Leslie's £1.5m river view

Men Behaving Badly star Leslie Ash has paid £1.5 million for a three-bedroom penthouse in a St George development overlooking the Thames. She and her husband, former Leeds footballer Lee Chapman, have sold their six-bedroom Victorian house near Clapham Common for a similar price through Robert Trindle.

"We're not downsizing," insists Chapman, owner of Soho restaurant Teatro. "We wanted somewhere with fantastic views nearer to town. We'd also like to buy a villa in Umbria or Tuscany, where our two boys, Joe and Max, can enjoy the outdoor life."

Royal romance permeates a two-bedroom basement maisonette in Farm Street, Mayfair, currently for rent at £1,200 a week through Knight Frank. The Victorian red-brick house was used during the early-1930s as a house of assignation by the future Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson.

It was later owned by Hollywood screen siren Gloria Swanson, who starred in Sunset Boulevard. A special feature is the front door, salvaged from a church, which is carved with representations of the heads of the 12 apostles.

Herbert Ypma, author of the cult book series Hip Hotels, is selling his Earl's Court home Honeylane Cottage for £895,000 through Farrar. With a courtyard atrium, complete with a cherry tree, the three-bedroom property has been meticulously refurbished.

The nomadic French author/photographer has installed many of the cool hotel "toys" featured in his books, from a Turkish plunge pool to a multi-room hi-fi system. "The owner is only selling because the house has become too small since he and his wife had two children," say the agents. "And they now spend most of their time in Paris."

Actor Rupert Everett plans to buy a holiday home in South America. He recently checked out fashionable resorts in Brazil and Punto del Este - the St Tropez of Uruguay - while staying with Uruguayan hostess Marquesa de Varela.

"Rupert is torn between the two countries," she tells me. "He could buy a property here like Martin Amis's for $2 million or a two-bedroom flat overlooking the sea for $300,000. While he was staying he adopted a stray dog, which we've now nicknamed Rupertina."