type='html'>Judging by the amount of reports and requests we've received for 411 on the matter, the celebrity real estate world is, it seems, all kinds of cracked out the last week or so about the $10,000,000 Los Angeles, CA crib (allegedly) purchased by journalist and former first lady of California Maria Shriver.
It seems hardly necessary to recap the recent marital melodramas of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger; A person would have to be a tiny-brained grasshopper not to know it recently came to light the groping ex-Governator fathered a boy-child 13 years ago with one of the family's long-time housekeepers. Unlike Tammy Wynette and Hilary Clinton, Maria opted not to stand by her philandering man and even before the sordid story broke open wide she was on the hunt for a new house to call home.
The scorned woman–who it should be noted has retained the utmost dignity at every turn in the mortifying and embarrassing turn of events that have beset her–reportedly peeped at a condo at the white-glove Carlyle building on Wilshire Boulevard.
Back in mid-May we were given information by a trusted snitch we'll call Polly Platinumtriangle–which we later passed along to the children–that soon-to-be ex-Missus Schwarzenegger didn't go for a condo at the Carlyle but rather leased a petite pad on a gated street in Malibu. According to Polly P. Miz Shriver planned to camp out in the Bu until she closed escrow on a not-yet-completed mansion on a star-studded street in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, only about three miles from the Schwarzenegger family home in the gated Brentwood Country Estates enclave. Several sources typically well-informed about celebrity real estate matters in Tinseltwon have since confirmed that Miz Shriver has been hiding out in Malibu and one of Your Mama's little birdies even fingered a modestly-scaled ocean front house owned by a successful tee-vee writer/producer as her temporary digs.
Gossip juggernaut TMZ followed up last week with more juicy details about–and covert images of–the still-under-construction mansion they reported measures around 11,000 square feet and includes 8 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, a 3 car garage, home theater, fitness room and wine cellar. TMZ also revealed that traditional white-brick Georgian will be completed in about three months time. The house was not, as far as we can tell, listed on the open market.
Property records do not yet reflect a (recorded) transfer of ownership but they do show the house was previously owned by movie producer Dylan Sellers (Agent Cody Banks franchise, A Cinderella Story, the remake of Footloose) who sold it to a local developer in June 2009 for $4,200,000.
Other high-profile peeps who own property on the sleepy but swank street include Ricki Lake, Arianna Huffington, Betty White and Tobey Maguire who appears to have done little with the lot he and the Missus purchased in January 2008 for $10,000,000)
Liz Taylor's Bel Air Mansion Sold to Razor Blade Tycoon
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NOTE FROM YOUR MAMA: This is an amended re-posting of an earlier and incorrectly reported discussion on the recent sale of Elizabeth Taylor's long-time mansion in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles.
SELLER: Elizabeth Taylor
BUYER: Rocky Malhotra
LOCATION: Los Angeles (Bel Air), CA
PRICE: $8,600,000 (list)
SIZE: 7,000(ish) square feet, 6 bedrooms (plus staff suite)
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Property records (and previous reports) reveal that after just 33 days on the open market, the long-time Los Angeles, CA residence of beloved and recently deceased Tinseltown legend Elizabeth Taylor has been sold. The question is–natch–who bought it?
The extraordinarily wealthy, lauded and applauded Elizabeth Taylor went to meet The Great Director in the Sky in late March 2011 and by mid-May her 1.27 acre Bel Air estate, recently refreshed by nice, gay decorator Waldo Fernandez, was on the open market with a price tag of $8,600,000. Just after the fortified estate appeared on the market photos of the home and garden, which includes a guard house Miz Taylor had manned by armed Israeli-trained security personnel, appeared in the glossy pages of Architectural Digest.
Property records Your Mama peeped show Miz Taylor's 7,000(ish) square foot manse was purchased in mid- to late-June (2011) by an entity called Copa de Oro Realty, LLC for an (as yet) undisclosed amount of money.
With an assist from Our Fairy Godmother in Bel Air we did some snooping around on the interweb and quickly determined that Copa de Oro Realty, LLC links directly back to a Bel Air residence owned by the somewhat eccentric inventor/entrepreneur/real estate investor named Mark B. Barron (née Mark Bowen).
At first we thought–and reported–that Mister Barron was the new owner of Miz Taylor's house. However and alas, we were wrong, dead wrong, puppies. Thanks to a covert communique from an unimpeachable inside source, let's call her Cleo Clearsupthematter, the new owner is not Mister Bowen but rather businessman Rocky Malhotra. As per Miss Cleo Mister Malhotra leases Mister Bowen's house in Bel Air, which explains why the Copa de Oro Realty, LLC points directly to that particular (residential) address.
Mister Malhotra came by his fortune the old-fashioned way: He inherited it. The Malhotra family, certainly not a household name in the United States, have long-owned the India-based SuperMax World. Mister Malhotra is the chairman of SuperMax World, a successful global concern that manufactures and sells household items, specifically razor blades, shaving products and home manicure sets. There really is, children, so much money to be made in inexpensive but necessary items.
Anyhoo, Your Mama first thought–and reported–that Mister Barron had recently and inexplicably snatched up several high-priced properties in Bel Air. However, according to Miss Cleo, it's Mister Malhotra who quickly stuffed his property portfolio with a trio of pricey pads in Bel Air. In addition to Miz Taylor's storied mansion on Nimes Road, Mister Malhotra coughed up $8,000,000 in May 2011 for an 8,248 square foot pseudo-Gothic kinda-Tudor style pile (pictured above) on a gated 1.1 acre parcel on Bel Air's busy North Beverly Glen Boulevard.
The very month prior, property mad Mister Malhotra snatched up another Bel Air mansion, this time a stately but wildly outdated 6,209 square foot Paul Williams-designed hill top residence on ritzy Bellagio Road (pictured above) immediately next door to the Copa de Oro Road estate financially embattled actor Nic Cage lost to foreclosure last year. The neo-Palladian property, sold by showbiz attorney Larkin Arnold, was purchased in April 2011 for $8,675,000.
Property records indicate that the mansion owned by Mark Barron and leased by Mister Malhotra sits on the same tiny cul-de-sac where music mogul Quincy Jones, PayPal co-founder Elon Musk and soft-porn purveyor Joe Francis all own luxe homes. Mister Barron's pad is just around the corner from the down-on-its-heels Hollywood Regency-style mansion of Zsa Zsa Gabor, currently and still listed with an asking price of $15,000,000.
We queried Miss Cleo as to Mister Malhotra's plans for Miz Taylor's crib and she tattled to Your Mama that Mister Malhotra plans to maintain the house much as Miz Taylor left it and to eventually lease it out. Who else besides Your Mama thinks the first tenant will likely be some rich old queen with a thing for Liz Taylor?
listing photos (top): Teles Properties
listing photo (middle): Westside Estate Agency
listing photo (bottom): Westside Estate Agency
NOTE FROM YOUR MAMA: This is an amended re-posting of an earlier and incorrectly reported discussion on the recent sale of Elizabeth Taylor's long-time mansion in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles.SELLER: Elizabeth Taylor
BUYER: Rocky Malhotra
LOCATION: Los Angeles (Bel Air), CA
PRICE: $8,600,000 (list)
SIZE: 7,000(ish) square feet, 6 bedrooms (plus staff suite)
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Property records (and previous reports) reveal that after just 33 days on the open market, the long-time Los Angeles, CA residence of beloved and recently deceased Tinseltown legend Elizabeth Taylor has been sold. The question is–natch–who bought it?
The extraordinarily wealthy, lauded and applauded Elizabeth Taylor went to meet The Great Director in the Sky in late March 2011 and by mid-May her 1.27 acre Bel Air estate, recently refreshed by nice, gay decorator Waldo Fernandez, was on the open market with a price tag of $8,600,000. Just after the fortified estate appeared on the market photos of the home and garden, which includes a guard house Miz Taylor had manned by armed Israeli-trained security personnel, appeared in the glossy pages of Architectural Digest.
Property records Your Mama peeped show Miz Taylor's 7,000(ish) square foot manse was purchased in mid- to late-June (2011) by an entity called Copa de Oro Realty, LLC for an (as yet) undisclosed amount of money.
With an assist from Our Fairy Godmother in Bel Air we did some snooping around on the interweb and quickly determined that Copa de Oro Realty, LLC links directly back to a Bel Air residence owned by the somewhat eccentric inventor/entrepreneur/real estate investor named Mark B. Barron (née Mark Bowen).
At first we thought–and reported–that Mister Barron was the new owner of Miz Taylor's house. However and alas, we were wrong, dead wrong, puppies. Thanks to a covert communique from an unimpeachable inside source, let's call her Cleo Clearsupthematter, the new owner is not Mister Bowen but rather businessman Rocky Malhotra. As per Miss Cleo Mister Malhotra leases Mister Bowen's house in Bel Air, which explains why the Copa de Oro Realty, LLC points directly to that particular (residential) address.
Mister Malhotra came by his fortune the old-fashioned way: He inherited it. The Malhotra family, certainly not a household name in the United States, have long-owned the India-based SuperMax World. Mister Malhotra is the chairman of SuperMax World, a successful global concern that manufactures and sells household items, specifically razor blades, shaving products and home manicure sets. There really is, children, so much money to be made in inexpensive but necessary items.
Anyhoo, Your Mama first thought–and reported–that Mister Barron had recently and inexplicably snatched up several high-priced properties in Bel Air. However, according to Miss Cleo, it's Mister Malhotra who quickly stuffed his property portfolio with a trio of pricey pads in Bel Air. In addition to Miz Taylor's storied mansion on Nimes Road, Mister Malhotra coughed up $8,000,000 in May 2011 for an 8,248 square foot pseudo-Gothic kinda-Tudor style pile (pictured above) on a gated 1.1 acre parcel on Bel Air's busy North Beverly Glen Boulevard.
The very month prior, property mad Mister Malhotra snatched up another Bel Air mansion, this time a stately but wildly outdated 6,209 square foot Paul Williams-designed hill top residence on ritzy Bellagio Road (pictured above) immediately next door to the Copa de Oro Road estate financially embattled actor Nic Cage lost to foreclosure last year. The neo-Palladian property, sold by showbiz attorney Larkin Arnold, was purchased in April 2011 for $8,675,000.Property records indicate that the mansion owned by Mark Barron and leased by Mister Malhotra sits on the same tiny cul-de-sac where music mogul Quincy Jones, PayPal co-founder Elon Musk and soft-porn purveyor Joe Francis all own luxe homes. Mister Barron's pad is just around the corner from the down-on-its-heels Hollywood Regency-style mansion of Zsa Zsa Gabor, currently and still listed with an asking price of $15,000,000.
We queried Miss Cleo as to Mister Malhotra's plans for Miz Taylor's crib and she tattled to Your Mama that Mister Malhotra plans to maintain the house much as Miz Taylor left it and to eventually lease it out. Who else besides Your Mama thinks the first tenant will likely be some rich old queen with a thing for Liz Taylor?
listing photos (top): Teles Properties
listing photo (middle): Westside Estate Agency
listing photo (bottom): Westside Estate Agency
Updown Court Goes Down in a Blaze of Foreclosure
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About 20 or 30 miles outside of London in the swank and semi-rural suburb of Windlesham, Surrey, sits the (in)famous Updown Court, one of the largest and most garish private residences in all of the United Kingdom. Updown Court, spec-built and on the market since at least 2006, was reportedly seized by the Irish government in a foreclosure proceeding after property developer Leslie Allen-Vercoe failed to keep up payments on the approximately £50,000,000 mortgage secured by the estate.
