Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Akiva Goldsman Is Leaving the Hollywood Hills

SELLER: Akiva Goldsman
LOCATION: Cole Crest Drive, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $2,595,000
SIZE: 2,910 square feet (per assesor), 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Unique Architectural with the best view in Los Angeles. Loft like space with multi-lvls of sep flex. areas. Main flr w/living, chef's kit, dining, mst and gst all open to astounding views. 2nd floor with A-frame studio, lounge, bath and office area, opens to pvt sun-drenched pool with head on views. Expansive patio/decking around pool. 3rd floor has gst bdrm, bath and ofc/studio. Hidden lower level with cardio/gym rm. Adj lot also avail. One of a kind!

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In case you don't recognize the name Akiva (Keevie) Goldsman, let Your Mama give you a Hollywood run down. This Brooklyn born producer/screenwriter happens to be one of the few screenwriters still working steadily in Hollywood. He's also an Oscar Award winning screenwriter for his adaption for the film A Beautiful Mind, the movie that gave bad boy Russell Crowe household name status and, if you ask Your Mama, an enormously swelled sense of his talent and value.

Keevie also happens to be one of the most highly paid screenwriters in Hollywood. He was reportedly paid a stunning $4,000,000 to adapt the screenplay for the sequel of The Da Vinci Code, which is set to star big money actor Tom Hanks and, it is rumored, ex-Victoria Secret model and wanne be ack-tress Gisele Bundchen. Please. Aren't people tired of seeing middle aged actors with receding hairlines romancing and kissing on young model types up on the big screen? Your Mama has a suggestion...How about getting a woman with some actual acting chops who is older than 35 to play opposite 50-something year old Hanks, who is clearly old enough to be Bundchen's father.

Many say Goldsman, who is more likely to adapt a novel than write an original script, turns out one big budget stinker after another. Other people, including Mister Goldsman himself, say he uses simple and formulaic story archs. All of which may be true. But it's tough to argue with success, and clearly Keevie has had some serious success in Hollywood having been involved with several hugely grossing films that have made many-a-man in Hollywood as rich as Rockefellers and Vanderbilts.

Keevie has had so much success in the last 5 or 10 years that he's selling his Hollywood Hills house and moving over to the house he just purchased in Beverly Hills. Our sources tell Your Mama that this is the man who purchased Anthony Kiedis' magnificent house, which was recently on the market for nearly $7,000,000.

Keevie and wifey Rebecca appear to have purchased this house up on Cole Crest Drive back in August of 1993. But then again, it could have been only in May of 2003. The records we accessed are confusing, but we're getting this sussed out and will correct and confirm this date when we figure it out.

Tax records show the house at 2,910 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms (listing shows 4 baths). The house sits high in the hills and truly has the sort of Los Angeles view dreams are made of. The view is so spectacular that it almost does not matter what the house looks like. Almost. Your Mama thinks this house looks like it's got a split personality. Clearly this house used to be a modest A-frame that has been redone and expanded to it's current unusually shaped configuration.

The exterior of the house is a little jumpy, and the odd angles make our eyes nervous. But once in the front door, the living spaces are really quite interesting, and even thrilling in some spots. We L.O.V.E. that living room/studio in the A-frame. The soaring and peaked ceiling gives Your Mama goose bumps, and we totally appreciate the palette in this space. The super-white walls and ceiling, and the glistening white floor create a clean space that zooms the eye out to the carpet of lights below. The use of the blue accents may be a tried and true design technique, but it successfully draws the sky inside and creates a lovely and envy producing space that feels both inside and outside.

Your Mama gets tired of grandly scaled living rooms and entrance halls with 25 foot ceilings and dual stair cases, not to mention the billiard rooms that nobody uses, the party rooms, and the vast manicured grounds that require an army of illegal workers to keep looking presentable. This house, with it's modest square footage and reasonably scaled rooms, is a breath of fresh air.

We appreciate the lightness of the kitchen, but we're always a bit hesitant with butcher block counter tops. They look amazing when they are first installed, but once they've been chopped and cut on for a few years they look like something in, well, a butcher shop.

We love the back terrace with the pool, dining pavilion and jaw dropping view. We love that there's no lawn back there that requires maintenance and watering...Your Mama is all for the xeriscaping in California where we are are certain there will be battles and wars over water in the coming years.

Despite the strange exterior articulation, Your Mama is totally digging this house. However, we do have one significant concern. And that is, of course, the glass railing. Yes, it does look lovely and it allows for unobstructed sight lines. But, obviously, Your Mama is concerned about the gallons of Windex required to keep all that glass clean, not to mention the difficulty in finding a maid who is willing to spend day after day in the blazing sun rubbing that glass clear of fingerprints and nose prints from the dog(s). We are also concerned about drunken accidents. All big time boozers who come over to this house for backyard bbqs will need to be tethered to the house so they don't stumble over that railing. As y'all can see, the drop is sheer and someone falling over board here would be disastrous.

Your Mama would like to wish Keevie and wifey all the best in their new house and all the best in selling this one. Given their penchant for understated luxury and casual elegance, we expect they will do the nearly perfect Kiedis house justice. Now Keevie hunny, give Your Mama a shout when you get settled so we can come over and talk about casting for your upcoming projects.

Sources: Internet Movie Data Base, Just Well Mixed, Movie Web, Cinema Blend

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You work in casting Mama??? I work in NY casting too! Soo weird!

Anonymous said...

thanks mama for mentioning that akiva is a hack. someone close to me worked with the guy and couldn't believe the lack of talent and the sheer luck he has.

Anonymous said...

What shows did you work on for casting?

Your Mama said...

1. Your Mama is not in casting, but we do think sometimes we have something to say about casting that pairs middle aged stars with romantic interests who are barely in their twenties. It's just unseemly.

2. WE never said Akiva is a hack...we said "MANY SAY Akiva turns out stinkers..." We have no opinion on Akiva. Truthfully, we've not seen any of his movies. Your Mama is not the big budget movie type.

Anonymous said...

Kitchen needs a redo, and I don't usually care for garage under the house, but I love this house. I could live there. Great view of the smog from the terraces. Now where can I dig up $3 million?