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A Catholic High School in Torrance is closed for the day as authorities investigate an unspecified threat made late last week, according to City News Service. All classes at Bishop Montgomery High School are canceled today due to the threat, which was reportedly made on YouTube. more › View original post here: YouTube Threat Forces Local High School to Cancel Classes Today
SELLER: estate of Sue Mengers BUYER: Allen and Deborah Grubman LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA PRICE: currently unknown YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It was only a few short weeks ago that Your Mama and just about every other celebrity real estate and/or property gossip went bat shit crazy about the legendary John Elgin-Woolf-designed Beverly Hills, CA residence of recently deceased Hollywood über-agent Sue Mengers. The house, a touchstone of high-Hollywood real estate if there ever was one, was listed (mostly) to architectural oohs and aahs with an asking price of $4,995,000 just a few short weeks after the kaftan-clad pint-size dynamo went to meet her maker in mid-October 2011. The somewhat out-dated, old-school and divinely enigmatic property, according to the New York Post , has been sold to New York City-based law man Allen J. Grubman and his wife Deborah Grubman, a superstar slinger of swanky New York City condos, co-ops and townhouses. The sale price was not reported but Your Mama hears from an usually very well-informed Bev Hills real estate mover and shaker that Mister and Missus Grubman paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $6,500,000 for the single-story abode situated in a prime neck of the Beverly Hills woods just above Sunset Boulevard and–super conveniently–an easy stumble and bumble to the various hooch and food emporiums at the Beverly Hills Hotel . Miz Mengers , a star in her own right, purchased the house in the spring of 1988 and spent the better part of the last 20-some years kibitzing with everyone who is (or was) anyone in Showbiz. As far as we know, which is nothing, none of the Kardashians ever kibitzed with Miz Mengers but Fran Lebowitz, Barry Diller, Tina Fey, Warren Beatty and Angelica Huston, Elton John, Sidney Poitier, and Jennifers Lopez and Aniston did , to name just a few. The very modestly-scaled by Beverly Hills standards house
OWNER: Pam Anderson LOCATION: Malibu, CA PRICE: $20,000/week or $75,000/month SIZE: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms (plus a backyard wigwam) YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A little birdie out in the Bu came chirp-chirping along this morning to let Your Mama know that bodacious (h)actress Pam Anderson has put her recently completed ” Romantic Malibu Beach House ” up for lease on the Vacation Rental By Owner website (VRBO) at the sky-high but not unheard for Malibu rates of $20,000 per week or $75,000 per month. Back in the fall of 2009 there were scads of scandalous reports that Miz Anderson–then living in Malibu’s trendiest trailer park while her house in the Colony was under (re-)construction–had fallen on hard financial times and didn’t have the dough-re-mi to complete the multi-million dollar renovations. Miz Anderson admitted she was in dispute with a number of subcontractors who filed legal claims over unpaid bills for work they performed at the residence but denied the issue wasn’t whether she could afford to pay the bills or not, but rather whether the bills were fair and accurate. A personal note from Miz Anderson on the VRBO listing declares the curvaceous sexpot and mother of two is “willing to share her [my] masterpiece” in Malibu because she’s “traveling so much these days” and “enjoying a lot more time in her [my] native Canada.” Listing information shows the teak-sided and pet-friendly contemporary sits on the landward-side of the guard-gated and celebrity stocked Malibu Colony enclave, includes 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms and was decorated by Miz Anderson herself. Given that the listing photos are so high contrast and bizarrely blown out Your Mama’s boozy eyeballs cain’t make heads or tails of the interior spaces other than to say that white appears to be the dominant color, if white can indeed be a color. A discreet gate at the street leads to a small front courtyard where listing information states an “ultra-wide swinging door” opens to the teak-floored open-plan interior spaces that include an airy living room with fireplace, baby grand piano and massive sliding glass doors that when open