¡Sí, niños, escándalo!
When the Irish economy swirled down the financial terlit last year the government took over control and ownership of the failed bank that lent Mister Allen-Vercoe tens of millions of pounds. That, puppies, is how it came to be that the Irish government now owns Updown Court, an extremely high-maintenance asset we're quite sure the Irish government is not keen on keeping in their property portfolio.
The self-made son of a model and a bricklayer, Mister Allen-Vercoe bought the 58-acre estate out of receivership in 2002 for around–we're told–£13,500,000. In order to facilitate the cost of the property purchase and the completion/construction of the resulting monumental mega-mansion Mister Allen-Vercoe reportedly took a hefty £40,000,000 mortgage from an Irish bank. The interest payments alone were many times reported to come to around £2,500,000 per year.
Most reports previous reports say that when the Mister Allen-Vercoe acquire the property there was an existing house from the 1940s that had been gutted by fire in 1987. However, one of the children claims that at the time of Mister Allen-Vercoe's 2002 purchase the property already included the shell of the monstrous mansion–designed by Scottsdale (AZ) architect John B. Scholz–that was commissioned by a previous owner/developer who went belly up before completing the colossal crib.
Mister Allen-Vercoe re-engaged the mcmansion specialist Mister Scholz to complete Updown Court, the result a tumescent mansion that stands four floors tall and measures in at more than 50,000 square feet. When the bloated and blinged-out Updown Court–described by Mister Allen-Vercoe as "neo-Californian," whatever that is–was completed in 2006 it was heaved and hoed on to the market with much publicity and a blistering asking price of £75,000,000. According to a few quick calculations on Your Mama's rickety currency conversion contraption that's comes to about 145,00,000 U.S. dollars at 2006 rates.
The palatial and–let's get real children–obscenely crass and decidedly pompous pile is entered through imposing gilt-trimmed wrought iron gates that swing open electronically to a marble driveway oft reported to have cost Mister Allen-Vercoe around £3,000,000 pounds.
A porte-cochere, held aloft by an army of classic but turgid Corinthian columns, signifies the entry where double oak doors lead into a cavernous airport terminal-sized entry and reception area that features a triple-height ceiling, a sweeping double staircase (plus an elevator), two walk-in cloak rooms, two powder poopers and three sitting rooms. Two smaller sitting rooms–one outfitted with a behemoth built-in bar–flank a voluminous central sitting room with towering arched windows and a scalloped balcony reportedly modeled after one in deceased fashion designer Gianni Versace's former house in Miami (FL).
The opulent hotel lobby-like entry/reception area is, in our humble and utterly meaningless opinion, so capacious it reeks of a desperate and perplexing need to smack guests and Chinese food deliverymen hard across the face with pecuniary audacity. Your Mama requires a nerve pill just to look at the pictures, hunnies, and we suggest you partake of the same before diving too deeply into the photos and floor plans for the extraordinary and extraordinarily cocky mansion.
The humongous house is divided into east and west wings. To the east, on the ground floor, a three room suite with half bathroom makes for snazzy and room home office. Behind the office suite the sprawling master suite encompasses a sitting room with fireplace and French doors to a rear terrace, separate bedroom with second fireplace, wee kitchenette, and his and her bathing and terliting facilities with towel storage room. Surprisingly stingy closet space is limited to just two not particularly large walk-ins in the bathroom(s) and a third smaller closet in the hallway that runs between the bedroom and bathrooms. A glass elevator descends directly from the master suite to an indoor swimming pool and spa designed for the exclusive and private use of the master and mistress of the mega-mansion.
The west wing on the ground floor includes more intimate but still gigantic semi-public rooms that include a library, paneled sitting room, banquet hall/dining room. The family's private quarters are, for the size of the house, quite modest and include a well-outfitted kitchen open to a circular breakfast room and an octagonal family room with built-in entertainment center. The family's casual rooms open to the piazza-like terraces that overlook the grounds. At the end of long corridor that runs like a spine through the center of the west wing a double set of doors open into a glass-walled air-lock space that opens into another sky-lit indoor swimming pool ringed with Corinthian columns and complete with circular spa, massage room, party-size sauna and male and female dressing rooms with bathing and terliting facilities.
The second floor contains 8 family bedroom suites, some with separate sitting rooms, most with fireplaces and all with walk-in closets, lavish marble bathrooms and access to one of the seven balconies. One more floor up a prairie-like landing separates two self-contained two-bedroom and 2.5 bathroom guest suites that share a rooftop terrace with infinity edged swimming pool and spa. Yes, puppies, there is indeed a third swimming pool on the fourth floor terrace at Updown Court.
In addition to the two indoor swimming pool areas, the rabbit-warren like basement area houses a dizzying array of sports and entertainment areas that include a horseshoe-shaped fitness room with adjacent male and female changing rooms and bathrooms, home cinema, wine cellar, two-lane bowling alley and a snooker room that overlooks a glassed-in squash court.
Extensive service areas are also contained in the basement and include a walk-in vault, communications/security room, laundry facilities, panic room, industrial catering kitchen with walk-in freezer, half a dozen storage rooms and a granite-floored underground garage with parking for at least seven cars. The grounds, mostly wooded but with acres of manicured lawns and gardens include wide terraces, a private pond, lighted tennis court, equestrian facilities and a yet another swimming pool.
The estate also includes a gatehouse with a couple of ground floor flexi-use rooms for security and/or staff use, a full kitchen with breakfast area, conservatory, two upstairs bedrooms that share a bathroom and two additional powder poopers on the ground floor.
Extensive staff accommodations are contained in a detached complex divided into three sections: One leg of the L-shaped complex encompasses a four car garage, giant storage room, laundry facilities with shower room, and an estate manager's office with en suite facility. The smaller of two staff cottages offers three bedrooms–each with private pooper, an eat-in kitchen and a sitting room tucked under the eaves on the second floor. The larger staff cottage, attached to the smaller one by a covered patio, contains six bedrooms–each with private bathroom, a kitchen that's open to a large large lounge/living/dining room and a second floor sitting area.
We spent some time with the floor plans (above) we had on file from an old Savills' listing for the property and by Your Mama's count, the mall-sized main mansion contains a total of 13 bedrooms, 14 full bathrooms, 8 powder poopers and 4 changing rooms with bathroom facilities.
Combined with the 11 bedrooms and 11 full and 2 half bathrooms contained in the gatehouse and staff complex, Updown Court includes a heart stopping grand total of 24 bedrooms, 25 full and 10 half bathrooms plus the four bathrooms in the changing rooms of the indoor swimming pools. That, mons pets, comes to (at least) 39 terlits on the property, a number large enough to require at least a pair of full-time minimum wage workers whose only responsibilities are to scrub and polish toilet bowls.
Although there were few interested parties–and none it seems willing to sign on the deed's dotted line–Mister Allen Vercoe held firm to his sky-high and obviously optimistic asking price (about $145,000,000). However, Updown Court was recently re-listed with a probably still too optimistic price tag of $123,000,000. Anyone want to guess what price the Irish government will eventually get for Updown Court when they finally unload the white elephant?
listing photos: Updown Court
floor plan: Savills
About 20 or 30 miles outside of London in the swank and semi-rural suburb of Windlesham, Surrey, sits the (in)famous Updown Court, one of the largest and most garish private residences in all of the United Kingdom. Updown Court, spec-built and on the market since at least 2006, was reportedly seized by the Irish government in a foreclosure proceeding after property developer Leslie Allen-Vercoe failed to keep up payments on the approximately £50,000,000 mortgage secured by the estate.¡Sí, niños, escándalo!
When the Irish economy swirled down the financial terlit last year the government took over control and ownership of the failed bank that lent Mister Allen-Vercoe tens of millions of pounds. That, puppies, is how it came to be that the Irish government now owns Updown Court, an extremely high-maintenance asset we're quite sure the Irish government is not keen on keeping in their property portfolio.
The self-made son of a model and a bricklayer, Mister Allen-Vercoe bought the 58-acre estate out of receivership in 2002 for around–we're told–£13,500,000. In order to facilitate the cost of the property purchase and the completion/construction of the resulting monumental mega-mansion Mister Allen-Vercoe reportedly took a hefty £40,000,000 mortgage from an Irish bank. The interest payments alone were many times reported to come to around £2,500,000 per year.
Most reports previous reports say that when the Mister Allen-Vercoe acquire the property there was an existing house from the 1940s that had been gutted by fire in 1987. However, one of the children claims that at the time of Mister Allen-Vercoe's 2002 purchase the property already included the shell of the monstrous mansion–designed by Scottsdale (AZ) architect John B. Scholz–that was commissioned by a previous owner/developer who went belly up before completing the colossal crib.
Mister Allen-Vercoe re-engaged the mcmansion specialist Mister Scholz to complete Updown Court, the result a tumescent mansion that stands four floors tall and measures in at more than 50,000 square feet. When the bloated and blinged-out Updown Court–described by Mister Allen-Vercoe as "neo-Californian," whatever that is–was completed in 2006 it was heaved and hoed on to the market with much publicity and a blistering asking price of £75,000,000. According to a few quick calculations on Your Mama's rickety currency conversion contraption that's comes to about 145,00,000 U.S. dollars at 2006 rates.
The palatial and–let's get real children–obscenely crass and decidedly pompous pile is entered through imposing gilt-trimmed wrought iron gates that swing open electronically to a marble driveway oft reported to have cost Mister Allen-Vercoe around £3,000,000 pounds.
A porte-cochere, held aloft by an army of classic but turgid Corinthian columns, signifies the entry where double oak doors lead into a cavernous airport terminal-sized entry and reception area that features a triple-height ceiling, a sweeping double staircase (plus an elevator), two walk-in cloak rooms, two powder poopers and three sitting rooms. Two smaller sitting rooms–one outfitted with a behemoth built-in bar–flank a voluminous central sitting room with towering arched windows and a scalloped balcony reportedly modeled after one in deceased fashion designer Gianni Versace's former house in Miami (FL).
The opulent hotel lobby-like entry/reception area is, in our humble and utterly meaningless opinion, so capacious it reeks of a desperate and perplexing need to smack guests and Chinese food deliverymen hard across the face with pecuniary audacity. Your Mama requires a nerve pill just to look at the pictures, hunnies, and we suggest you partake of the same before diving too deeply into the photos and floor plans for the extraordinary and extraordinarily cocky mansion.
The humongous house is divided into east and west wings. To the east, on the ground floor, a three room suite with half bathroom makes for snazzy and room home office. Behind the office suite the sprawling master suite encompasses a sitting room with fireplace and French doors to a rear terrace, separate bedroom with second fireplace, wee kitchenette, and his and her bathing and terliting facilities with towel storage room. Surprisingly stingy closet space is limited to just two not particularly large walk-ins in the bathroom(s) and a third smaller closet in the hallway that runs between the bedroom and bathrooms. A glass elevator descends directly from the master suite to an indoor swimming pool and spa designed for the exclusive and private use of the master and mistress of the mega-mansion.
The west wing on the ground floor includes more intimate but still gigantic semi-public rooms that include a library, paneled sitting room, banquet hall/dining room. The family's private quarters are, for the size of the house, quite modest and include a well-outfitted kitchen open to a circular breakfast room and an octagonal family room with built-in entertainment center. The family's casual rooms open to the piazza-like terraces that overlook the grounds. At the end of long corridor that runs like a spine through the center of the west wing a double set of doors open into a glass-walled air-lock space that opens into another sky-lit indoor swimming pool ringed with Corinthian columns and complete with circular spa, massage room, party-size sauna and male and female dressing rooms with bathing and terliting facilities.
