we were in People magazine,’” he said. “They said ‘No, you weren’t,’ and then they found (the photo) online.”

Hipster Highway Run

Amber Seagraves, founder of luxury home and gift company Lasso Abode, handcrafts luxury pillows and other items at her home base in Silver Lake. But she has to drive to the Westside occasionally to buy buttons from her Malibu button supplier.

Recently, on her ride back east on the Pacific Coast Highway, her SUV was hit by a “dissolved hipster.” She was uninjured, but pulled to the side of the slim highway.

“When he hit me, I looked back and saw a hot guy with messy short hair and Ray-Bans in a black T-shirt at the wheel,” she said. “I remembered thinking he was hot. Total bad boy.”

It could have been a twisted boy-meets-girl situation, except that the bad boy in question took off: a hit and run. Seagraves, 39, called the police, while a good Samaritan who witnessed the incident chased the hipster down the PCH long enough to record his plate number. Thanks to this stranger, the police found the offender several days later.

In the end, Seagraves took the high road.

“The damage was so minor, I didn’t press charges,” she said.

Staff reporters Subrina Hudson and Hannah Miet contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at ccrumpley@
labusinessjournal.com.

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