Real Estalker Celebrity Musings: Liz Taylor, Joan Collins, The Beckhams, Prince and their real estate stuff, stuff...
(Editor's Note: Noody does celebrity real estate information/stalking etter than Your Momma, the Beverly Hills Real Estalker. Her seminal effort on Jenny Craig is a Rancho Santa Fe real estalker classic. It can be found here at:
The Real Estalker had some good ones to share this week including Elizabeth Taylor - her Bel-aire home pictured above - Joan Collins, David Beckham and Posh Spice, Prince, and the NBC page guy from 30 Rock. We thought you would enjoy. For more of the real deal from the unreal world of celebrity estates check it out at http://realestalker.blogspot.com/
And of course, nothing says what the Real Estalker is in good fun is discloed by Your Momma in her disclaimer, to wit: "The Real Estalker provides entertainment news and information about high-end and celebrity real estate with a little gossip tossed in for fun. Posts are created by culling and synthesizing information from multiple sources including public records, other blogs, magazines, newspapers, real estate listing aggregators and, of course, a slew of sources who almost always choose to remain anonymous. Published content may include inaccurate information and no claims of accuracy by Your Mama can or should be taken seriously by anyone. The Real Estalker is meant to be in the spirit of good fun and we hope it is taken that way. The Real Estalker is not intended or designed to be a map to the stars. It is intended to be a tongue-in-cheek, voyeuristic, online experience only. Your Mama asks that you do not chase down, visit, or disturb any person or property posted here because that would only make you an asshole. Seriously. Additionally, The Real Estalker makes no claims to the value, sale-ablility, structural integrity and etc. of any of the homes we discuss. We are simply sharing our sometimes sarcastic opinions of properties and decor. Anyone who would be influenced in regards to purchasing a house based on some dumb thing we write on this blog needs to have their damn head checked. Additionally, we do not take any responsibility for any stupid things might be said in the comments section and accept no liability for any loss, damage or hurt feelings our sometimes insensitive comments may incur.")
Friday Mish Mash
1. The executor(s) of Dame Elizabeth Taylor's estate have reportedly heaved her house in Bel Air on the market with an asking price of $8,600,000. No official listing has hit the interweb but according to the Wall Street Journal Miz Taylor acquired the gated 1.2 acre estate and the approximately 7,000 square foot ranch-style house in 1981. It has previously been owned by Nancy Sinatra Sr.
The house has 5 bedrooms including a master lined with Dame Elizabeth's signature lavender, the color of her eyes, don'tcha know. The living room has a beamed ceiling and an office was fashioned from a former screening room.
The grounds include a swimming pool, koi pond, hothouse for growing orchids and a terraced English garden.
Your Mama suspects this house will be snatched up by a developer before it ever hits the open market, knocked down and replaced with something more than twice its since. Such is the residential real estate "progress" in the 90201 and 90077.
2. Joan Collins, the lacquered lady best known as Alexis Carrington on the 1980s evening soap story Dynasty, has put her New York City apartment on the market with an asking price of $2,895,000 with monthly maintenance of $2,914.
The 1,900 square foot combination spread at The Dorchester building on E. 57th Street has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, hardwood floors throughout and a lot of 1980s day-core that includes–horror or horrors–black mini blinds in the Barbie pink-colored den, a zebra-striped sofa and ottoman in the living room and–natch–a Blackamoor statue or two.
According to the New York Post Miz Collins had a going away party at the apartment attended by a bunch of old ladies like Arlene Dahl and a gaggle of gays that included Alan Cumming and Bravo's Andy Cohen.
3. According to the Daily Mail Victoria and David Beckham have leased an ocean front house in Malibu, CA to the monetary tune of more than $60,000 per month.
Listing information shows the newly built and boxy contemporary sits on 1.1 bluff-top acres, measures 10,180 square feet and includes a total of 7 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms divided between a main and guest house.
Glass panels open the house to the ocean view balconies, backyard terraces, a 50-foot long swimming pool, spa and shallow lawn the runs to the edge of the steep bluff that tumbles down to the sand.
4. Surely His Purple Majesty Prince has had his people pay the $368,382 past due mortgage payments for a 20-ish acre spread he owns in Chanhassen, MN, outside of Minneapolis. Right?
