Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Diane Keaton Buys Big Pac Pal Pad

BUYER: Diane Keaton
LOCATION: Pacific Palisades, CA
PRICE $5,600,000
SIZE: 7,800 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We've occasionally wondered what often in the property gossip columns house hopper Diane Keaton had up her next real estate sleeve.

Over the years the Oscar-winning architecture and design junkie has owned scads and scores of architecturally notable residences all over Los Angeles, including the Alfred Newman estate in Pacific Palisades and the 1928, Lloyd Wright-designed Samuel-Novarro House in Los Feliz, later owned briefly by Christina Ricci. After selling her newly overhauled, Ralph Flewelling-designed hacienda-style mansion in the flats of Beverly Hills in September 2010 to Glee and Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy for $10,000,000, the preservation-oriented high-end house flipper leased former rom-com queen Meg Ryan's gated, almost-perfect Spanish-style mansion in Bel Air, right next door to fashion world royal Tom Ford's louche and ravishing Richard Neutra-designed compound.

Your Mama heard some time ago from someone we know who tends to know these things that Miz Keaton had moved out of Meg's mansion and today, much to our celebrity real estate surprise (and chagrin), we heard from the long-legged blond at Trulia Luxe Living that Miz Keaton just plunked down $5,600,000 to acquire a bulky and luxurious but hardly historic quasi-Cape Cod-style mansion in the upscale seaside community of Pacific Palisades, CA.

Miz Keaton's newly acquired crib in Pac Pal, built only in 2009, sits tightly on a 10,018 square foot corner lot near the grass-free, ocean-view bluffs of Asilomar Park, measures (around) 7,800 square feet spread out over three floors, according to listing information, and includes a total of 6 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms.

Formal living and dining rooms with pane-free French doors flank the grand, double-height center hall entry outfitted with a Tara-esque staircase, inky black floors and monumental upside down wedding cake-shaped chandelier. A short corridor connects the foyer at the front of the house to the less-formal, open-plan family quarters that extend along the back of the house and include a family room lounge with fireplace, built-in wet bar, and colossal, U-shaped kitchen with gleaming white Shaker-style cabinets, top-quality commercial-style appliances and Subaru-sized center island with snack counter and burnt caramel-colored butcher block counter tops.

The basement level is—to put it nicely—an entertainment extravaganza that includes a temperature-controlled wine cellar and adjoining tasting room/lounge; a bedroom-sized fitness room (convertible to a 7-th bedroom, as per listing details); an eggplant, purple and lavender hued movie theater with stepped seating; and a game room with built-in wet bar, built-in tufted banquette and glass doors that open to a basement level outdoor terrace with spiral staircase for easy (if dizzying) access up to the backyard.

The master suite—with private deck, fireplace, lots of built-in bookshelves, bedroom-sized walk-in closet, and attached facility—sits up on the second floor along with three more family guest suites. A fifth bedroom with en suite pooper on the main floor perfect for the lazy or the infirm and a sixth bedroom with en suite is located down in the basement may (or may not) have been intended for permanent habitation by a live-in domestic or part-time by a less-favored family member or house guest.

A blue stone terrace (or slate or some such upper end stone material) tucked into the inside crook of the mansion has a stacked stone fireplace and built-in barbecue station. The terrace gives way to a (mostly) flat expanse of lawn and blue stone terrace (or slate or some such upper end stone material) that surrounds the plunge-sized swimming pool and inset four-person spa. In addition to the fenced and hedge-ringed backyard, outdoor living spaces also include a wide covered front porch, a couple second level balconies, the aforementioned basement level terrace and a meandering roof deck that allows for over-the-roof-top views of the Santa Monica Mountains.

It's hard for Your Mama to imagine that after owning a couple handfuls of architecturally significant homes that quirky Miz Keaton would see this big, fancy and new if stylistically unremarkable mansion as her $5.6 million real estate destiny. Then again, maybe she's tired for fixing and selling. Maybe she plans to fix and sell this place. Who knows? If we've said it once we've said it dozens of times (too many): It's a futile game to attempt to unravel the mysteries behind the sometimes capricious-seeming real estate behaviors of the rich and/or famous.

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty

22 comments:

Anita said...

Nice digs Keaton! Pretty sure I herad Meg Ryan's place sold and is in escrow now.

Carla Ridge said...

