Thursday, October 1, 2009

Meg Ryan Chops the Price and Re-Lists Her Bel Air Manse

SELLER: Meg Ryan
LOCATION: Stradella Road, Bel Air, CA
PRICE: $14,200,000
SIZE: 6,877 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Museum quality restoration of a classic Spanish estate sited on promontory w/ wide open city & ocean vus across layers of greenery. Wful arch, resort like grounds & complete pvcy. Stenciled & painted wood clgs, tiles, ironwork, rich wd flrs, drs & windows, arches, etc. French drs thruout open to loggia, dining pavil, expansive lawn & pl. Stunning kit, generous LR & DR, sep bar rm, 2 fam rms & screen rm. 6 BR+7 BA, incl fab mstr. Complete gst hse.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It's no secret within the celebrity real estate world that ack-turuss Meg Ryan has been trying to sell her Bel Air mansion for a long, long time. Eighteen months ago a couple of large living Marys Your Mama knows went for a look see when the Stradella Road residence was still being shopped around as a "pocket" listing. The Marys swooned for the property and told us it was, "a real God damn movie star house," but they were simply unwilling to part with the $19,500,000 (or so) she wanted for the place at that time. Then, in November of 2008 the house hit the open market at $19,500,000 but quickly vanished. Even though deep pocketed a-listers like David and Victoria Beckham and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner toured the estate there were, apparently, no serious biters. So once again Miz Ryan has officially listed her supremely sited Spanish style estate with a new real estate agent and a much reduced asking price of $14,200,000. And children, hold on to your britches because unlike poor Miz Ryan's fucked up trout pout, the house is flaw-less. Okay, not totally flaw-less, but pretty close to perfect.

Although the bubbly and blond Miz Ryan appeared in Top Gun in 1986, it wasn't until a few years laters, when she rather convincingly simulated climax in When Harry Met Sally..., that she landed at the tippy-top of the Tinseltown heap. Miz Ryan later married actor Dennis Quaid with whom she had a stormy relationship that begat one child and went on to become the one of the highest grossing romantic comedy queens with her sweet roles in saccharine films like Sleepless in Seattle, French Kiss, City of Angels and the super-schmaltzy You've Got Mail. Her career hit the skids in the early 2000s after a couple of clunkers like Hanging Up and Kate and Leopold.

Property records reveal that Miz Ryan purchased her comely casa in October of 2000 for $8,500,085 from hip-hop music mogul Mark Cerami. According to listing information, the house was built in 1931 and measures a surprisingly modest 6,877 square feet. The meticulously restored and multi-winged manse includes 6 bedrooms and 7 poopers including a fully detached guest house out by the swimming pool.

A long gated drive leads to a 3 car garage and motor court. Although listing information indicates the motor court can accommodate 5-8 cars, our Marys tell us it is unfortunately too small to turn a limo which means a bad driver could very well take out some of the landscaping while backing up in a hurry because you couldn't decide on a damn dress and are late for the Oscars. A covered passage connects the motor court to an interior courtyard that leads to the arched front door which opens to a wide, wood floored entrance and stair hall which acts as the primary traffic axis for the house. Miz Ryan and her team of nice, gay decorators wisely used the entrance hall to set the simple but sumptuous stylistic scene for the entire house with warm, white-washed walls–probably hand applied plaster with a wax finish iffin we had to guess, an antique rug/doormat and a couple of dark wood (and probably pedigreed) chairs and benches where guest can drop their designer handbags on the way in.

The generously sized but still intimately scaled living room has milk chocolate colored wood floors, a coffered wood ceiling of the same color, an imposing fireplace with stone surround, and a wall of French doors that open to a loggia overlooking the back lawn and the city lights in the distance. The room has been lots of over-sized, tufted ottomans mixed with some Mission style furniture and a baby grand piano that maybe Miz Ryan plays and maybe she doesn't. All Your Mama's booze hound babies will appreciate the separate, paneled bar room located at the far end of the living room.

Across from the front door and through a pair of archways that mirror the arch of the front door is the dining room anchored by a large blue Oriental rug, warmed by a fireplace with a tile surround and intricate wrought iron screen and lit through a trio of French doors that line a gently curving wall that pushes out into the a grassy green lawn area that overlooks the free form swimming pool. To the left of the entrance are some of the less formal rooms which include a commodious kitchen with a long of framed photos propped up on open shelves, and a breakfast room fitted into a large bay window with built in bookshelves, and a round, Asian style table lit by a simple, red Chinese paper and wood lantern, an obvious homage to the Chinese baby Miz Ryan adopted a few years ago and named Daisy.

At the corner of the house that sits between the dining room and breakfast room is one of the home's two family rooms, this one with a steely blue velvet sectional sofa, another Mission style rocker, a painting that Diane Keaton would kill for and a half dozen ceramic vases standing up in the corner like naughty children. Shooting off the family room is a long narrow dining terrace shaded by an antique, wood beamed peaked roof. With an applauded and too little seen decorative restraint, Miz Ryan–or one of her nice, gay decorators–has quite simply furnished the outdoor room with a rough hewn picnic table perfect for a breezy summer dinner.

Listing information indicates the a guest house contains a private pooper as do each of the guest bedrooms–which we like for obvious reasons, that the master bedroom lacks a proper dressing room–which is criminal for a house of this magnitude, and that the screening room, located atop the garage, is accessible only by separate entrance–which we don't like.

