We've never met them, and probably never will, but we can't help but love Russian billionaire Andrei Vavilov and his actress wife, Maryana Tsaregradskaya. First they bought into the unfinished Plaza Hotel, then sued when they saw the results of the renovation. After getting countersued, they persisted in their public attack on El-Ad, the new Plaza owners, eventually getting other prominent owners to back out. Then, after settling, the couple bought into the Plaza anyway. Now, after all of that, the pair turned around and made the most expensive single-apartment purchase so far this year — in the modern, Plaza-overshadowing Time Warner Center. According to the Times yesterday, they picked up "a five-bedroom penthouse on the 78th floor of the south tower" for a whopping $37 million, the highest price scored on this island since last September. In exchange for the glamour and history of the Plaza, the Russian duo will get 8,300 square feet, fourteen-foot ceilings, and the entire glass-encased 78th floor to themselves. As they look down into the top of the Plaza, with its "attic-like" apartments and "large unattractive drainage grates," we're sure their wounds will be soothed.

Pooh to the Plaza [NYT]