obliterate the division between indoors and out. The well-equipped kitchen has high-grade appliances and push activated cabinets and drawers. A teak staircase climbs to the second floor where two guest/family bedrooms each have computer desks, flat screen HD tee-vees with surround sound and wireless Apple systems. The bedrooms share a bathroom with steam shower. The master suite, also on the second floor, has a white marble wood-burning fireplace, burled wood closet doors, a wall of sliding windows that open to a large private deck that overlooks the backyard swimming pool and mountains. The bedroom is open to the bathroom just in case anyone wants to watch their bed-mate bathe in the free standing soaking tub that’s plainly visible from the bedroom. There’s also a glass-enclosed shower, detoxifying Finnish sauna equipped with tee-vee–what wants to watch the damn news or reality television while taking a sauna?–and a long vanity with plenty of room for perfumes and make-up applications. A private staircase accessible only through the master bedroom climbs up to a roof terrace with poured concrete fireplace, views over the Malibu Lagoon and media mogul Jerrold Perenchio’s private golf course. A deep deck with a ” green egg charcoal barbecue “extends off the rear of the residences main floor and surrounds a saltwater swimming pool with swim-up wet bar. The backyard also has a “huge tipi”–whatever that is–fig and avocado trees, a vegetable and herb garden, and a wigwam. That’s right, a wigwam. Other amenities include two-car enclosed garage, direct and nearby access to one of the most prized (and all but private) stretches of sand in all of Malibu, celebrity-style security complete with closed-circuit cameras, WiFi, an integrated home theater system and a high-tech home automation system controlled by custom remotes and iPads set into flush-mounted iPorts. The high monthly price covers housekeeping services and a vegetarian chef can be added for additional charges. listing photos: Vacation Rental By Owner Link: Pam Anderson Puts Malibu Beach House Up for Rent
OWNER: Oprah Winfrey LOCATION: Chicago, IL PRICE: $15,000/month SIZE: 4,607 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This afternoon we happily ride on the coat tails of reporter (and venerable real estate gossip) Bob Goldsborough at the Chicago Tribune who discovered and revealed this week that billionaire chat show host turned magazine tycoon turned television network owning mega-mogul Oprah Winfrey recently put a swank Chicago, IL co-operative apartment she owns up for lease at $15,000 per month. Miz Winfrey reportedly purchased the posh apartment in the urban-upscale Streeterville neighborhood in 2006 for $5,600,000. Despite securing the approval of the co-op board with a promise to make it her full-time residence, Miz Winfrey quickly had a real estate change of heart and never moved in to the 4,607 square foot apartment. From June 2008 until January 2009 Miz Winfrey had the mansion-sized apartment on the market for $6,000,000 but it did not, as far as we can tell, sell. Entered though a private elevator landing and a series of squeezy vestibules, the chunky floor-through apartment cleaves dramatically along a central spine, an enfilade that extends more than 80 feet from the bowed bay window in the lake-view formal living room clan through the reception gallery, formal dining room and solarium at the rear of the residence. The living room opens into a cozy wood-paneled and wood-floored library with fireplace wide bank of windows that afford of view through the tree tops to Lake Michigan and the popular Oak Street Beach. Extensive service quarters, tucked discreetly behind the elevator and formal dining room, include a well-equipped, galley style kitchen with antiqued white cabinetry, granite counter tops and breakfast area, separate laundry room, access to the service elevator, and a kitchen-size butler’s pantry with dark cabinets and granite counter tops. There’s also an oddly shaped home office with built-in desk and a separate wine/booze storage room with brick walls, floor-to-ceiling built-in bottle racks and a full height wine refrigerator. A guest suite has an enviably large walk-in closet, fireplace, private bathroom with window, and French doors access to a small terrace shared with the master bedroom. The approximately 1,300 square foot master suite wraps around the guest suite and stretches from the front of the apartment clear through to the back. In addition to three walk-in closets there are additional built-in storage cabinets and a substantial entertainment unit. The master includes not just one or even two but 2.5 bathrooms. Up front there is both a full bath–well, a three-quarter bathroom anyway–plus a completely separate bedside half bathroom. At the rear of the house-sized suite, in an area that was probably originally designed as a third bedroom with private bathroom, there’s another and significantly larger bathroom with jetted tub for two, separate party-sized steam shower for two or more, a private cubby for the crapper, double sinks and–harumph!