The second floor contains 8 family bedroom suites, some with separate sitting rooms, most with fireplaces and all with walk-in closets, lavish marble bathrooms and access to one of the seven balconies. One more floor up a prairie-like landing separates two self-contained two-bedroom and 2.5 bathroom guest suites that share a rooftop terrace with infinity edged swimming pool and spa. Yes, puppies, there is indeed a third swimming pool on the fourth floor terrace at Updown Court.
In addition to the two indoor swimming pool areas, the rabbit-warren like basement area houses a dizzying array of sports and entertainment areas that include a horseshoe-shaped fitness room with adjacent male and female changing rooms and bathrooms, home cinema, wine cellar, two-lane bowling alley and a snooker room that overlooks a glassed-in squash court.
Extensive service areas are also contained in the basement and include a walk-in vault, communications/security room, laundry facilities, panic room, industrial catering kitchen with walk-in freezer, half a dozen storage rooms and a granite-floored underground garage with parking for at least seven cars. The grounds, mostly wooded but with acres of manicured lawns and gardens include wide terraces, a private pond, lighted tennis court, equestrian facilities and a yet another swimming pool.
The estate also includes a gatehouse with a couple of ground floor flexi-use rooms for security and/or staff use, a full kitchen with breakfast area, conservatory, two upstairs bedrooms that share a bathroom and two additional powder poopers on the ground floor.
Extensive staff accommodations are contained in a detached complex divided into three sections: One leg of the L-shaped complex encompasses a four car garage, giant storage room, laundry facilities with shower room, and an estate manager's office with en suite facility. The smaller of two staff cottages offers three bedrooms–each with private pooper, an eat-in kitchen and a sitting room tucked under the eaves on the second floor. The larger staff cottage, attached to the smaller one by a covered patio, contains six bedrooms–each with private bathroom, a kitchen that's open to a large large lounge/living/dining room and a second floor sitting area.
We spent some time with the floor plans (above) we had on file from an old Savills' listing for the property and by Your Mama's count, the mall-sized main mansion contains a total of 13 bedrooms, 14 full bathrooms, 8 powder poopers and 4 changing rooms with bathroom facilities.
Combined with the 11 bedrooms and 11 full and 2 half bathrooms contained in the gatehouse and staff complex, Updown Court includes a heart stopping grand total of 24 bedrooms, 25 full and 10 half bathrooms plus the four bathrooms in the changing rooms of the indoor swimming pools. That, mons pets, comes to (at least) 39 terlits on the property, a number large enough to require at least a pair of full-time minimum wage workers whose only responsibilities are to scrub and polish toilet bowls.
Although there were few interested parties–and none it seems willing to sign on the deed's dotted line–Mister Allen Vercoe held firm to his sky-high and obviously optimistic asking price (about $145,000,000). However, Updown Court was recently re-listed with a probably still too optimistic price tag of $123,000,000. Anyone want to guess what price the Irish government will eventually get for Updown Court when they finally unload the white elephant?
listing photos: Updown Court
floor plan: Savills
Jerry Seinfeld Remodels and Lists Telluride Compound
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SELLER: Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld
LOCATION: Telluride, CO
PRICE: $18,250,000
SIZE: 14,200 square feet, 11 bedrooms, 11 full and 3 half bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Anyone and everyone who has any knowledge of the New York City celebrity real estate scene knows that comedian, one-time sitcom star and syndication residuals bajillionaire Jerry Seinfeld, his wife Jessica and their three children live in a duplex apartment once owned by virtuoso violinist Isaac Stern at the fab and iconic Beresford building on Central Park West.
Many also know that Mister Seinfeld also owns a private garage/shop around the corner from the Beresford where the Porsche-collecting comedian keeps and maintains a rotating selection his well-regarded and valuable collection.
Those with real estate interests in the Hamptons also know that in May 2000 Mister Seinfeld shelled out $25,600,000 in two separate transactions–$16,000,000 and $9,600,000 respectively according to property records–to acquire the 8.47 acre ocean front spread in East Hampton, NY of notoriously peripatetic musician Billy Joel. Mister and Misssus Seinfeld went on to spend millions more on a full-scale renovation of the massive main house, the re-construction of a second house (that has its own pool) and the addition of a private baseball diamond at the front of the property near the entry gates.
As it turns out, Mister and Missus Seinfeld own a number of other properties that Your Mama was not previously aware. Based on a rudimentary and unscientific stroll through the property records we discovered that in April 2005 they spent $3,950,000 for a townhouse style building with five or more apartments West 82nd Street. In September 2007, Mister Seinfeld paid an extraordinary $4,454,000 for a warehouse building in Los Angeles near the Santa Monica airport. Presumably he stashes a portion of his Porsche collection here but, in all honesty, we have no idea what he does with the building.
In January of this year (2011), Missus Seinfeld purchased in her own name a 2,366 square foot ranch house in her hometown of Burlington, VT. Property records show the 4 bedroom and 2 bathroom residence, with over 100 feet of sandy beach on Lake Champlain's Appletree Bay, was purchased without a mortgage for $1,050,000.
Mister and Misuss Seinfeld also own a secluded and scenically located 26.84-acre estate in Telluride, CO that, we learned from a kind citizen we'll call Ruby Tuesday, they recently hoisted on to the market with an asking price of $18,250,000. The price includes the no-doubt quite pricey but, for the most part, not particularly inspired furnishings.
Mister and Missus Seinfeld actually own two adjacent properties in Telluride according to the San Miguel County Tax Man. The first was acquired in June 2007 for $7,550,000 and the second the following April for $2,300,000.
Listing information describes the property as "family compound" comprised of "an evolving series of Western ranch structures" that has recently had a "multi-million dollar expansion and upgrade." Altogether there are, according to the listing, 11 bedrooms and 11 full and 3 half bathrooms in the multi-winged main house and its attendant outbuildings.
The interior spaces includes double-height living room with monolithic stone fireplace, hardwood floors, soaring wood ceiling, an entire wall of windows that open to an entertainment terrace and a lot of kick up your feet beige slip-covered furnishings. Even cozier quarters can be found in a library that features a vaulted ceiling, built-in bookshelves, comfy buff-colored leather club chairs, and the walls and ceiling are covered in woodsy but modern horizontal wood paneling.
Heavy wood beams criss-cross the ceiling in the well-equipped and sky-lit country kitchen that includes wide plank reclaimed wood floors, a large work island, butcher block counter tops, high-grade commercial-style appliances, and multiple eating areas from a snack counter to a built-in banquette.
Bedrooms and bathrooms featured in listing photos show they're infused with a simple but luxurious country house charm–nice ordinary and definitely but not our specific cup of decorative tea–that includes wide plank reclaimed wood floors, more horizontal wood paneling that's been whitewashed in at least two of the poopers, delicate pastel wall coverings and gingham fabric accents in the children's rooms
Well-heeled nature lovers who prefer not to get too natural about things will appreciate the system of manicured trails the wind around the property and through the thick stands of aspen and spruce trees to a creek.
Who knows why Mister and Missus Seinfeld might spend millions to re-do only to put the property up for sale, but such are the capricious real estate ways of the rich and famous.
It was recently reported here, there and everywhere that Mister and Missus Seinfeld–longtime residents of the Upper West Side, were spotted peeping as high-priced townhouses on the more high-nosed Upper East Side.
listing photos: Peak's Real Estate / Sotheby's International Realty
SELLER: Jerry and Jessica SeinfeldLOCATION: Telluride, CO
PRICE: $18,250,000
SIZE: 14,200 square feet, 11 bedrooms, 11 full and 3 half bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Anyone and everyone who has any knowledge of the New York City celebrity real estate scene knows that comedian, one-time sitcom star and syndication residuals bajillionaire Jerry Seinfeld, his wife Jessica and their three children live in a duplex apartment once owned by virtuoso violinist Isaac Stern at the fab and iconic Beresford building on Central Park West.
Many also know that Mister Seinfeld also owns a private garage/shop around the corner from the Beresford where the Porsche-collecting comedian keeps and maintains a rotating selection his well-regarded and valuable collection.
Those with real estate interests in the Hamptons also know that in May 2000 Mister Seinfeld shelled out $25,600,000 in two separate transactions–$16,000,000 and $9,600,000 respectively according to property records–to acquire the 8.47 acre ocean front spread in East Hampton, NY of notoriously peripatetic musician Billy Joel. Mister and Misssus Seinfeld went on to spend millions more on a full-scale renovation of the massive main house, the re-construction of a second house (that has its own pool) and the addition of a private baseball diamond at the front of the property near the entry gates.
As it turns out, Mister and Missus Seinfeld own a number of other properties that Your Mama was not previously aware. Based on a rudimentary and unscientific stroll through the property records we discovered that in April 2005 they spent $3,950,000 for a townhouse style building with five or more apartments West 82nd Street. In September 2007, Mister Seinfeld paid an extraordinary $4,454,000 for a warehouse building in Los Angeles near the Santa Monica airport. Presumably he stashes a portion of his Porsche collection here but, in all honesty, we have no idea what he does with the building.
In January of this year (2011), Missus Seinfeld purchased in her own name a 2,366 square foot ranch house in her hometown of Burlington, VT. Property records show the 4 bedroom and 2 bathroom residence, with over 100 feet of sandy beach on Lake Champlain's Appletree Bay, was purchased without a mortgage for $1,050,000.
Mister and Misuss Seinfeld also own a secluded and scenically located 26.84-acre estate in Telluride, CO that, we learned from a kind citizen we'll call Ruby Tuesday, they recently hoisted on to the market with an asking price of $18,250,000. The price includes the no-doubt quite pricey but, for the most part, not particularly inspired furnishings.
Mister and Missus Seinfeld actually own two adjacent properties in Telluride according to the San Miguel County Tax Man. The first was acquired in June 2007 for $7,550,000 and the second the following April for $2,300,000.
Listing information describes the property as "family compound" comprised of "an evolving series of Western ranch structures" that has recently had a "multi-million dollar expansion and upgrade." Altogether there are, according to the listing, 11 bedrooms and 11 full and 3 half bathrooms in the multi-winged main house and its attendant outbuildings.
The interior spaces includes double-height living room with monolithic stone fireplace, hardwood floors, soaring wood ceiling, an entire wall of windows that open to an entertainment terrace and a lot of kick up your feet beige slip-covered furnishings. Even cozier quarters can be found in a library that features a vaulted ceiling, built-in bookshelves, comfy buff-colored leather club chairs, and the walls and ceiling are covered in woodsy but modern horizontal wood paneling.
Heavy wood beams criss-cross the ceiling in the well-equipped and sky-lit country kitchen that includes wide plank reclaimed wood floors, a large work island, butcher block counter tops, high-grade commercial-style appliances, and multiple eating areas from a snack counter to a built-in banquette.
Bedrooms and bathrooms featured in listing photos show they're infused with a simple but luxurious country house charm–nice ordinary and definitely but not our specific cup of decorative tea–that includes wide plank reclaimed wood floors, more horizontal wood paneling that's been whitewashed in at least two of the poopers, delicate pastel wall coverings and gingham fabric accents in the children's rooms
Well-heeled nature lovers who prefer not to get too natural about things will appreciate the system of manicured trails the wind around the property and through the thick stands of aspen and spruce trees to a creek.
