Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Reese Witherspoon Unloads Celebrity Pedigreed Lot

SELLER: Reese Witherspoon
BUYER: Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $7,500,000
SIZE: 2.53 acres

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In August 2010 Oscar winning movie star Reese Witherspoon* (Walk the Line) paid faded action flick actor Steven Seagal $6,900,000 to acquire an equestrian oriented 2.53 acre estate in the bucolically swank Mandeville Canyon area of Los Angeles that once belonged to famously mustachioed actor Tom Selleck.

She had the existing house and outbuildings razed but eventually caught a classic case of The Celebrity Real Estate Fickle and quietly put the privately situated estate-sized property up for sale off-market in September 2012 with an asking price of $7,995,000.

Thanks to our tirelessly plucky informant Yolanda Yaketyyak Your Mama has learned that the now-vacant property was sold back in early November for $7,500,000 to seven-time Oscar nominated producer Kathleen Kennedy and her five-time Oscar nominated producer husband Frank Marshall.**

Avid property watchers in Los Angeles may recall that Mister Marshall and Miz Kennedy sold their 14,000-plus square foot Gwathmey Siegel & Associates designed domicile perched on a private promontory that overlooks the ritzy Riviera area of Pacific Palisades in 2011 for a whopping $26,000,000 to two-time Oscar winning actor Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson.

Your Mama's research reveals Mister Marshall and Miz Kennedy also own an ocean front house in Malibu (CA), a ski house in Telluride (CO) and a New York City pied-à-terre they picked up in the spring of 2007 for $2,695,000. 

*Presumably Miz Witherspoon's current husband, Tinseltown bigwig Jim Toth, had some input into the purchase and subsequent sale of the property but at the time of the acquisition they were not legally married. They have since married, made a baby and—at least according to our gal Anita Tellyousomething—would like to buy a secluded new family house on the West Side of Los Angeles in the $15-20,000,000 range.

**Both Mister Marshall and Miz Kennedy are long time professional associates of filmmaker Steven Spielberg and have together and/or separately played a part in the making a long list of films such as Lincoln, 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. The Hollywood power couple has a slew of projects lined up—both together and separately—that include an as yet untitled film about the Wikileaks phenomena, at least three Star Wars projects, the next installment of the Jurassic Park series and the fifth Indiana Jones movie. These people are so busy it exhausts Your Mama just to look at their extensive resumes. Anyhoo...

listing photo: The Agency

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder who Ms. Witherspoon's publicist is. I ask because there is some "news" item about her (shopping, walking down the street, taking her kid or kids somewhere, go into or out of a restaurant) in the UK Daily Mail almost every day. 5 days out of a week for example, and then nothing for two weeks. This of course worries me since I think she might have been run down by a car as she once was. Then she pops up again good as new. Since I don't believe paps go most places without being told to go there, she must have a very very busy publicist. PS I think her salary per movie has been dropping recently. Few blockbusters anymore like Legally Blond.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year! Mama, you woke up early on New Year's Day! Or perhaps you haven't gone to bed yet? Thank you for your New Year's newest post!
Rabbi LaTess

Anonymous said...

Not Frank Gehry, but Gwathmey-Siegel I believe.

The real estate taxes people pay on these trophy properties boggle the mind!

Your Mama said...

You right darlin'

It was Gwathmey Siegel. We got it correct in our original write up and dead wrong today.

It's fixed now.

Thank you.

Rosco Mare said...

Prospero Ano Nuevo, Mamacita, con mucho amor!

A little too much tequila last night for a certifiable WASP like me. can you tell? XO

Anonymous said...

Reese Witherspoon is a bore- the big news is the 4 parcel transaction on Blossom Way in Palm Beach for over 130M.
Now that's interesting! Get on it, Mama! Part of the sale is linked to Ken Griffin, who bought Lilly Safra's apartment at 820.

Anonymous said...

OOh Mama I wanna hear about the $130 million palm beach sale to Kenneth Griffin too! The Palm Beach Post has an article on it this morning but i know u can do better.

8M for a vacant flag lot? Reese plz

Anonymous said...

I'm kinda disappointed. I was hoping she would take a hit on this property. IMO real estate fickle shouldn't be rewarded, especially when it involves razing a Paul Williams!

Coulda shoulda woulda said...
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The Bird said...

Why us she selling "all HER properties" to purchase a 15-20m property? Bigwig Toth(only wig is the one on his head) has properties? Can't he kick her down with some dead presidents by letting go with at least one?

Biz said...

42west is her PR firm. Meredith O'Sullivan is her publicist. PR firm, she and her husband make money off photos published on sites. She will never make 15-20m again for films,so she needs to make up for it somewhere. That is why you see 2 posts a day sometimes.

TT said...
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Biz said...

@TT
I thought Segal also not Selleck.....

Anonymous said...

Has she done anything memorable since Walk The Line? Step it up gurl.

Anonymous said...

2:58 Thanks a million for the information. I have wondered at her immense and incessant publicity and now it is explained. I would also add that she is getting along in years. Still in pretty good shape, but before long she won't be able to do ingenue roles as she has in the past.

p4propertytrades said...
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Anonymous said...

15-20M budget seems massive (as in why havent they found a house yet) however in Brentwood they my be as much as 10M under where they need to be. Didnt they have plans drawn up by a big name architect on this lot? Forgive me for my after Holiday's lazyness to not look at the prior post. It will be interesting to see if Gwathmy does the house here.

Anonymous said...

Reese is truly incredibly boring.