–gold-plated fixtures. French doors open out to the small terrace shared with the guest suite. As far as we know, when in the Windy City, Miz Winfrey continues to occupy in her 15,000(-ish) square foot 4-unit combination duplex condominium at the mixed-use Water Tower Place complex in downtown Chicago where she’s lived since, well, we don’t know but a long time. Since she closed up shop on her long-running, hugely-successful and frighteningly-influential talk show–the eponymous Oprah Winfrey Show –Miz Winfrey has all but permanently relocated to the West Coast where her also eponymous Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) offices are located. Of course we don’t know a turnip truck from a fire hose but we none-the-less presume the still busy businesswoman and philanthropist now spends a considerable amount of time at her manicured 42-acre estate in the low key but eye-poppingly affluent coastal resort community of Montecito, CA. The OWN offices are located in Los Angeles Miracle Mile district, far to far to comfortably commute on a daily basis even by helicopter. We recently had lunch at the SoHo House in West Hollywood with gabby tattletale we’ll call Knelly Knowsathingortwo who swore to Your Mama on her seared Ahi tuna salad that Miz Winfrey is actively on the hunt for a bolt hole in Tinseltown. We have no specific intel but it makes sense. Iffin we were the betting type–and we’re not–we’d wager our long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly she’ll gravitate towards a multi-million dollar condominium. She has a long history of owning apartments in urban and semi-urban locations, after all, but has she considered Ellen Degeneres’ house nestled privately into the rugged mountains above Beverly Hills? Just a thought. listing photos and floor plan:VHT Studios for
LOS ANGELES — The heart of car culture may be beating in Los Angeles, but the nation’s second-largest city has allowed two-thirds of its new automobile dealerships – and the sales tax revenue they generate – to slip away during the past quarter-century. It seems few noticed as the gleaming cars and SUVs on dealers’ lots left town to escape what critics call punitive business taxes. Tough economic times have changed that. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced this week, days before the Los Angeles Auto Show, that he wants to eliminate business taxes on new car dealers in an effort to lure them back and keep the dealers that are left. The business tax is self-defeating because it brings in limited revenue while scaring away auto dealers that would generate substantial sales tax revenue, the mayor said. “For too long, L.A.’s business tax has driven auto dealers outside the city limits,” Villaraigosa said. “It’s time to reform the way we tax auto dealers so that we can bring more jobs and more sales tax to our city.” Since 1986, some 95 car dealers left Los Angeles for cities like Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena that have much lower business taxes or none at all. Glendale, for instance, has no gross receipts business tax, while auto dealers in Los Angeles are charged $1.27 per $1,000 in gross receipts, whether the dealers are profitable or not. There are now 52 dealerships selling new cars in Los Angeles. Last year, those dealers accounted for $3.6 million in business tax revenue but a whopping $29 million in sales tax revenue for the city. The city’s share of the sales tax is roughly 1 percent of the price of a new car. “It’s time to stop surrounding cities from using LA’s broken tax system to lure businesses and jobs away from us,” City Council President Eric Garcetti said. “Targeting car dealers is a big first step. But we must eliminate the business tax all together. LA’s costly and cumbersome tax scheme is one that taxes businesses even when they lose money.” Garcetti and Councilman Mitch Englander plan to co-sponsor a motion instructing the city attorney to prepare an ordinance eliminating new car dealer gross receipts taxes. It’s unclear when a draft will be completed for a City Council