Who knows why Mister and Missus Seinfeld might spend millions to re-do only to put the property up for sale, but such are the capricious real estate ways of the rich and famous.
It was recently reported here, there and everywhere that Mister and Missus Seinfeld–longtime residents of the Upper West Side, were spotted peeping as high-priced townhouses on the more high-nosed Upper East Side.
listing photos: Peak's Real Estate / Sotheby's International Realty
Phil and Robin McGraw List Beverly Hills Hideaway
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SELLERS: Phil and Robin McGraw
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $6,250,000
SIZE: 6,980 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5 full and 2 half bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Way back in April 2008 Your Mama heard from several sources inside the Platinum Triangle real estate game that blustery and thickly mustachioed tee-vee talking head Phil McGraw and his wife Robin quietly put their Beverly Hills, CA mansion on the market as a pocket listing. More than two years later–in July 2010–the 11,036 square foot mock-Med manse located on uppity Lexington Road was officially listed on the open market with an asking price of $16,500,000.
The same month they put their 8 bedroom and 7 bathroom Lexington Road residence on the market they coughed up a staggering $29,816,500 for a bigger and better mock Med-manse with 16,079 square feet, 5 bedrooms and 9 full and 2 half bathrooms situation on a gated promontory high above Beverly Hills. It seems to Your Mama almost like cruel and unusual punishment that a publicity hungry man whose sometimes controversial and bully-like psychological style that can be summed by his frequent mantra to "get real" can afford a thirty million dollar mansion in Beverly Hills but, like it or not, such are the far from fair ways of showbiz and capitalism, puppies.
Anyhoo, the Mister and Missus finally sold their florid Lexington Road pile in April 2011 for $12,000,000 to, according to property records, a manufacturer of undergarments. That's far less than the $16.5 million they'd pined and prayed for but still substantially more than the $7,500,000 they paid for the place in December 2002.
In between their shuffling of primary residences, Mister and Missus McGraw made several other real estate purchases including a pair of homes above the Sunset Strip for their two adult sons. One of the McGraw boys–Jay–recently moved with his former nude-model wife to an 11,127 square foot mansion in a double-gated enclave in Calabasas, CA called The Oaks. The Calabasas crib was bought in early 2011 for $6,575,000 according to property records.
Perhaps the most perplexing of Mister and Missus McGraws real estate acquisitions in and around Tinseltown was the January 2007 purchase of a somewhat recently remodeled contempo-mock-Med mansion in an expensive but lackluster area of the Beverly Hills Post Office. Although we scoured the internets looking for a sale price, our few minutes in the trenches didn't turn up a number. However, we do know that just this week the McGraws put the privately situated but architecturally specious abode on the market with an asking price of $6,250,000.
To be honest puppina-weenuhs, Your Mama really hasn't any idea whether Mister and Missus McGraw themselves lived in this house themselves or whether it was occupied by their son Jay and his wife Erica–the ones that recently bought a house in Calabasas. What we do know is that title records and deed documents show the names of the elder Mister and Missus McGraw.
Listing information shows the house sits up a long gated drive, well away from the street on a mostly flat .45 acre lot tucked into a steep hillside. The 6,980 square foot mock-Med mansion–the McGraws do love their mock-Meds don't they?–includes 5 bedrooms and 5 full and 2 half bathrooms that include a master "retreat" with and stone and tile pooper and separate his and her closets.
Listing photos don't show the interior spaces but if we know the McGraws–and we do not actually know the McGraws–the Missus had the interiors of this house done done duh-un in a similar style as their lavish Lexington Road residence that we described in a previous discussion as "an over-stuffed frenzy of faux-Tuscan extravagance mixed with glittery nouveau riche excess." Just our opinion, puppies. Listing information does tell us that the interiors include a double-height entry with "sweeping stairwell," formal living room that opens to the back yard, formal dining room, "chefs kitchen" that opens into a "theater style" family room, home office, sun room, den and a temperature controlled wine storage facility.
The exterior spaces are, however, well represented in listing images and include a motor court with detached front-facing three-car garage and petite but exuberantly landscaped front yard fountain and pathways lined with orange flowers. Out back stone terracing surrounds a free-form swimming pool and raised spa with hand-laid mosaic tile detailing. There's also an outdoor fireplace (there are three more fireplaces inside the house) with small seating area, a built-in grill station with long curving snack counter and a tented cabana with stacked stone walls, heat lamps and privacy curtains perfect for pulling closed for when the Mister and Missus of the house want to get down and dirty outdoor but don't want to be peeped (or photographed) by their domestic staff.
listing photos: Hilton & Hyland
SELLERS: Phil and Robin McGrawLOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $6,250,000
SIZE: 6,980 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5 full and 2 half bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Way back in April 2008 Your Mama heard from several sources inside the Platinum Triangle real estate game that blustery and thickly mustachioed tee-vee talking head Phil McGraw and his wife Robin quietly put their Beverly Hills, CA mansion on the market as a pocket listing. More than two years later–in July 2010–the 11,036 square foot mock-Med manse located on uppity Lexington Road was officially listed on the open market with an asking price of $16,500,000.
The same month they put their 8 bedroom and 7 bathroom Lexington Road residence on the market they coughed up a staggering $29,816,500 for a bigger and better mock Med-manse with 16,079 square feet, 5 bedrooms and 9 full and 2 half bathrooms situation on a gated promontory high above Beverly Hills. It seems to Your Mama almost like cruel and unusual punishment that a publicity hungry man whose sometimes controversial and bully-like psychological style that can be summed by his frequent mantra to "get real" can afford a thirty million dollar mansion in Beverly Hills but, like it or not, such are the far from fair ways of showbiz and capitalism, puppies.
Anyhoo, the Mister and Missus finally sold their florid Lexington Road pile in April 2011 for $12,000,000 to, according to property records, a manufacturer of undergarments. That's far less than the $16.5 million they'd pined and prayed for but still substantially more than the $7,500,000 they paid for the place in December 2002.
In between their shuffling of primary residences, Mister and Missus McGraw made several other real estate purchases including a pair of homes above the Sunset Strip for their two adult sons. One of the McGraw boys–Jay–recently moved with his former nude-model wife to an 11,127 square foot mansion in a double-gated enclave in Calabasas, CA called The Oaks. The Calabasas crib was bought in early 2011 for $6,575,000 according to property records.
Perhaps the most perplexing of Mister and Missus McGraws real estate acquisitions in and around Tinseltown was the January 2007 purchase of a somewhat recently remodeled contempo-mock-Med mansion in an expensive but lackluster area of the Beverly Hills Post Office. Although we scoured the internets looking for a sale price, our few minutes in the trenches didn't turn up a number. However, we do know that just this week the McGraws put the privately situated but architecturally specious abode on the market with an asking price of $6,250,000.
To be honest puppina-weenuhs, Your Mama really hasn't any idea whether Mister and Missus McGraw themselves lived in this house themselves or whether it was occupied by their son Jay and his wife Erica–the ones that recently bought a house in Calabasas. What we do know is that title records and deed documents show the names of the elder Mister and Missus McGraw.
Listing information shows the house sits up a long gated drive, well away from the street on a mostly flat .45 acre lot tucked into a steep hillside. The 6,980 square foot mock-Med mansion–the McGraws do love their mock-Meds don't they?–includes 5 bedrooms and 5 full and 2 half bathrooms that include a master "retreat" with and stone and tile pooper and separate his and her closets.
Listing photos don't show the interior spaces but if we know the McGraws–and we do not actually know the McGraws–the Missus had the interiors of this house done done duh-un in a similar style as their lavish Lexington Road residence that we described in a previous discussion as "an over-stuffed frenzy of faux-Tuscan extravagance mixed with glittery nouveau riche excess." Just our opinion, puppies. Listing information does tell us that the interiors include a double-height entry with "sweeping stairwell," formal living room that opens to the back yard, formal dining room, "chefs kitchen" that opens into a "theater style" family room, home office, sun room, den and a temperature controlled wine storage facility.
The exterior spaces are, however, well represented in listing images and include a motor court with detached front-facing three-car garage and petite but exuberantly landscaped front yard fountain and pathways lined with orange flowers. Out back stone terracing surrounds a free-form swimming pool and raised spa with hand-laid mosaic tile detailing. There's also an outdoor fireplace (there are three more fireplaces inside the house) with small seating area, a built-in grill station with long curving snack counter and a tented cabana with stacked stone walls, heat lamps and privacy curtains perfect for pulling closed for when the Mister and Missus of the house want to get down and dirty outdoor but don't want to be peeped (or photographed) by their domestic staff.
listing photos: Hilton & Hyland
Taylor Swift Flips Out in Nashville
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SELLER: Taylor Swift
LOCATION: Nashville, TN
PRICE: $1,450,000
SIZE: 4,929 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: She may be only barely old enough to legally imbibe a boozy beverage but 21 year old country queen Taylor Swift has already won four Grammys, five Academy of Country Music awards, six Country Music Association awards and a staggering 12 Billboard Music Awards. The screamingly successful youngster with the long curly locks has also, already, become a bit of a regular in all the naughty celebrity real estate gossip columns.
In late 2009 young Miss Swift–then just barely old enough to vote–shelled out around two million bucks for an airy duplex penthouse pad at The Adelicia building in downtown Nashville, TN. Her 4,062 square foot crib features a double height living room, four bedrooms each with private pooper, a second level media room, an open plan kitchen and a narrow balcony with city lights view that wraps around two sides of the penthouse's lower level.
In mid-April 2011 word slipped down the celebrity real estate gossip highway that Miss Swift had purchased a 1925 red-brick mini-mansion in Nashville, TN way back in September of 2010. Property records show the 4,929 square foot residence was purchased through a blind trust for $1,400,000. Most reports from the time suggested that the house was actually purchased for (or even by) Miss Swift's wealthy parents.
Just a week or so after her Nashville real estate news hit the blogs and tabs it came to light on this here very blog of Your Mama's that Nashville-based Miss Swift had done snatched up a bucolic and secluded mini-compound tucked into the hillside in one of the many valleys and ravines that stretch back into the mountains behind Beverly Hills, CA. Property records show the country cute cottage cost Miss Swift a very grown up for $3,550,000.
Today, thanks to a friendly tattletale down in Nashville whom we'll call Wanda Letyouknow, we've just learned that Miss Swift–and/or her parents–have flipped the recently acquired Nashville residence back on the market with an asking price of $1,450,000. It doesn't take any manipulating of the well-worn beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus to see that the current asking price is just fifty grand more than Miss Swift paid for the property less than a year ago.
Current listing information shows the 4,929 square foot traditional includes 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms while online resources we have on file from 2010 state the house contains either 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms or 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms depending on where you look.
Rather than try to reinvent the snark-wheel with new pithy remarks we're just going to send anyone interested back to our previous discussion about the property from mid-April.
Sober and eagle-eyed children may have already noted that listing photos do not, as per current listing information, "reflect the latest renovations of this completely walled estate." What that means is that before any of you kids put on your decorative criticism caps you need to keep in mind that the day-core shown in the listing images is not the day-core of Miss Swift and/or her parents but rather that of the previous owner. Got that?
