Saturday, January 2, 2010

Your Mama Hears...

...from Los Angeles real estate über-insider Donatella Dontchaknow that every one's favorite vanilla flavored, 2-time Oscar winning actor Tom Hanks (Charlie Wilson's War, The Da Vinci Code franchise, You've Got Mail, Saving Private Ryan, the Toy Story franchise, Forrest Gmp, Philadelphia, Turner & Hooch and, back in the early 1980s, the unforgettable cross dressing comedy Bosom Buddies) and his lovely but not nearly as successful actress wife Rita Wilson (It's Complicated, The Chumscrubber, Perfume, Runaway Bride, and Jingle All the Way) are splashing out for a newer, bigger and better pad in Pacific Palisades, CA.

The Wilson/Hanks, long time residents of the upscale enclave just north of Santa Monica, have long resided in a 6,289 square foot manse on Corsica Drive that prop records show includes 6 bedrooms and 5 poopers. But big is apparently not big enough for these two. According to Donatella Dontchaknow, the Wilson/Hanks are forking over more than $20,000,000 for the very contemporary mansion of prolific super producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy. Five-time Oscar nominated Mister Marshall and 6-time nominated Miz Kennedy, both long time associates of uncommonly fecund filmmaker Steven Spielberg, have played a part in the making of films like The Bourne Identity franchise, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Munich, Seabiscuit, The Sixth Sense, Schindler's List, the Jurrassic Park franchise, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Color Purple, the Indiana Jones... franchise, Poltergeist and E.T., just to name a few.

Property records show the Kennedy/Marshall's hilltop house, which hovers high above the ritzy Riviera neighborhood, includes just 4 bedrooms and 5 poopers in 14,513 square feet. The three story house has a gated and tree-lined motor court, a prairie like terrace and swimming pool, a half circle of green lawn, sweeping views, and with it's swooping, curvilinear facade, arguably has more in common architecturally with Richard Meier's Getty Center than it does with the average Pacific Palisades property. As it turns out, the house was designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates with interiors, we're told by someone who would know, by L.A. dee-ziner Louis Ortega.

Property records don't yet show a transfer of deeds so all this remains just rumor and gossip at this point but, butter beans, y'all should know that Donatella Dontchaknow never steers our celebrity real estate boat in the wrong direction.

According to property records and Celebrity Address Aerial, Miz Wilson and Mister Hanks own several properties in and around Pacific Palisades including a 4 bedroom and 6 pooper fixer on Amalfi Drive, two adjacent properties on Embury Drive and a recently renovated ocean front getaway behind the gates of the celeb packed Malibu Colony that records reveal was picked up way back in April of 1991 for $2,950,000.

Your Mama has no idea where the Kennedy/Marshalls might be moving, but they certainly don't lack for posh properties in which to shack up. Property records reveal that in addition to their big house they're selling to the Wilson/Hanks, they also own a ski house in Telluride, CO, an ocean front house on Malee-boo's star-lined Broad Beach Road and a New York City 2 bedroom and 2.5 pooper pied-a-terre at The Berkeley House–a posh pre-war dowager on Central Park South–that previous reports reveal they bought in the spring of 2007 for $2,695,000.

16 comments:

StPaulSnowman said...

Thanks for the weekend post Mama. The first thought upon seeing the photo was that it looked like a museum..........and sure enough, you mentiion the Getty Center. Even though you fled to California, there are no flies on you! Today would be a good day for all you warm weather types to gloat......it is fourteen degrees below zero here without any of that windchill exageration factor.

Madam Pince said...

Not quite as cold here, Snowman, but still frigid -- the wind is rippin' my Old Dominion butt. Anyway, what is that contraption at the back of the house (I'm assuming that's the back, where the lawn is curved)? I first thought it was scaffolding, but then saw the pipe and other accoutrements protruding. Anyway, what in the world is it, Mama? And I also thank you for the weekend fix!

Anonymous said...

Can I assume the Kennedy/Marshall house was not on the market? I don't recall ever seeing it on the MLS, but I also don't recall Mama pointing out that it hadn't been on the market in the article; kind've an important factoid to leave out...

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing that these types own their beach-front-in-the-'Bu joints just in case they're ever in the mood to motor down for some private sand between their toes? I've always wondered...

Anonymous said...

look like an attorney handled both sides of the deal.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the weekend update, mama! Happy New Year to all..............stay warm!!

Anonymous said...

If I'm not mistaken -- or still in a NYE stupor -- this home was, in fact, designed by Richard Meier. Which would explain the similarity to the Getty.

Very Best in 2010 and beyond, Mama! Love, Trousdale Book Project Guy.

midTN said...

Just chiming in with my icy 2 cents worth....it looks like a convention center. Sorry, maybe it is the aerial view? Yes, that must be it.
Fifteen degrees and dropping by the hour here in Dixieland and we are going to have a high tomorrow of 19.
My magnolias have dun' froze their lil' old buds off!

Royal said...

I can't tell from the picture, but what direction does the house face? I'm hoping this was a morning photo since the pool is completely shaded by the house.

chris said...

Somehow I always thought Hanks had more good sense that this indicates. So he has to be a Hollyweird "show-off" too? Sad.

Anonymous said...

Ugly! Cold! Looks like a airplane hanger!

Anonymous said...

The house was not designed by Meier.

Unknown said...

I'd love to see some interior shots, because the outside doesn't do it for me. As another commenter mentioned regarding the location of the pool, the general architecture and layout of the house seems to be disconnected from the land.

Unknown said...

It's definitely a GS project...even shown on their website here: http://www.gwathmey-siegel.com/portfolio/proj_detail.php?job_id=199321

It's the San Onofre Residence.

Maybe Hanks bought it so he could look "down" onto Speilberg's compound a few hundred yards away!

Robert said...

Hi Mama, this Gwathmey Siegel House is also featured in AMERICAN HOUSE NOW (ISBN 0-500-28026-6)with some interior pics...
best regards from Munich, Robert (www.edition20.com)

Anonymous said...

More here .. http://www.luisortegadesignstudio.com/proj5.html