vote. Not everyone is on board with the plan. City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana and Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller urged caution in making any changes. “Complete elimination of the business tax would be poor public policy,” said their analysis, released Tuesday. “This would increase the tax burden on residents or result in decreased city services which would make Los Angeles a less desirable place to do business.” The mayor’s $4.3 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2011-12 relies on business tax revenue of $439.2 million. Villaraigosa planned to promote his no-tax proposal to auto manufacturers and dealers in town for the auto show, where more than 50 vehicles are set to make their worldwide or North American debuts. He made his announcement Tuesday at Beverly Hills Porsche, which is relocating next year to the Westwood area of Los Angeles and will benefit from a three-year business tax holiday for new businesses through 2012. It’s only the second dealership in 25 years to open in the city. “When this move is done, this Porsche facility will still be called Beverly Hills Porsche, but let me tell you, that’s fine with me. I say give Beverly Hills the name, we’ll happily take the sales tax,” Villaraigosa said. Beverly Hills Porsche sold $100 million worth of cars last year, which could bring Los Angeles about $1 million in sales taxes. The dealership’s president, Geoff Emery, said the mayor’s office helped with some red tape, but he was mainly interested in the site because it’s off heavily traveled Interstate 405. The 200-member Greater Los Angeles New Car Dealers Association said LA’s business tax has been an important factor in dealer relocation decisions. “Eliminating the business tax for new auto dealers in Los Angeles is a win-win, generating higher sales and higher sales tax for the city,” said Charlie Gill, the association’s executive director. It has been working on getting rid of the business tax for 17 years. “It was so obvious then, back as early as 1973, that it was hamstringing dealers in Los Angeles,” Gill said. “Up to now the question has been whether to grow in L.A. or somewhere else. Now, there’s this real sense L.A. is a real friendly place to do business in.” Bert Boeckmann, the president and owner of San Fernando Valley’s Galpin Motors, whose stable of new cars includes the world’s largest dealer of Ford Motor Co. vehicles, has already paid more than $500,000 this year in Los Angeles business taxes and contributed millions in sales tax revenue. “It is the one thing that impedes competition with other cities,” he said. “In the past, there has been no incentive to be in Los Angeles.” Boeckmann was considering a move of some of his new car operation to property he owns in Burbank, where he owns property. But he said Villaraigosa’s proposal may change that thinking. The business tax was the main reason Bob Smith BMW moved out of L.A.’s Canoga Park neighborhood to the city of Calabasas, where there’s no business tax, Tim Smith said. Now, because of the mayor’s proposal, Smith said he’s considering Woodland Hills and Canoga Park for a new Bob Smith Mini Cooper dealership. “I think it’s a very smart thing to do,” Smith said of eliminating the sales tax. See the article here: Will The City Be Able To Lure Luxe Car Dealerships Back?
The Fuku mobile, Hollywood. [Photo: current events / Eater LA Flickr Pool ] · Should I Be Drinking This? Mercy, the Hangover Remedy [Esquire] · True Food Kitchen Hosts “Spontaneous Happiness” Event [Todrickallen] · Caffe Primo Gets New Neon Signs in Downtown LA [Brigham Yen] · Venison For Venetians at Chaya [Grub Street] · Designer Thom Browne Designs for Dewar’s Scotch Whisky [HLM] · KFC Is Putting Colonel Sanders’ Recipes on the Internet [Gawker] · Would You Consider High Fructose Corn Syrup Natural? The FDA Does [TA]
A Los Angeles Fire Department fire captain was busted last week for buying heroin during a sting operation conducted by Los Angeles Police Department Narcotics officers. Captain Matthew Phillpsen, 52, was arrested at around noon on Wednesday, November 9 in the Highland Park area. more › Original post: LAFD Fire Captain Busted in Sting for Buying Heroin