The Nashville property that the Swift clan just flipped back on the market is not the only Tennessee spread they own. In March 2004 according to prop records, Mom and Pop Swift coughed up $790,000 for an 8,396 square foot lake front mansion in historic Hendersonville, about 20 miles northeast of downtown Nashville.
listing photos: French Christian Patterson & Associates
SELLER: Taylor SwiftLOCATION: Nashville, TN
PRICE: $1,450,000
SIZE: 4,929 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: She may be only barely old enough to legally imbibe a boozy beverage but 21 year old country queen Taylor Swift has already won four Grammys, five Academy of Country Music awards, six Country Music Association awards and a staggering 12 Billboard Music Awards. The screamingly successful youngster with the long curly locks has also, already, become a bit of a regular in all the naughty celebrity real estate gossip columns.
In late 2009 young Miss Swift–then just barely old enough to vote–shelled out around two million bucks for an airy duplex penthouse pad at The Adelicia building in downtown Nashville, TN. Her 4,062 square foot crib features a double height living room, four bedrooms each with private pooper, a second level media room, an open plan kitchen and a narrow balcony with city lights view that wraps around two sides of the penthouse's lower level.
In mid-April 2011 word slipped down the celebrity real estate gossip highway that Miss Swift had purchased a 1925 red-brick mini-mansion in Nashville, TN way back in September of 2010. Property records show the 4,929 square foot residence was purchased through a blind trust for $1,400,000. Most reports from the time suggested that the house was actually purchased for (or even by) Miss Swift's wealthy parents.
Just a week or so after her Nashville real estate news hit the blogs and tabs it came to light on this here very blog of Your Mama's that Nashville-based Miss Swift had done snatched up a bucolic and secluded mini-compound tucked into the hillside in one of the many valleys and ravines that stretch back into the mountains behind Beverly Hills, CA. Property records show the country cute cottage cost Miss Swift a very grown up for $3,550,000.
Today, thanks to a friendly tattletale down in Nashville whom we'll call Wanda Letyouknow, we've just learned that Miss Swift–and/or her parents–have flipped the recently acquired Nashville residence back on the market with an asking price of $1,450,000. It doesn't take any manipulating of the well-worn beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus to see that the current asking price is just fifty grand more than Miss Swift paid for the property less than a year ago.
Current listing information shows the 4,929 square foot traditional includes 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms while online resources we have on file from 2010 state the house contains either 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms or 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms depending on where you look.
Rather than try to reinvent the snark-wheel with new pithy remarks we're just going to send anyone interested back to our previous discussion about the property from mid-April.
Sober and eagle-eyed children may have already noted that listing photos do not, as per current listing information, "reflect the latest renovations of this completely walled estate." What that means is that before any of you kids put on your decorative criticism caps you need to keep in mind that the day-core shown in the listing images is not the day-core of Miss Swift and/or her parents but rather that of the previous owner. Got that?
The Nashville property that the Swift clan just flipped back on the market is not the only Tennessee spread they own. In March 2004 according to prop records, Mom and Pop Swift coughed up $790,000 for an 8,396 square foot lake front mansion in historic Hendersonville, about 20 miles northeast of downtown Nashville.
listing photos: French Christian Patterson & Associates
California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom Sells in The City
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SELLER: Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel Newsom
LOCATION: San Francisco, CA
PRICE: $2,750,000
SIZE: 3,051 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This may be old news to all the Bay Area real estate crazies but those who don't regularly peruse the San Francisco, CA property blogs may not already know that Gavin Newsom, the slick former mayor of San Fran and current Lieutenant Governor of California, has done sold his house in the Ashbury Heights 'hood and decamped to Marin County where he and the missus–actress Jennifer Siebel–have temporarily moved into her wealthy parents' mansion in the leafy and upscale community of Ross.
Young, rich and extraordinarily well-connected Mister Newsom–his family is all knotted up with the oil rich and scandal-plagued Getty family–was a millionaire vintner, restaurateur and hotelier before 2004 when he ascended with great fanfare and social media buzz to the mayorship of San Francisco. Much to the chagrin of the seven social conservatives in San Francisco, Mister Newsom single-handedly launched gay marriage into the national mainstream media in 2004 when he legalized gay marriage within the city limits. That gay party didn't last long thanks to various legal actions and Proposition 8 and neither did Mister Newsom's first marriage to boob-toob hostess Kimberly Guilfoyle. That toothy pair went kaput in 2006 amid rumors (and later revelations) of an extra-marital affair with the wife of a close associate.
He went to rehab and, in early 2006, Mister Newsom coughed up $2,350,000 for a 1 bedroom and 1.5 pooper penthouse bachelor pad at the Bellair Tower, a swank and soo-blime 1930s Art Deco-style building on Russian Hill. A little over two years later he hitched his romantic wagon to actress Jennifer Siebel's love train and together they settled into the Mister Newsom's Bellair Tower penthouse. Seven months later the missus turned up with a bun in an oven and in April 2009 they couple put their baby-unfriendly 1 bedroom aerie on the market with a price tag of $2,995,000. According to the peeps at Property Shark the lucky Newsoms sold the penthouse four short weeks later for $2,935,000.
It was also about this time that Mister Newsom announced his bid to be Governor of California, a candidacy endorsed by fellow philanderer Bill Clinton. He bailed out of that race in the fall of 2009–later won by old-school lefty-lib Jerry Brown–but succeeded in his subsequent run for his current job as Lieutenant Governor.
Property records show that Mister and Missus Newsom purchased their house in the Ashbury Heights neighborhood in June 2009 for $2,738,000. Shortly after that he put another shorty in his lady-wife's belly and they decided their Ashbury Heights home was not longer suitable for their growing family. When we chit-chatted with out S.F.-based b.f.f. Fiona Trambeau about Mister Newsom's house she hissed and cooed and stomped her Lucite-heeled feet about how close it is to Buena Vista Park, one of San Francisco's most notorious gay cruising parks. You should have heard her go on. Your Mama had to hang up the damn phone on that madwoman from Chaillot. (No matter what Fiona says–and beehawtcha says plenty–Your Mama is not making any implications of any kind about Mister Newsom's naughty bizness proclivities.) Anyhoo, the completely renovated but child unfriendly residence appeared on the open market on the 7th of July (2011) for $2,750,000. Four days later the property went into escrow and, according to the good folks at Redfin, the house sold on July 13 for its full asking price.
Listing information shows the fully detached residence measures 3,051 square feet over three floors and includes a total of 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. The residence, originally built in 1915, has a new-fangled and pukey stucco exterior but the some of the Edwardian architectural elements such as the bowed window make Your Mama think this house might have once been much more attractive in its original state.
A stone staircase to the right of the front-facing two-car attached garage (with desirable direct entry to the house) climbs to a small front porch where the front door opens into the entrance hall with old-timey architectural details smoothed out with gleaming white paint, blond herringbone patterned wood floors and built-in built-in bock cases filled mostly with the sort of stuffy leather-bound books that nobody actually reads. The main staircase winds around to the second floor with an aggressive, eye poking star burst-pattern wrought iron banister that Your Mama rather likes for its overt but pretty anger.
The formal living room, dining room and kitchen all pinwheel around the entrance hall that includes, as per the floor plan included with marketing materials (above), a windowed powder pooper tucked up under the stairs. The living room, done up with a Hollywood Regency sort of glam, includes a carved wood fireplace flanked by a pair of funky hooded bergeres and a bowed bay with four sets of French doors that lead to a small planted terrace. The recently remodeled and light-flooded kitchen–a little too open to the entrance hall for our particular taste–has bone colored granite counter tops, high-grade stainless steel appliances–natch–a center work island/snack counter, and dark gray cabinetry that reaches blessedly all the way to the ceiling and includes a bank of wonderfully tall glass fronted cabinets perfect for displaying kitchenware and booze bottles.
A staircase descends from the kitchen to the lower level where two potential bedrooms share an awkwardly split bathroom that has the sink and terlit on one side of the hall and a shower cubby on the other. We gleaned from listing photos that Mister and Missus Newsom used one room for guests and the other as a family room area that includes a double-sided gas fireplace flanked by French doors that open the room to a partially covered terrace.
The uppermost floor contains two craftily laid out bedroom suites, each with private facility, that share a small sitting/sun room. The smaller suite at the front of the house has a entrance hall with closets, luxe bathroom with lots of windows and a pair of French doors to open to a small semi-circular terrace. The master suite also has a proper foyer–how much do we l.o.v.e. a bedroom with a foyer?–two terraces, a pair of walk-in closets and a bathroom with a shower room that could easily accommodate 3 or 4 people.
While in the heart of the city, the property has surprisingly generous outdoor space. In addition to the five terraces and patios there's a fenced patch of grass that runs alongside the house. Perhaps it's only just large enough to accommodate the sort of jungle gym multi-millionaires buys for their off-spring, there's certainly plenty of room for a couple of long-bodied bitches to scramble around and do their dirty business.
Some of the home's top-notch systems include dual on-demand water heaters, seismic upgrades, wiring for surround sound and a security system that includes closed-circuit cameras mounted around the house.
Mister and Missus Newsom, it seems, have some serious real estate good luck when it comes to selling their homes pronto.
Although it's not clear why Mister and Missus Newsom moved to Marin–into her parents' house no less–and didn't just lease or buy a larger home in the city. Perhaps they don't care to raise their kids in the city. Or maybe, as suggested by at least one Bay Area gossip, he plans to vie for the congressional seat that Marin County Rep. Lynn Woolsey may (or may not) soon relinquish. Whatever the reason(s) Your Mama highly doubts it has a damn thing to do with their finances so all you people who want to speculate he moved in with his in-laws because he can't make his mortgage will most certainly be barking up the wrong tree. Nor do we see the family packing their bags for Sacramento. If we were the betting type–and we're not–we'd wager half a donkey and two scoops of beans that the Siedel-Newsom clan will settle down in a big house with a big yard in a fancy community not too far from her parents residence in Ross. Just a hunch. We shall see.
listing photos: McGuire Real Estate
SELLER: Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel NewsomLOCATION: San Francisco, CA
PRICE: $2,750,000
SIZE: 3,051 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This may be old news to all the Bay Area real estate crazies but those who don't regularly peruse the San Francisco, CA property blogs may not already know that Gavin Newsom, the slick former mayor of San Fran and current Lieutenant Governor of California, has done sold his house in the Ashbury Heights 'hood and decamped to Marin County where he and the missus–actress Jennifer Siebel–have temporarily moved into her wealthy parents' mansion in the leafy and upscale community of Ross.
Young, rich and extraordinarily well-connected Mister Newsom–his family is all knotted up with the oil rich and scandal-plagued Getty family–was a millionaire vintner, restaurateur and hotelier before 2004 when he ascended with great fanfare and social media buzz to the mayorship of San Francisco. Much to the chagrin of the seven social conservatives in San Francisco, Mister Newsom single-handedly launched gay marriage into the national mainstream media in 2004 when he legalized gay marriage within the city limits. That gay party didn't last long thanks to various legal actions and Proposition 8 and neither did Mister Newsom's first marriage to boob-toob hostess Kimberly Guilfoyle. That toothy pair went kaput in 2006 amid rumors (and later revelations) of an extra-marital affair with the wife of a close associate.
He went to rehab and, in early 2006, Mister Newsom coughed up $2,350,000 for a 1 bedroom and 1.5 pooper penthouse bachelor pad at the Bellair Tower, a swank and soo-blime 1930s Art Deco-style building on Russian Hill. A little over two years later he hitched his romantic wagon to actress Jennifer Siebel's love train and together they settled into the Mister Newsom's Bellair Tower penthouse. Seven months later the missus turned up with a bun in an oven and in April 2009 they couple put their baby-unfriendly 1 bedroom aerie on the market with a price tag of $2,995,000. According to the peeps at Property Shark the lucky Newsoms sold the penthouse four short weeks later for $2,935,000.