30 Rock's Jack McBrayer Buys House in the Hills
BUYER: Jack McBrayer
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,975,000
SIZE: 2,594 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Emmy nominated actor/comedian JackMcBrayer began exercising his southern-accented funny bone in the mid-1990s with The Second City Theatre in Chicago where he first came into contact with comedy's reigning queen Tina Fey.MiztoobMcBrayerParcelldeMcBrayerTalladegavee
In the early- to mid-naughts, long before Miz Fey's boob-toobjuggernaut 30 Rock ever hit the airwaves, Mister McBrayer created and honed his bubbly, wide-eyed and simpleminded NBC page character Kenneth Parcell on The Conan O'Brien Show. Eventually that character, a quirky half-witted hillbilly who goes to New York with stars in his eyes and a bus ticket home in his pocket, wound up on Tina Fey's tour de sitcom force, a turn of showbiz events that earned him fame, fortune and legions of fervent fans. Mister McBrayerhas also appeared in the films Talladega and Forgetting Sarah Marshall as well as on a number of tee-vee programs including Arrested Development and Phineas and Ferb..
Given that 30 Rock tapes in New York City it seems strange that the Macon, Georgia-born Mister McBrayer would want or need a multi-million dollar house in Tinseltown but, according to our eerily well-informed celebrity real estate whistle blower Lucy Spillerguts, MisterMcBrayer recently plunked down $1,975,000 for a fully-rehabbed residence in the Hollywood Hills above the historic and charming Beachwood Canyon neighborhood.
The "contemporary" but architecturally unremarkable residence, according to listing information we cajoled from the interweb, measures 2,594 square feet over two floors and includes 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The nearly one-third acre hillside property recently underwent an extensive two-year overhaul during which the hillside at the back of the house was re-engineered and a large retaining wall added that created a flat promontory with million dollar views of the surrounding canyons, the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Observatory and downtown. Say what you will about Los Angeles but living in LalaLand with a view like this house has is akin to living in Chicago with a view of the lake or in Brooklyn with a distant view on Manhattan.
A front-facing two-car garage dominates the narrow street frontage. The somewhat awkward entry to the house is around the side through a see-through gate that swings opens to staggering views and a wide terrace that continues past the front door and wraps around the back of the house. Iffin Your Mama were to have overhauled this house we would have done this front area differently with a walled courtyard entry that would not only provide additional semi-private outdoor space but also a gratifying sense of drama and anticipation as the eye is drawn through the courtyard to the front door and the dynamic and iconic views.
The main living space, a glass-lined living/dining room with powerful city views, connects to the updated and upgraded kitchen through a wide doorway. The honey-colored hardwood floors in the living/dining room run into the cozy but well-arranged kitchen that includes a vintage range, built-in wine fridge, pantry storage, a center work island and flat-fronted cabinets with nipple-like knobs. A day-dreamy corner window that allows the dishwasher to ponder the iconic Hollywood sign as they scrub the devil out of the frying pan.
A bank of cabinets perfect for storing bongs and board games surrounds the staircase to the lower level where a celebrity-sized master suite has a hookah lounge-sized sitting area wrapped in windows with panoramic views. Mister McBrayer's new boo-dwarincludes a walk-in closet and bathroom with double sinks, separate soaking tub, frameless glass shower with multiple shower heads and a separate cubby for the terlit. The walls into which the sinks are sunk in the master bathroom are papered with a shiny silver wall covering printed with over-scaled white flowers. Nobody loves shiny like Your Mama loves shiny so, in theory, silver wallpaper makes us pee with decorative glee. However this particular choice of wallpaper feels a little forced and trendy, particularly when paired with that snippet of electric apple green paint that surrounds the doorway into the closet.
Thankfully, a spiral staircase connects the second level living spaces with the lower level backyard, otherwise Mister McBrayer's pool party guests would be required to traipse through his private quaters in order to get from the kitchen to the pool and spa. A shallow covered patio directly off the master bedroom's sitting area looks like it barely provides any real shade. Pity that because it's damn sunny in Southern California and shade is a desirable feature for all but the most viciously over-tanned. The concrete patio extends halfway around the amoebic glass tiled swimming pool where it abruptly ends and becomes a narrow strip of lawn large enough only for small to mid-size pooches to do their dirty bizness. The strip of grass wraps around the remainder of the pool and the raised circular spa that can both be light in a variety of theatrical colors including lavender. To be honest, puppies, Your Mama isn't entirely positive that the spa is not at least partially visible from a couple of the nearby houses so it may not be the best place for Mister McBrayer to get romantic with whomever it is he gets romantic with. However, if your idea of relaxation is wallowing in a vat of near boiling water like you're a damn carrot in a stew than this is probably a perfectly impressive and glittery spa in which to do it.
Based on a few short minutes of entirely unscientific research and a leg up from a New York City-based editor, Your Mama is pretty sure that Mister McBrayer's New York City crib, a one bedroom and one bathroom condo in a fairly new and architecturally undistinguished building near Lincoln Center, was purchased in August of 2008 for $1,350,000.