SELLER: David Schwimmer LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA PRICE: $10,700,000 SIZE: 11,336 square feet, 9 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTES: There are three–make that four–main reasons why celebrities, high profile people and others with the ducats to indulge their multi-million dollar real estate whims: death, marriage, divorce and/or the birth of a child. Since former Friends actor David Schwimmer got married last year in an all-but-secret ceremony and then pushed out a baby in May 2011 it’s really not such a surprise to any of us real estate gossips that he and his new missus-mommy Zoe Buckman–a former waitress and part-time photographer from London–recently heaved his long-time bachelor pad in Los Angeles’ hoity-toity Hancock Park area on the market with an asking price of $10,700,000. Since Friends went off the air in 2005 Mister Schwimmer hasn’t been very busy in front of the camera instead preferring a recurring voice over role in the Madagascar animated film franchise and directing a few things here and there including live studio segments for the long ago canceled Little Britain USA , a short-lived sketch comedy series that starred the deliciously campy, button-pushing British actor/comedians David Walliams and Matt Lucas, who recently snatched up his own house in Los Angeles. Property records show Mister Schwimmer acquired his gated and high-hedged Hancock Park spread way back in May 2001 when he paid $5,600,000 for the 1-plus acre estate located in the fancy heart of one of the better pockets of the historic, affluent, and celebrity-friendly Hancock Park ‘hood. Listing information indicates Mister Schwimmer’s massive two-story Mediterranean mansion was built in 1926, measures 11,000 square feet–the L.A. County Tax Man shows it’s 11,336 square feet–and contains 9 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms and 5 fireplaces. We’re not sure if those bedroom and bathroom counts include the detached guest house, located above the detached 3-car garage and described in listing materials as “a modern loft experience,”that has its own living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. Current listing photos are few and limited only to exterior shots of the house and grounds but listing information does indicate the interior spaces include formal living and dining rooms, a wood paneled library, stone-walled den, and a newly-installed state-of-the-art screening room. While the house was largely remodeled when Mister Schwimmer acquired it he did do over the back yard, install new heating and air conditioning systems and restored the windows, doors and hardwood floors.
BUYER: Sally Field LOCATION: New York City, NY PRICE: $2,550,000 SIZE: 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A snitchy little birdie told landed outside out window this morning and chirp-chirp-chirped that Oscar-, Emmy-, Golden Globe- and People’s Choice-award winning actress Sally Field (may have) recently snatched up a New York City pied-a-terre. Okay, truth is Your Mama actually read it in a barely-there blurb in the Gimme Shelter column of the New York Post this morning like everybody else. Property records available online reveal that just before Halloween a woman named Sally Field spent $2,550,000 to acquire a two bedroom and two bathroom cooperative apartment in one of the more refined and in-demand buildings in downtown Manhattan’s West Village. Your Mama can not confirm, however, the Sally Field who signed her famous name on the deed’s dotted line is the very same Sally Field ( Gidget, Sybil, Norma Rae, Steel Magnolias ) whose long and sometimes hilly Showbiz career has been on fire the last few years with the screaming success of the now canceled family (melo)drama Brothers & Sisters . So, for now anyways, this is just some celebrity real estate rumor and gossip, okay? Thing is, we love us some Sally Field so we can’t resist taking her real estate ball and running with it… The apartment in question sits on a high floor of an august 17-story pre-war building, a red and brown brick edifice of reassuring proportions designed by architect Robert T. Lyons, built by the Bing brothers–that makes it what’s known in local parlance as a Bing & Bing building–and completed in 1931. Handsome Art Deco-era architectural flourishes with a Greek key design embellish the facade. Originally an apartment hotel– hello Wikipedia –the building converted to a co-operative apartment house in 1987. Some of the children may recognize this building as the very same one where it was once widely rumored and reported sit-com and rom-com queen Jennifer Aniston was interested in the possible acquisition of a duplex penthouse then priced at $14,950,000. Miz Aniston did not buy the duplex. She bought, as it turns out, two apartments in another West Village Bing & Bing building. Records show the posh penthouse Miz Aniston didn’t buy was actually purchased