It was also about this time that Mister Newsom announced his bid to be Governor of California, a candidacy endorsed by fellow philanderer Bill Clinton. He bailed out of that race in the fall of 2009–later won by old-school lefty-lib Jerry Brown–but succeeded in his subsequent run for his current job as Lieutenant Governor.
Property records show that Mister and Missus Newsom purchased their house in the Ashbury Heights neighborhood in June 2009 for $2,738,000. Shortly after that he put another shorty in his lady-wife's belly and they decided their Ashbury Heights home was not longer suitable for their growing family. When we chit-chatted with out S.F.-based b.f.f. Fiona Trambeau about Mister Newsom's house she hissed and cooed and stomped her Lucite-heeled feet about how close it is to Buena Vista Park, one of San Francisco's most notorious gay cruising parks. You should have heard her go on. Your Mama had to hang up the damn phone on that madwoman from Chaillot. (No matter what Fiona says–and beehawtcha says plenty–Your Mama is not making any implications of any kind about Mister Newsom's naughty bizness proclivities.) Anyhoo, the completely renovated but child unfriendly residence appeared on the open market on the 7th of July (2011) for $2,750,000. Four days later the property went into escrow and, according to the good folks at Redfin, the house sold on July 13 for its full asking price.
Listing information shows the fully detached residence measures 3,051 square feet over three floors and includes a total of 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. The residence, originally built in 1915, has a new-fangled and pukey stucco exterior but the some of the Edwardian architectural elements such as the bowed window make Your Mama think this house might have once been much more attractive in its original state.
A stone staircase to the right of the front-facing two-car attached garage (with desirable direct entry to the house) climbs to a small front porch where the front door opens into the entrance hall with old-timey architectural details smoothed out with gleaming white paint, blond herringbone patterned wood floors and built-in built-in bock cases filled mostly with the sort of stuffy leather-bound books that nobody actually reads. The main staircase winds around to the second floor with an aggressive, eye poking star burst-pattern wrought iron banister that Your Mama rather likes for its overt but pretty anger.
The formal living room, dining room and kitchen all pinwheel around the entrance hall that includes, as per the floor plan included with marketing materials (above), a windowed powder pooper tucked up under the stairs. The living room, done up with a Hollywood Regency sort of glam, includes a carved wood fireplace flanked by a pair of funky hooded bergeres and a bowed bay with four sets of French doors that lead to a small planted terrace. The recently remodeled and light-flooded kitchen–a little too open to the entrance hall for our particular taste–has bone colored granite counter tops, high-grade stainless steel appliances–natch–a center work island/snack counter, and dark gray cabinetry that reaches blessedly all the way to the ceiling and includes a bank of wonderfully tall glass fronted cabinets perfect for displaying kitchenware and booze bottles.A staircase descends from the kitchen to the lower level where two potential bedrooms share an awkwardly split bathroom that has the sink and terlit on one side of the hall and a shower cubby on the other. We gleaned from listing photos that Mister and Missus Newsom used one room for guests and the other as a family room area that includes a double-sided gas fireplace flanked by French doors that open the room to a partially covered terrace.
The uppermost floor contains two craftily laid out bedroom suites, each with private facility, that share a small sitting/sun room. The smaller suite at the front of the house has a entrance hall with closets, luxe bathroom with lots of windows and a pair of French doors to open to a small semi-circular terrace. The master suite also has a proper foyer–how much do we l.o.v.e. a bedroom with a foyer?–two terraces, a pair of walk-in closets and a bathroom with a shower room that could easily accommodate 3 or 4 people.
While in the heart of the city, the property has surprisingly generous outdoor space. In addition to the five terraces and patios there's a fenced patch of grass that runs alongside the house. Perhaps it's only just large enough to accommodate the sort of jungle gym multi-millionaires buys for their off-spring, there's certainly plenty of room for a couple of long-bodied bitches to scramble around and do their dirty business.
Some of the home's top-notch systems include dual on-demand water heaters, seismic upgrades, wiring for surround sound and a security system that includes closed-circuit cameras mounted around the house.
Mister and Missus Newsom, it seems, have some serious real estate good luck when it comes to selling their homes pronto.
Although it's not clear why Mister and Missus Newsom moved to Marin–into her parents' house no less–and didn't just lease or buy a larger home in the city. Perhaps they don't care to raise their kids in the city. Or maybe, as suggested by at least one Bay Area gossip, he plans to vie for the congressional seat that Marin County Rep. Lynn Woolsey may (or may not) soon relinquish. Whatever the reason(s) Your Mama highly doubts it has a damn thing to do with their finances so all you people who want to speculate he moved in with his in-laws because he can't make his mortgage will most certainly be barking up the wrong tree. Nor do we see the family packing their bags for Sacramento. If we were the betting type–and we're not–we'd wager half a donkey and two scoops of beans that the Siedel-Newsom clan will settle down in a big house with a big yard in a fancy community not too far from her parents residence in Ross. Just a hunch. We shall see.
listing photos: McGuire Real Estate
UPDATE: Candy Spelling
type='html'>It's official!
The sale of showbiz widda Candy Spelling's steroidal Los Angeles, CA mansion is a done deal. According to a press release issued earlier today the 55,000 square foot mega-mansion in the Holmby Hills 'hood was sold for an astonishing $85,000,000 to 22-year old Formula One racing heiress Petra Eccelstone, just as was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
We're not sure why we heard so much rumor and brouhaha about The Manor being sold to a Indian mega-billionaire Mukesh Ambani but that's what happened.
Mazel Tov Miss Ecclestone! Enjoy rambling and rattling around your gigantic new house.
Any of the children interested in having a look see at the official press release can read it here.
As noted first by the cool kids at Curbed, über-wealthy divorcée Suzanne Saperstein's palatial pile–the 12 bedroom and 15 bathroom Holmby Hills edifice known as Fleur de Lys–came back on to the open market today, the very same day Candy's crib closing was announced to the press. Miz Saperstein, a couture collector of the highest order, opted not drop her previous price and the property still has a $125,000,000 price tag.
The sale of showbiz widda Candy Spelling's steroidal Los Angeles, CA mansion is a done deal. According to a press release issued earlier today the 55,000 square foot mega-mansion in the Holmby Hills 'hood was sold for an astonishing $85,000,000 to 22-year old Formula One racing heiress Petra Eccelstone, just as was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
We're not sure why we heard so much rumor and brouhaha about The Manor being sold to a Indian mega-billionaire Mukesh Ambani but that's what happened.
Mazel Tov Miss Ecclestone! Enjoy rambling and rattling around your gigantic new house.
Any of the children interested in having a look see at the official press release can read it here.
As noted first by the cool kids at Curbed, über-wealthy divorcée Suzanne Saperstein's palatial pile–the 12 bedroom and 15 bathroom Holmby Hills edifice known as Fleur de Lys–came back on to the open market today, the very same day Candy's crib closing was announced to the press. Miz Saperstein, a couture collector of the highest order, opted not drop her previous price and the property still has a $125,000,000 price tag.
Goldie Hawn Bailing on Broad Beach
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SELLERS: Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell
LOCATION: Malibu, CA
PRICE: $14,749,000
SIZE: 4,195 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: For at least as long as Your Mama has been getting dirty in the celebrity real estate sandbox Oscar-winning comedian and actress Goldie Hawn and her long-time man-mate Kurt Russell have put their Malibu, CA beach house on the summer rental market with an asking price of $95,000 per month. This year the Hawn-Russells not only lowered their monthly asking price to $80,000 per month they also hoisted their 1970s contemporary meets Bali beachfront digs on the market with an asking price of $14,749,000.
Miz Hawn started up her ladder of fame and fortune in the late 1960s and early 1970s as an amazingly ditsy dingle berry blond on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. She went on to star in iconic if sometimes silly cinematic gems that include but are far from limited to Cactus Flower, Private Benjamin, The First Wives Club and Overboard. Along the way she married twice and made a couple of babies (Kate and Oliver Hudson), both of whom have gone on to nepotistic showbiz success.
In the mid 1980s the bubbly and bubble-headed Miz Hawn–far more intelligent than her dizzy hair-brained image might suggest–hooked up with beau-hunky actor Kurt Russell (Used Cars, Silkwood, Tango & Cash, Backdraft). Almost 30 years later they remain coupled but have not hitched their wagons in the eyes of God and government. They did produce one child (Wyatt Russell) who looks a lot like his lantern-jawed daddy and who dabbles in the entertainment industry but primarily plays semi-professional ice hockey in Canada or Europe or somewhere.
The Hawn-Hudson-Russell family bunked in uppity Pacific Palisades community of Los Angeles starting sometime in the 1980s. Miz Hawn and Mister Russell still maintain a residence in the upscale enclave–as does daughter Kate Hudson–and property records indicate that sometime in the late 1980s Miz Hawn and Mister Russell acquired a beach house in the Bu for an undisclosed amount of money.
Current listing information for the Hawn-Russell residence, located along celebrity-lined Broad Beach, shows it was redesigned and renovated in 2005, measures around 4,300 square feet–the L.A. County Tax Man shows it's 4,195 square feet–and includes a total of 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms plus additional living space above the detached three car garage that stands between the street and the main house.
A small courtyard abloom in tropical flora creates a serene buffer between the hustle and bustle of the Pacific Coast Highway and the Zen extravaganza Miz Hawn has fashioned from a 1970s contemporary crib. A double height entry with flagstone floor makes a grand statement and sets the decorative stage for what Your Mama think of as the very epitome of west coast entertainment industry bigwig meets the Dalai Lama meets Calcutta brahmin style of day-core.
Far be it from Your Mama to cast aspersions, throw shade or otherwise dis the needy souls of others but there seems to be something about the ugly and grueling Bizness of Show that creates a gaping need in the souls of so many who toil in The Industry to seek out alternative religions and eastern philosophies. Never in our long and boozy life have we seen so many mandalas, altars, images of Shiva and statuettes of Buddha as in the showbiz-washed confines of the Los Angeles real estate whirligig.
Just like an epic mansion appearing in the pages of Architectural Digest sometimes signals that it will soon hit the market, a Buddha statue in the entrance hall or by the pool is a strong signal that a home is owned by a celebrity or someone else involved in the entertainment and glamour-puss professions. Anyhoodles poodles, getting back to the matter at hand...
The Hawn-Russell's spacious double-height entry, with its phalanx of Chinoserie this and thats and Buddhist knick-knacks makes a dramatic decorative statement that only catches on fire in the main living area of the house that includes a living room with soaring ceiling and fireplace with massive stone chimney breast and a dining room with frameless glass doors–the type usually seen installed at an office building or department store–that open the room to a large flagstone seaside terrace.
Adjoining the more traditional living area a low carved wood table with mis-matched pillow cushion seats aligns with another set of frameless glass doors that open to a pocket garden/shrine where a Buddha statue—or some other eastern god–sits atop a small fountain that spills into a carved stone lotus flower basin and evokes aural images of atonal chanting. Just a quick crawl from the low table a sizable and well-stocked wet bar with fabric tented ceiling treatment makes Your Mama pee with glee. It's not that we love the tented ceiling treatment–meh!–it's all the top shelf booze they got up in there. Plus we j'adore that absolutely asinine table lamp with the cast bronze pedestal and the shade painted with a giant camel standing stock still in a sunset desert scene.
