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The Mike & Carla Morning Show

The Mike & Carla Morning Show

The Mike & Carla Morning Show

Mark Wahlberg Is Moving His ‘Funky Bunch’ To Las Vegas

By Carla Rea
Positive opinion: 65% Negative opinion: 8% Neutral opinion: 20% Have heard of: 93% Mark Wahlberg first burst into the public eye as a rapper with the group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (also as the younger brother of New Kids on the Block star, Donnie Wahlberg). His famous underwear ads for Calvin Klein put the budding star’s image all over the world. Since baring (nearly) all, Wahlberg has gone on to have an enormous movie career with hit films such "Boogie Nights,” "Ted,” and "Lone Survivor.” Wahlberg was also the producer of the HBO show "Entourage,” based loosely on his life in Los Angeles.

Mark Wahlberg recently moved from Hollywood, and now he’s your neighbor! He’s moving to Nevada to give his family a “better life.”

He said in an interview with Yahoo!, “I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting and I’ve only made a couple of movies in the entire time that I was there. “So, to be able to give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer, this made a lot more sense for us.”

Wahlberg and his wife, Rhea Durham, have four children. Three kids at home: sons Michael and Brendan, ages 16 and 14, and 12-year-old daughter Grace Their eldest child, daughter Ella, is 19. “So, we came here to just kind of give ourselves a new look, a fresh start for the kids, and there’s lot of opportunity here,” He said. “I’m really excited about the future.”

By the way, I had to see what he  meant by “a couple” movies: He has been in 55 movies and produced 27 movies. Whether those were in California or not, seems he’s done a little more than “a couple.”

Wahlberg also wants to build a “state-of-the-art studio” and create “Hollywood 2.0”, so he doesn’t have to travel too far for work.

In April, Wahlberg put his home in Los Angeles on the market for $87.5 million. His family compound is located in the very ritzy Beverly Park neighborhood. The entrepreneur bought the six acre property for $8.25 million in 2009 and commissioned architect Richard Landry to build the house which has 12 bedrooms and 20 – yes, 20! – bathrooms. Gee, I hope they can find a little something here in Las Vegas to help them get by! I’m pretty sure that no state taxes, and low property taxes were also an appeal, when researching “places for Mark Wahlberg to move to.”

Real estate records show that Wahlberg purchased 2.5 acres of land in a very nice area of Las Vegas, for $15.6 million. Most likely he will build a home on the land, as it’s zoned for single-family housing. It is located in The Summit Club, a very secure area reserved for hefty mega-mansions – Celine Dion’s primary home is there.

The cheapest plot of land in the exclusive area — which doesn’t include the cost of building a home — reportedly sells for about $2 million.

Welcome to Nevada, Marky Mark!

Here are some of my favorite Mark Wahlberg movies:

 

-Carla Rea

  • Three Kings (1999)

    A hard-edged satire of U.S. involvement overseas, with a heist storyline. It starred Wahlberg, George Clooney, and Ice Cube  as a trio of soldiers who stage a gold heist during the 1991 Iraq invasion. A great cast, and a good movie.

     

  • Lone Survivor (2013)

    Probably one of Wahlberg’s best films! He plays a real hero – First Class Marcus Luttrell.  He totally committed to the intense physical demands. He made Marcus Luttrell stand out as an individual to humanize tragic events, and Wahlberg was able to bring his personality to the part. The bonding moments he shares with fellow soldiers, played by Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster are very believable. The four actors great chemistry make the movie even better!

  • Boogie Nights (1997)

    Boogie Nights is a great movie! Wahlberg stars as a new, emerging porn star. He could’ve easily been overshadowed by his incredible co-stars – Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly –  but he was not. His transformation into  porn sensation Dirk Diggler was surprisingly heartfelt. He humanized the porn industry, and showed what it was like being part of an untraditional, yet loving and caring family.

     

  • The Departed (2006)

    This was one great movie, with one of the best casts. Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Vera Farmiga, and Martin Sheen. An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston. Wahlberg’s best scenes are when he isn’t the star. Watching him scream profanities may not be the only reason The Departed is so (re)watchable, but Wahlberg’s performance makes the film’s darkness even  more gritty, and more nasty.

     

  • The Italian Job (2003)

    One of my favorite movies ever. Fun, dark, and fast moving. It’s a rare remake that was actually better than the original. Wahlberg proved that he could share the screen in a heist film loaded with heavy names, including Charlize Theron, Seth Green, Jason Statham, and Mos Def. He’s the star of the movie, but you don’t really know that, because he’s generous with his screen time. The heartfelt moments he shares with Charlize Theron as they mourn the loss of their former team leader (Donald Sutherland) were perfect character touches amidst the nonstop action. Watch this one if you haven’t – it’s a lot of fun!

     

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