for $12,500,000 by one of the many daughters of the very philanthropic co-founder of Purdue Pharmaceuticals , the makers of OxyContin . Anyhoo, we’re not here to speak on Miz Aniston’s sometimes fickle and inexplicable real estate ways but rather those of a lady named Sally Field who who may or may not be Sally Field and who just paid $2,550,000 for the aforementioned high-floor apartment in a fancy but relaxed pre-war building in New York’s West Village. The always informative real estate website StreetEasy shows the apartment, a successful combination between a studio and a one bedroom apartment, was listed with a price tag of $2,350,000, which means, as per our bejeweled abacus that this Miz Field paid $200,000 over the asking price. And what did her extra two hundred thousand get her y’all might wonder? Listing information shows 4-room corner apartment, fairly spacious by West Village standards where a puny 300 square foot 5th floor walk up studio apartment can easily cost $1,700 per month , has windowed exposure on four sides and carries hefty monthly maintenance charges of $2,426 per month. A long and narrow entrance hall with an excellently large walk-in coat closet directs traffic into a lofty living/dining area with beamed ceilings, large windows with pretty city views, and the first of two wood burning fireplaces in the apartment. Your Mama hopes somebody tells Miz Field that all that track lighting in the living room needs to be removed. A woman of her stature and eminence probably shouldn’t have track lighting in their home(s). Anyhoodles poodles, the simply designed but decently sized kitchen opens to the dining area over a long counter topped half with marble and half with butcher block. The dishwasher situated directly under the sink causes Your Mama’s heart to palpitate uncomfortably How does one rinse and load dishes in a set up like that anyhow? When we take into account this is a kitchen in Manhattan–and one must absolutely take in to account this is a kitchen in Manhattan and not a kitchen in a suburban mcmansion–the ugly dishwasher situation is somewhat mitigated by the full-size fridge/freezer, large window for proper light and ventilation, teeny-tiny walk-in pantry, and impressive amount of counter space. The living/dining room is flanked by bedrooms, each with two closets (including one walk-in in each room) and an attached bathroom. The master bedroom has a fireplace and a window in the walk-in closet but it’s also got green marble tile floors–What the hell?!?–and a petite, window-free bathroom. The second bedroom, only slightly smaller than the master, also has a walk-in closet plus cross-ventilation and a welcomed window in the compact bathroom where, somewhat regrettably, the stacked washer and dryer are installed. That complaint aired, we again recognize this is a New York City apartment where an inconveniently located private washer-dryer stack is immeasurably much better than no private washer-dryer stack at all. For two and a half million of our clams Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter would hope and pine for a slice of outdoor space. Otherwise, in our humble and meaningless opinion, this apartment reeks of Big Apple desirability and can easily be fashioned into a comfortable urban aerie for part- or full-time living that would appeal to just about everyone perhaps but those poor people afflicted with the dreaded Real Estate Size Queen Syndrome, a disease that often and unfortunately goes hand-in-hand with the even more infectious Real Estate Snobitis. Until recently Sally Field– the Sally Field–owned a secluded estate nestled into the rolling foothills of Malibu that she first listed in March 2009 for $6,950,000 . The estate, complete with swimming pool, tennis court, and equestrian facilities was taken off the market after just months. The private property wasn’t re-listed until May 2011 when it popped up with a new, improved and much lower asking price of $5,900,000. Property records we peeped show was sold within two months. Early reports in the celebrity real estate gossip blogs and publications like the L.A. Times show the property sold for $5,650,000 but a closer examination of online deeds and documents shows it sold for $5,909,000. Make of that what you will. As best as Your Mama can tell the horsey estate was sold to a Malibu gynecologist and a Pacific Palisades-based clinical psychologist who bills herself as a “love and happiness guru.” listing photos: Sotheby’s International Realty via StreetEasy See the article here: Did Sally Field Do It in the West Village?