The dining room is open to the large but cozy center island country kitchen with dark Shaker-style cabinets, heavily veined granite counter tops, commercial-style stainless steel appliances and an over-sized porcelain farmhouse sink. Just off the entry a small but state of the art media room has silky- and velvety-looking sofas, a giant tufted ottoman and scads of decorative pillows covered in what looks like fabrics purchased in The East. A wide-screen built into a wall of cabinetry is flanked by bookshelves with carved wood Islamic arches and fretwork.
The celebrity-sized second floor master bedroom has a pitched wood ceiling with exposed beams, clerestory windows, stone fireplace and a private ocean-side terrace with stunning view across the grassy backyard to the hot sand and glittering ocean beyond. There's a large walk-in closet, according to listing information, and a sky-lit Chinese onyx bathroom with dressing table, double sinks and separate shower. Louvered panels behind the soaking tub slide open to allow those who like to sit in a vat of hot water boiling like a potato to peer across the upper part of the living room/lounge/bar area below and out a tall wall of glass towards the ocean.
Above the garage Miz Hawn–both Jewish and a long-time practicing Buddhist–has a compact but well-equipped fitness room with mirrored walls and wood floors. An adjacent meditation room with vibrant orange walls looks to Your Mama like it probably has drawers full of finger cymbals and reeks of Nag Champa incense.
The back wall of the house, a towering wall of smoked glass, looks out and opens to a large ocean side entertainment and dining terrace protected from the prying eyes of paps and beach goers by rolling sand dunes. One side of the terrace is anchored by a built-in grilling station and the other by a carved wood pergola probably antique and probably imported from a shrine of some sort in Bombay or Jakarta. Thickets of tropical foliage frame the postcard perfect view past the picket fence and over the sand dunes towards the melodramatic magnificence of the Pacific Ocean.
Unfortunately for its multi-millionaire residents and their multi-million dollar residences, Broad Beach has a serious erosion problem and last year homeowners agreed to fund a 4,000 foot long and 8-foot high rock revetment meant to protect the homes on the sand from being destroyed by the relentless tides. A few of the other high-profile peeps who own ocean front homes along Broad Beach include Steven Spielberg, Jami Gertz, Ray Romano, Pierce Brosnan, Mike Ovitz, Danny Devito and Rhea Pearlman, Dustin Hoffman, Marvel Studios magnate Avi Arad, tool and die tycoon Eric Smidt and money manager Mark Attanasio.
Miz Hawn and Mister Russell own, according to property records and The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Real Estate Aerial, a number of other residences including a 5,057 square foot house in Pacific Palisades (CA) bought in August 2004 for $4,124,591. The Tinseltown couple purchased the property just a few months after they sold a much larger house 7 bedroom and 12 pooper house directly across the street to comedian Adam Sandler for $12,000,000.
Miz Hawn's daughter Kate Hudson–Mister Russell's step-daughter–has owned a Pac Pal residence just a few blocks away from her parents since 2003 and in March 2011–at that time preggers with musician Matt Bellamy's baby–she dropped $5,300,000 on the 5 bedroom and 6.5 bathroom mansion next door. We're not sure what Miss Hudson and Mister Bellamy's plans for the second residence are but we do know that they've already knocked down the fence between the two backyards.
Just outside of Snowmass (CO) Miz Hawn and Mister Russell own a 70-plus acre spread with at least two residences and several barns, up in Canada they have a substantial waterfront estate north of Toronto on Lake Rousseau and on they own a 3,549 square foot penthouse pad on the west side of Midtown Manhattan acquired in the summer of 1998 for an unknown amount of money.
listing photos: Coldwell Banker / Malibu Colony
SELLERS: Goldie Hawn and Kurt RussellLOCATION: Malibu, CA
PRICE: $14,749,000
SIZE: 4,195 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: For at least as long as Your Mama has been getting dirty in the celebrity real estate sandbox Oscar-winning comedian and actress Goldie Hawn and her long-time man-mate Kurt Russell have put their Malibu, CA beach house on the summer rental market with an asking price of $95,000 per month. This year the Hawn-Russells not only lowered their monthly asking price to $80,000 per month they also hoisted their 1970s contemporary meets Bali beachfront digs on the market with an asking price of $14,749,000.
Miz Hawn started up her ladder of fame and fortune in the late 1960s and early 1970s as an amazingly ditsy dingle berry blond on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. She went on to star in iconic if sometimes silly cinematic gems that include but are far from limited to Cactus Flower, Private Benjamin, The First Wives Club and Overboard. Along the way she married twice and made a couple of babies (Kate and Oliver Hudson), both of whom have gone on to nepotistic showbiz success.
In the mid 1980s the bubbly and bubble-headed Miz Hawn–far more intelligent than her dizzy hair-brained image might suggest–hooked up with beau-hunky actor Kurt Russell (Used Cars, Silkwood, Tango & Cash, Backdraft). Almost 30 years later they remain coupled but have not hitched their wagons in the eyes of God and government. They did produce one child (Wyatt Russell) who looks a lot like his lantern-jawed daddy and who dabbles in the entertainment industry but primarily plays semi-professional ice hockey in Canada or Europe or somewhere.
The Hawn-Hudson-Russell family bunked in uppity Pacific Palisades community of Los Angeles starting sometime in the 1980s. Miz Hawn and Mister Russell still maintain a residence in the upscale enclave–as does daughter Kate Hudson–and property records indicate that sometime in the late 1980s Miz Hawn and Mister Russell acquired a beach house in the Bu for an undisclosed amount of money.
Current listing information for the Hawn-Russell residence, located along celebrity-lined Broad Beach, shows it was redesigned and renovated in 2005, measures around 4,300 square feet–the L.A. County Tax Man shows it's 4,195 square feet–and includes a total of 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms plus additional living space above the detached three car garage that stands between the street and the main house.
A small courtyard abloom in tropical flora creates a serene buffer between the hustle and bustle of the Pacific Coast Highway and the Zen extravaganza Miz Hawn has fashioned from a 1970s contemporary crib. A double height entry with flagstone floor makes a grand statement and sets the decorative stage for what Your Mama think of as the very epitome of west coast entertainment industry bigwig meets the Dalai Lama meets Calcutta brahmin style of day-core.
Far be it from Your Mama to cast aspersions, throw shade or otherwise dis the needy souls of others but there seems to be something about the ugly and grueling Bizness of Show that creates a gaping need in the souls of so many who toil in The Industry to seek out alternative religions and eastern philosophies. Never in our long and boozy life have we seen so many mandalas, altars, images of Shiva and statuettes of Buddha as in the showbiz-washed confines of the Los Angeles real estate whirligig.
Just like an epic mansion appearing in the pages of Architectural Digest sometimes signals that it will soon hit the market, a Buddha statue in the entrance hall or by the pool is a strong signal that a home is owned by a celebrity or someone else involved in the entertainment and glamour-puss professions. Anyhoodles poodles, getting back to the matter at hand...
The Hawn-Russell's spacious double-height entry, with its phalanx of Chinoserie this and thats and Buddhist knick-knacks makes a dramatic decorative statement that only catches on fire in the main living area of the house that includes a living room with soaring ceiling and fireplace with massive stone chimney breast and a dining room with frameless glass doors–the type usually seen installed at an office building or department store–that open the room to a large flagstone seaside terrace.
Adjoining the more traditional living area a low carved wood table with mis-matched pillow cushion seats aligns with another set of frameless glass doors that open to a pocket garden/shrine where a Buddha statue—or some other eastern god–sits atop a small fountain that spills into a carved stone lotus flower basin and evokes aural images of atonal chanting. Just a quick crawl from the low table a sizable and well-stocked wet bar with fabric tented ceiling treatment makes Your Mama pee with glee. It's not that we love the tented ceiling treatment–meh!–it's all the top shelf booze they got up in there. Plus we j'adore that absolutely asinine table lamp with the cast bronze pedestal and the shade painted with a giant camel standing stock still in a sunset desert scene.
The dining room is open to the large but cozy center island country kitchen with dark Shaker-style cabinets, heavily veined granite counter tops, commercial-style stainless steel appliances and an over-sized porcelain farmhouse sink. Just off the entry a small but state of the art media room has silky- and velvety-looking sofas, a giant tufted ottoman and scads of decorative pillows covered in what looks like fabrics purchased in The East. A wide-screen built into a wall of cabinetry is flanked by bookshelves with carved wood Islamic arches and fretwork.
The celebrity-sized second floor master bedroom has a pitched wood ceiling with exposed beams, clerestory windows, stone fireplace and a private ocean-side terrace with stunning view across the grassy backyard to the hot sand and glittering ocean beyond. There's a large walk-in closet, according to listing information, and a sky-lit Chinese onyx bathroom with dressing table, double sinks and separate shower. Louvered panels behind the soaking tub slide open to allow those who like to sit in a vat of hot water boiling like a potato to peer across the upper part of the living room/lounge/bar area below and out a tall wall of glass towards the ocean.
Above the garage Miz Hawn–both Jewish and a long-time practicing Buddhist–has a compact but well-equipped fitness room with mirrored walls and wood floors. An adjacent meditation room with vibrant orange walls looks to Your Mama like it probably has drawers full of finger cymbals and reeks of Nag Champa incense.
The back wall of the house, a towering wall of smoked glass, looks out and opens to a large ocean side entertainment and dining terrace protected from the prying eyes of paps and beach goers by rolling sand dunes. One side of the terrace is anchored by a built-in grilling station and the other by a carved wood pergola probably antique and probably imported from a shrine of some sort in Bombay or Jakarta. Thickets of tropical foliage frame the postcard perfect view past the picket fence and over the sand dunes towards the melodramatic magnificence of the Pacific Ocean.
Unfortunately for its multi-millionaire residents and their multi-million dollar residences, Broad Beach has a serious erosion problem and last year homeowners agreed to fund a 4,000 foot long and 8-foot high rock revetment meant to protect the homes on the sand from being destroyed by the relentless tides. A few of the other high-profile peeps who own ocean front homes along Broad Beach include Steven Spielberg, Jami Gertz, Ray Romano, Pierce Brosnan, Mike Ovitz, Danny Devito and Rhea Pearlman, Dustin Hoffman, Marvel Studios magnate Avi Arad, tool and die tycoon Eric Smidt and money manager Mark Attanasio.
Miz Hawn and Mister Russell own, according to property records and The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Real Estate Aerial, a number of other residences including a 5,057 square foot house in Pacific Palisades (CA) bought in August 2004 for $4,124,591. The Tinseltown couple purchased the property just a few months after they sold a much larger house 7 bedroom and 12 pooper house directly across the street to comedian Adam Sandler for $12,000,000.
Miz Hawn's daughter Kate Hudson–Mister Russell's step-daughter–has owned a Pac Pal residence just a few blocks away from her parents since 2003 and in March 2011–at that time preggers with musician Matt Bellamy's baby–she dropped $5,300,000 on the 5 bedroom and 6.5 bathroom mansion next door. We're not sure what Miss Hudson and Mister Bellamy's plans for the second residence are but we do know that they've already knocked down the fence between the two backyards.