This is strange. From one pedigreed property to another, in uninterrupted succession, to this... well, I don't know *what* to call it. It's nice, of course, but not at all what we've come to expect from the former Annie Hall. I'll bet this one's on the market within a year.

Candy Spelling said...

I'm thinking the same as Carla, that perhaps this is just a temporary crash pad to rest her head for a short spell. While she's there she can prepare for her next acquisition and then - when everyone is least expecting it - pounce!

Nice area, but the house itself is so completely unremarkable.

By the way, Mama - Meg Ryan's "almost perfect" house?! Gurl, pleeze. Don't make me drive up to your place and let the wooden spoon teach you a lesson. That house is about as perfect as those two inflatable river rafts she calls her lips.

Anonymous said...

Maybe she is done with flipping high end pads? She is much older now and not getting well paid gigs like Witherspoon or Bullock.

She's thinking of her retirement nest egg? I wonder if her kids enjoy living in homes undergoing renovations and then changing homes like that.

i_amweasel said...

She told the NY Times last year she wanted to buy a plot of land and build from scratch for the first time (I thought this had been the original purpose for her purchase of the Lloyd Wright house, which would serve as a guest house/office to a future main house).

Shopgirl said...

The weasel may be onto something. This may be her new commend center while she builds. Another thought is her 2 children are getting older and the basement may have been very attractive spot for teenagers to hang out. I love DK and saw her last summer shopping in Target (gasp) of all places. Keeping it real.

Anonymous said...

Bet she'll work with Roy McMakin on this one.
http://www.domesticarchitecture.com/

Anonymous said...

I must quit being lazy and get over to Zillow (or whatever place it is) and check out this "long-legged blonde" who gives you such fits, Mama.

This is a nice house, but as Carla Ridge and *ahem* the elderly Ms Spelling pointed out, this is probably only a temporary crash pad for Miss Keaton. I'm sure the long-legged blonde is working this angle as well and will soon share the revelation of Ms Keaton's plans. We'll wait and hear it from you, Mama, cuz we love you and your snark.

Anonymous said...

Love Meg's Spanish house. Glad she found a buyer for it.

Anonymous said...

This is a really nice place. She has great taste. The kitchen, the staircase and the rooftop deck are my favorites.

Desert Donna said...

Her Loreal (I think thats who she reps)contract is probably worth a pretty penny, even if movie rolls arent coming in. Also, if she was half as shrewd with her movie business, as she has been at flipping, I am sure shes doing just fine financially. I doubt there is any upside to redoing this..it is what it is. Maybe sometimes even the most prodigious flippers get tired of living in a museum, and want a home.

Anonymous said...

Shes worth 32M from what I read. She also just put out her biography I believe. The one thing I dont get is the lack of privacy here. Its right on the corner of a non gated community if I am correct? Anyone nut can walk up to her door no?

Anonymous said...

I_amweasel is right. I read the article awhile back and have heard through the real estate grapevine that she has been on the hunt for a lot or true tear down (something with no merit) for some time now.

Let's be honest.. it takes several years in LA to jump through permitting and actually build to completion. This is a temporary crash pad she'll decorate up but not gut or redo and sell once she's built her new home.

Anonymous said...

she owns a great piece of land already that she is going to build on-- so all of you are truly behind the 8 ball.

Anonymous said...

i thought i saw something (last year?) that she bought right on the north side of the golf course and was building a dream house there...

Candy Spelling said...

To my knowledge, she doesn't own any vacant land in LA (at least not yet), though I wouldn't be surprised if she coughed up the cash for that soon.

Unless that was her that picked up that amazing two-lot spread on Perugia Lane in Holmby H. a few weeks ago, but I doubt it.

Anonymous said...

@ 8:37 and 9:48... I like how you both know so much but can't offer any real location. A great piece of land, huh? WHERE?

Northside of the golf course? Possibly in Iowa?

Anonymous said...

who said any thing about Vacant land? its LA -- as such, any lot on an existing golf course on the *west side of LA has/had a house on it. in this area many older houses have already been torn down and new houses built

Diane Keaton said...

https://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=203718642504693254653.0004c2f16cd7803c105f1&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=21&vpsrc=1&iwloc=0004c2f16cdaad41865a2

Here it is! It's in the stupidest location... Smh

Anonymous said...

So it's not gated? Doesn't mean it's in a stupid location.

Looks like a nice residential area to me!

Anonymous said...

Ugh. Seeing neighbor's house and telephone poles. I have that at my humble abode.

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