photo: Google OWNER: Warren Beatty and Annette Bening LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA PRICE: $27,500 per month SIZE: 10,594 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTE: It appears that long-married Hollywood honchos Warren Beatty and Annette Bening may have, at long last, moved back to the Beverly Hills (Post Office), CA estate they moved from after the 1994 Northridge earthquake rendered their 9,401 square foot mansion uninhabitable. In 1996, with their third bun in Miz Bening’s oven, they moved about two miles west to a privately situated Mediterranean-style mansion where they lived for 10 or 15 years but recently made available for lease at $27,500 per month. During the late sixties and throughout the 1970s Mister Beatty was at the electric apex of his movie stardom with Oscar nominated roles in Bonnie and Clyde (1968), Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1979). It was during this time the devastatingly handsome Mister Beatty solidified his place among the pantheon of legendary Hollywood actors and notorious Tinseltown cocksman . It was also then, in 1972, that an unmarried Mister Beatty dropped $193,000 on a 3.4 acre celebrity-style estate set above Mulholland Drive with views that stretch–on a clear day–downtown Tinseltown to the Pacific Ocean. A house existed on the property at the time he bought it but at some point Mister Beatty replaced the original residence from 1938 with what has been described at a ” white glass house . By the time the 1994 Northridge quake rocked and knocked Los Angeles to its knees the longtime Lothario, then in mid-fifties, had a few years earlier made an honest woman of Annette Bening, an Oscar nominated actress ( The Grifters , 1991) who would go on to earn three more Oscar nominations ( American Beauty in 1999, Being Julia in 2005 and The Kids Are All Right in 2011) and bear Mister Beatty a total four children. We’re not sure where the Beatty-Benings moved immediately after their Mulholland Drive mansion met it’s quaking fate in 1994 but property records do show that in the months afterward they spent $510,000 to acquire an adjacent 1.107 acre parcel with an existing 1,798 square foot house. Maybe they shacked up there, maybe they didn’t, we don’t know. In February of the following year the Beatty-Benings spent another $175,000 to purchase a second adjacent but vacant 1.205 acre parcel. That brings us back to May 1996 when Mister Beatty and Miz Benning bought the large Mediterranean mansion now up for lease–in Real Estate Speak– at twenty-seven-five per month. The online listing does not provide many juicy details of the house nor any photographs of the house, grounds or interior spaces. What listing information does describe is a large, two-story Mediterranean mansion with 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms plus various grandly scaled rooms with high ceilings and “great flow for large scale entertaining.” French doors and windows throughout the house bathe and flood the interior spaces with light. Well, okay, Your Mama don’t know the light actually bathes or floods in, but listing information does state the inside of the house is “Very light.” There’s a sizable motor court at the front of the house, broad tree-ringed lawns that surround it and a swimming pool and spa. Unlike their old (and now new again) estate less than two miles away, this property does not sport a tennis court. photo: Google In April 2004, long after they’d done decamped to the Mediterranean manse they now have up for lease, the Beatty-Benings unexpectedly expanded their former Mulholland Drive compound. Records show they couple paid $2,200,000 for an adjacent, exactly one acre mini-estate that then had and still appears to have a 3,104 square foot house with its own long, gated driveway, detached two-car garage, San Fernando Valley views, and a swimming pool and spa. photo: Google Since 2004 there has been some parcel merging going on at the Mulholland Drive compound, which is way too banal to parse here. Suffice that Mister Beatty and Miz Bening’s old but newly improved Mulholland Drive compound encompasses 6.712 ridge line acres and contains a total of three separate residences including a newly built, V-shaped Mediterranean-style mansion of unknown proportions, swimming pool and tennis court. For all we know the Beatty-Benings have been living up in their new house on their old property above Mulholland Drive for a long time. Whatever the case, we’d like to offer them a housewarming gift and we promise it won’t be a weirdly ironic collection of endangered species erasers or an even more deeply disturbing door draft stopper in the shape of Santa Claus doing the splits . Read the original: Warren Beatty and Annette Bening Put Bev Hills Mansion Up for Lease