Just outside of Snowmass (CO) Miz Hawn and Mister Russell own a 70-plus acre spread with at least two residences and several barns, up in Canada they have a substantial waterfront estate north of Toronto on Lake Rousseau and on they own a 3,549 square foot penthouse pad on the west side of Midtown Manhattan acquired in the summer of 1998 for an unknown amount of money.
listing photos: Coldwell Banker / Malibu Colony
Billionaire Ron Burkle Buys Ennis House
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In case any of the children missed it on Curbed (and elsewhere), supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle coughed up "just under $4.5 million" to purchase Frank Lloyd Wrights sublime but somewhat bedraggled Ennis House in Los Angeles, CA.
The Mayan-inspired house, built in 1924 for Mabel and Charles Ennis, a retailer with architectural chutzpah, came to be owned by an entity called the Ennis House Foundation who first put it on the market in the summer of 2009 with an optimistic asking price of $15,000,000. The price subsequently plunged dramatically to $5,999,000 before Mister Burkle stepped in to save the real estate day with his close-to $4,500,000 purchase. A press release issued by the Ennis House Foundation stated that Mister Burkle plans to continue a restoration that Your Mama would bet our long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly will undoubtedly cost the new owner many millions to do correctly.
Listing information for the multi-level concrete block-built mansion shows it measures around 6,000 square feet and includes a total of 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, five exceptionally detailed fireplaces, a window- and column-lined loggia that makes Your Mama dizzy with delight. The loggia frames a capacious courtyard on the street side of the house that includes a swimming pool and on the other side of the windows and terraces offer unimpeded canyon, city and distant ocean views.
A conservation easement held by the Los Angeles Conservancy states Mister Burkle must allow public access to the historic house at least 12 days a year which means that all us architectural looky-loos will get to gape at the stunning structure once its meticulous restoration is complete. Where do we get in line for a ticket?
photo: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times
In case any of the children missed it on Curbed (and elsewhere), supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle coughed up "just under $4.5 million" to purchase Frank Lloyd Wrights sublime but somewhat bedraggled Ennis House in Los Angeles, CA.The Mayan-inspired house, built in 1924 for Mabel and Charles Ennis, a retailer with architectural chutzpah, came to be owned by an entity called the Ennis House Foundation who first put it on the market in the summer of 2009 with an optimistic asking price of $15,000,000. The price subsequently plunged dramatically to $5,999,000 before Mister Burkle stepped in to save the real estate day with his close-to $4,500,000 purchase. A press release issued by the Ennis House Foundation stated that Mister Burkle plans to continue a restoration that Your Mama would bet our long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly will undoubtedly cost the new owner many millions to do correctly.
Listing information for the multi-level concrete block-built mansion shows it measures around 6,000 square feet and includes a total of 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, five exceptionally detailed fireplaces, a window- and column-lined loggia that makes Your Mama dizzy with delight. The loggia frames a capacious courtyard on the street side of the house that includes a swimming pool and on the other side of the windows and terraces offer unimpeded canyon, city and distant ocean views.
A conservation easement held by the Los Angeles Conservancy states Mister Burkle must allow public access to the historic house at least 12 days a year which means that all us architectural looky-loos will get to gape at the stunning structure once its meticulous restoration is complete. Where do we get in line for a ticket?
photo: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times
Leeza Gibbons Flips Out in Beverly Hills
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SELLER: Leeza Gibbons
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $6,895,000
SIZE: 6,333 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It was only just over a year ago that cougarlicious celebrity gossip, make-up purveyor and philanthropist Leeza Gibbons spent $6,600,000 to buy a Beverly Hills, CA mansion where she reportedly lived in unmarried bliss with her younger man-friend Steven Fenten, the former president of the Bev Hills Unified School Disctrict Board of Education who is sometimes described as a talent manager and sometimes as the "head of a private career management company."
A few months ago, during an intimate roof top ceremony officiated by two of her three children from two previous marriages and covered by the gossip programs and scuttlebutting blogs everywhere, Mister Fenten become Miz Gibbons' fourth husband. As is often the case with rich and famous types–even those who opt to live in sin before getting hitched–a new marriage means a new house.
Your Mama is entirely ignerrent about what Mister Fenten and Miz Gibbons' real estate plan is once they pack up and move on but thanks to real estate buddy-pal Brenda Blabsitall, it's come to Your Mama's attention that the newlyweds recently flipped their 2007-built mock Med mansion on the market with an asking price of $6,895,000.
Listing information for the mansion, located just around the corner from the La-la Land estate of The Soccer Player and The Spice Girl, does not indicate square footage but does show a count of 6 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms. The L.A. County Tax Man shows the two-story residence measures 6,333 square feet and includes 8 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms, which makes Your Mama's pea brain think The Tax Man's number may (or may not) reflect the stats of whatever house stood on the property before it was knocked down to make way for this–ahem–bulky bee-yew-tee.
Listing information also shows the walled and gated two-story tile-roofed pile, separated from the street bya narrow strip of terraced and landscaped front yard, has a 3-car side-facing garage plus off-street parking for "at least 4 additional cars," 4 fireplaces, 2 main floor "bonus rooms," and 1 screening room with built-in wide screen. Lowerd Jeezis in heaven we just hate that term "bonus room" almost as much as we loathe "great room," an over-worked, generic and just plain awful real estate descriptive that always makes Your Mama want to vomit with ennui.
Anyhoo, interior spaces include a slim but airy double-height center entrance hall with walnut floors and a curving staircase with authentic-looking Spanish tile risers. A formal living room has a gently arched French doors on two opposite ends of the room, stone fireplace, walnut floors and dark wood beams that we'd bet our long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly are faux. We don't mean fake wood but rather we think that the beams have zero to do with the structural framework of the house. There's also a formal dining room, a library, an exercise room, office, and a sizable center-island kitchen outfitted with top-grade everything and done up to look like that quasi-Tuscan "style" seen almost exclusively in recently erected American mcmansions and almost never in Tuscany or any other region of the Mediterranean.
The well-equipped kitchen opens into breakfast area and large family room with more walnut floors and yucky, half-assed (and possibly faux) wood beams. Dark wood French doors with gracefully arched tops open the room to a covered outdoor lounge with fireplace that overlooks the skinny swimming pool and raised spa. The terraced backyard, really more of a cozy courtyard than a typically vast Beverly Hills back yard of rolling lawns and formal gardens, also includes a couple of Yorkie-sized pee-patches of grees and an open-air bar cabana with bar and grilling station.
Although Miz Gibbons' crib in Beverly Hills is nearly new and lacks the sort of authentic patina one pines for in a "Mediterranean" style residence, it is surrounded by scads of Hollywood historic mansions and estates previously owned by some of early Tinseltown's greatest movers and shakers including Danny Kaye, Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh, Loretta Young, Harold Lloyd and Jack Warner. Nestled right in amongst the stars, the former house of often outrageously chapeau-ed ur-gossip Hedda Hopper.
Previous to buying in Bev Hills in 2010, Miz Gibbons and her third hubby, architect/actor/artist/Parabounce inventor Stephen Meadows, owned a West Hollywood, CA compound once owned by Mommie Dearest's Joan Crawford. The erstwhile couple parted ways in 2005 but still co-owned their once happy home in West Hollywood in December 2006 when it was on the market with an asking price of $7,995,000. They had a devil of a time selling the historic spread but finally unloaded their white elephant in June 2010 for $4,795,000 to–according to a Little Birdie we know–Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner and his accomplished and much-published architect wife Linda Brettler.
listing photos: Keller Williams Realty / Beverly Hills
SELLER: Leeza GibbonsLOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $6,895,000
SIZE: 6,333 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It was only just over a year ago that cougarlicious celebrity gossip, make-up purveyor and philanthropist Leeza Gibbons spent $6,600,000 to buy a Beverly Hills, CA mansion where she reportedly lived in unmarried bliss with her younger man-friend Steven Fenten, the former president of the Bev Hills Unified School Disctrict Board of Education who is sometimes described as a talent manager and sometimes as the "head of a private career management company."
A few months ago, during an intimate roof top ceremony officiated by two of her three children from two previous marriages and covered by the gossip programs and scuttlebutting blogs everywhere, Mister Fenten become Miz Gibbons' fourth husband. As is often the case with rich and famous types–even those who opt to live in sin before getting hitched–a new marriage means a new house.
Your Mama is entirely ignerrent about what Mister Fenten and Miz Gibbons' real estate plan is once they pack up and move on but thanks to real estate buddy-pal Brenda Blabsitall, it's come to Your Mama's attention that the newlyweds recently flipped their 2007-built mock Med mansion on the market with an asking price of $6,895,000.
Listing information for the mansion, located just around the corner from the La-la Land estate of The Soccer Player and The Spice Girl, does not indicate square footage but does show a count of 6 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms. The L.A. County Tax Man shows the two-story residence measures 6,333 square feet and includes 8 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms, which makes Your Mama's pea brain think The Tax Man's number may (or may not) reflect the stats of whatever house stood on the property before it was knocked down to make way for this–ahem–bulky bee-yew-tee.
Listing information also shows the walled and gated two-story tile-roofed pile, separated from the street bya narrow strip of terraced and landscaped front yard, has a 3-car side-facing garage plus off-street parking for "at least 4 additional cars," 4 fireplaces, 2 main floor "bonus rooms," and 1 screening room with built-in wide screen. Lowerd Jeezis in heaven we just hate that term "bonus room" almost as much as we loathe "great room," an over-worked, generic and just plain awful real estate descriptive that always makes Your Mama want to vomit with ennui.
Anyhoo, interior spaces include a slim but airy double-height center entrance hall with walnut floors and a curving staircase with authentic-looking Spanish tile risers. A formal living room has a gently arched French doors on two opposite ends of the room, stone fireplace, walnut floors and dark wood beams that we'd bet our long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly are faux. We don't mean fake wood but rather we think that the beams have zero to do with the structural framework of the house. There's also a formal dining room, a library, an exercise room, office, and a sizable center-island kitchen outfitted with top-grade everything and done up to look like that quasi-Tuscan "style" seen almost exclusively in recently erected American mcmansions and almost never in Tuscany or any other region of the Mediterranean.
The well-equipped kitchen opens into breakfast area and large family room with more walnut floors and yucky, half-assed (and possibly faux) wood beams. Dark wood French doors with gracefully arched tops open the room to a covered outdoor lounge with fireplace that overlooks the skinny swimming pool and raised spa. The terraced backyard, really more of a cozy courtyard than a typically vast Beverly Hills back yard of rolling lawns and formal gardens, also includes a couple of Yorkie-sized pee-patches of grees and an open-air bar cabana with bar and grilling station.
Although Miz Gibbons' crib in Beverly Hills is nearly new and lacks the sort of authentic patina one pines for in a "Mediterranean" style residence, it is surrounded by scads of Hollywood historic mansions and estates previously owned by some of early Tinseltown's greatest movers and shakers including Danny Kaye, Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh, Loretta Young, Harold Lloyd and Jack Warner. Nestled right in amongst the stars, the former house of often outrageously chapeau-ed ur-gossip Hedda Hopper.
Previous to buying in Bev Hills in 2010, Miz Gibbons and her third hubby, architect/actor/artist/Parabounce inventor Stephen Meadows, owned a West Hollywood, CA compound once owned by Mommie Dearest's Joan Crawford. The erstwhile couple parted ways in 2005 but still co-owned their once happy home in West Hollywood in December 2006 when it was on the market with an asking price of $7,995,000. They had a devil of a time selling the historic spread but finally unloaded their white elephant in June 2010 for $4,795,000 to–according to a Little Birdie we know–Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner and his accomplished and much-published architect wife Linda Brettler.
listing photos: Keller Williams Realty / Beverly Hills
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