Not being privvy to Miz Ryan's private thoughts, we can't be sure why the ladee would choose to sell her stunner of a house but that $5,300,000 price chop would indicate she's finally getting serious about unloading what has been a bit of a real estate albatross around her stick-like neck.

Nearby neighbors include louche fashion stud/queen Tom Ford who lives next door in a fabulously restored Richard Neutra designed house, writer and executive producer Darren Star who created such television tour de forces as Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210–the original and the sad re-makes, The $treet and Sex and the City to name just a few, and billionaire biznessman David H. Murdock who among other assets owns the Hawaiian island of Lanai.

21 comments:

StPaulSnowman said...

Stick-like neck. Perfect. I must concur that she has one of the more agressively reupholstered faces in Hollywood. From really cute to really grotesque in only three operations. The house is magnificent and it will be fun to see what it eventually goes for.

Anonymous said...

Did Russell Crowe give her a seeing-too here?

vortexpuddle said...

What a beautiful home! Hope she can unload it in this crummy market.
http://www.vortexpuddle.com/

Anonymous said...

Love this house so much. I agree that the media-room access is odd. The lack of a dressing room wouldn't have occurred to me, but then, I don't live in that world. Keep those ears open, I want to know who buys this place. and for how much.

Anonymous said...

What's with all of those vases in that one corner? Is she practicing for her comeback in vaudeville?

Anonymous said...

I think Miz Ryan will be moving to the West Coast soon. NYC perhaps? She has an equally stunning home on Martha's Vineyard.

nevermind said...

its strange that the dining room would be located across from the entrance— and with that double-height space it would make a nice living room. also, is that the actual arrangement of the furniture or are those the things that were left over after she moved out?

Anonymous said...

Oh Mama, you've done us proud. After that hot mess in Atwater Village, this Bel Air stunner is like Belgian chocolate for the eyes. What a pleasure it is to see such a meticulous renovation and UNDERSTATED yet TASTEFUL decor. One of the more beautiful homes you have shared with us. The price still sounds high, but the quality of this home is obvious.

And can you imagine tip-toeing next door and knocking on Tom Ford's kitchen door asking to borrow a cup of vodka?

NewYorkQueer said...

Ending up at Gwyneth's West 4th Street town house was a combination of cater-waiter over work, depression, dumb luck, and a now put to rest tendency to do other peoples jobs. That's why he found himself alone in the third floor pooper looking at himself in the what had to be real Sister Parrish gold leaf framed mirror holding a trash bag in one hand and a slightly tacky, but real, Mario Buatta floral chintz covered trash recepticle in the other, wondering where it had all gone wrong. After all the point of living in New York City and being young and beautiful was to go to the parties not to work at the parties, if you were there and you weren't invited to Paris Hilton's Hampton's kick off bash why didnt you just stay in Toledo and read about it in People. Here he was dressed in Filene's Basement black and white, wearing a fabulous pair of not quiet paid for Ferragamo Lester sneakers, emptying other peoples trash when he realized the house around him was strangely silent. Without leaving that bathroom he realized he was totally alone in Qwyneth Paltrow's house, that the final indignaty of a day filled with humiliation was that he had been forgotten, left behind and even worse not paid.

Garfield said...

Its incredible to me that the Beckham's chose to spend $18m on that new build in Beverly Hills.

Anonymous said...

Believe it or not, a screening room with outside only access might actually be desireable for a producer or director working in the film industry, to be able to have people over to watch dailies, etc. without having to have a bunch of people parading through the actual house...that being said, otherwise, it seems to be a nearly flawless house, and yeah, I'd prefer a screening room I could get to from the rest of the house, too...

Anonymous said...

really Garfield? Given what nouveau-riche Eurotrash the Beckham's are, I'm not at all suprised they chose a tacky new build over the so many other, much more tasteful westside properties that were on the market when they were shopping around...in fact, I would've expected nothing less from those to crass media whores!

Anonymous said...

I don't feel animosity toward them but remember that they are basically pretty but very uneducated people with a lot of money. You can't expect people with little education and from simple homes, to have any level of taste just because the gene dice made them physically attractive.

Anonymous said...

$2000/sqft??? WTF, Just a a lil bit over priced.

JasperWare said...

The big vases in the corner are Bauer (as is the squat one on the table). They're about $2000 a throw, and for some reason they tend to clump up like that in collector's houses.

Diane Keaton has a much better collection of California pottery, for what it's worth, and a much better house.

Anonymous said...

Trout Pout is right. I saw her yesterday on Montana Ave. A pretty lady everywhere, a great Sally Hershberger Hair-DO, cute little figure (skinny bitch) and a wonky lip situation. Shame.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone have a link to Mr. Ford's home?

Shelbylynn said...

Great home. Love the stark white walls.
shelbylynn

SaloonSinger said...

The dark coffered ceiling in the living room reminds me of the Berghof in Obersalzburg. So do some of the furniture pieces which I believe the owner had designed himself. The scale here is somewhat reduced.

Anonymous said...

wonder where she thinks she gonna move in LA that's better than this.

Anonymous said...

This is to the person, "Anonymous" who said in a round about way that Meg Ryan is uneducated. Not true. She was only one semester away from graduating from NYU. She decided to pursue acting instead of getting her degree in journalism.

Another thing; don't you think that celebrities hire interior decorators? You don't really think they decorate their own homes? People in my neighborhood hire decorators.

Meg's home is beautiful and so is she.