Friday, May 10, 2013

Ali Landry Lists Spanish Casa in Los Feliz

SELLER: Ali Landry and Alejandro Monteverde
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,925,000
SIZE: 3,700 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It's not so tough to spot a celebrity or "celebrity" owned home when online listings make a point to call it out as "Celebrity Owned." Such is the case with the online marketing materials for a fairly modest if hardly inexpensive Spanish style casa in Los Angeles's star-studded Los Feliz community owned by model/actress/entertainment news hostess Ali Landry who shares with her Mexican-born filmmaker husband of six or seven years, Alejandro Monteverde, and listed it this week on the open market with a price tag of $1,995,000.

Miz Landry, native of the great state of Loozeeanna, is a brown haired bayou babe turned beauty queen who may have come in 7th at the 1990 Miss Teen USA competition but took home the sash and crown as Miss Louisiana USA in 1995 and, the following year, Miss USA. For several years in the late 1990s she was best known as the wholesome yet smoldering, gymnastically inclined spokeswoman for Doritos brand chips. In 1998 she was named to People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People and she popped up in all her scantily clad physical glory on the 100 Sexiest Women lists for both FHM and Stuff Magazine.

Her television career picked up a little steam in the late 1990s and early Aughts with recurring roles on Pensacola: Wings of Gold, Felicity, and Eve. Nowadays, among other mostly ho-hum Showbiz projects, she regularly hosts Tinseltown award show fashion wrap ups for TV Guide and occasionally guest hosts on E! News. 

Since 2006 she's been married to and making babies with Mexican-born filmmaker Alejandro Monteverde whom she met at a church bible study. The couple have been open—public, really—about their decision to abstain from sex before they were married. That's really neither here nor there as regards to the real estate matter at hand but it is probably pretty damn unusual in the sexually gluttonous land of Hollywood hook ups and does sort of tie in to a recent interview she gave during which she stated that she and hubby "are seeking to provide more Christian based entertainment projects" such as the direct to DVD Me Again staring Miz Landry, David, A.R. White, and Hollywood holly roller Della Reese.

Despite her more than two decades in the Business of Show, Miz Landry is is perhaps still most famous—at least in the snarky eyes of schadenfreude bitten celebrity bloggers and gossip glossy readers—not so much for her professional accomplishments as for her six year relationship and two-week, whiplash marriage to swahvey t.v. personality Mario Lopez in 2004. By her own public account she dumped his meticulously manicured and man-scaped dog-ass due to his inability to keep it in his pants.*

Property records show Miz Landry purchased her vintage Spanish casa in the prosperous hills of Los Feliz in January 2004—just before her marriage mistake with Mario Lopez—for $1,099,000. Current listing details show the updated 1927 Spanish residence has a total of four bedrooms and three bathrooms in about about 3,700 square feet. For the record, the L.A. County Tax Man puts the house at 2,781 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Make of the discrepancies what you will.

Set a bit above the street the asymmetrical structure visually coalesces at its center where a turret stands next to an elaborately tiled archway that effectively signifies the main entrance and connects through to a tight, partially tiled entry portico. Inside there are cocoa brown hardwood floors, original stained glass windows and vibrant tile detail work, most of which does not appear to be original but—what do we know?—very well may be. A gently coved ceiling provides both a soupçon of grandeur and a feeling of cozy intimacy in the living room where a rustic wood mantelpiece surrounds a wood-burning fireplace with decorative iron screen and French doors provide direct access to an elevated terrace with over-the-tree-tops view.

The formal dining room has a wood-paneled ceiling (that we don't particularly care for) and an off-center French door with direct terrace access. A two-tiered antique chandelier effectively apes the overlapping circular shapes in the abstract artwork and lights a rustic farmhouse table topped with a hodgepodge of stone, ceramic and glass things. The adjacent kitchen doesn't appear in listing photos to be particularly big but is well equipped with an "eat in island" plus commercial-style range top backed by an extra wide tiled inset arch. The medium brown raised panel cabinetry and the mottled granite counter tops are big snooze for Your Mama but the copper apron front sink is decadent in a way we can appreciate.

The upper level master suite, furnished with a behemoth four-poster bed and settee that appear to consume almost the entire space, has a weirdly pitched ceiling and direct access to a city view veranda. The attached master bathroom is "Moroccan style" according to listing details and also has a slightly cattywompus ceiling. It also has a long sink vanity, a semi-private crapper cubicle, and a free-standing soaking tub set on a stone tile floor in front of a pebble stone-tiled arch-shape punctuated by three smaller, wood-lined arched insets for displaying candles, bubble bath products and other bath time accouterment.

Two more family bedrooms share a hall bathroom and a fourth bedroom with private bathroom offers a separate entrance that's perfect for live-in domestic staff and naughty, boundary-crossing house guests—like Your Mama's dear old boozy b.f.f. Fiona Trambeau—who have an uncontrollable and prurient tendency to squirrel someone in for an indiscriminate slap and tickle without their host(s) being the wiser. Anyways...

The living and dining room (as well as the kitchen) connect to a spacious and elevated pergola shaded terrace for dining, lounging and barbecuing. A lower level walk out basement family room has white washed brick walls, ashy brown wood floors and bursts at its brick seams with what appear to be a carefully if exuberantly curated and displayed assortment of vintage flea market finds and religious iconography. Listing details show the faux-basement has a fireplace and a wide bank of sliding French doors that open to a compact, plaza-like Mexican-paver tiled terrace with a tiled quarter moon-shaped fountain that does double duty as a spa.

We really don't know where Miz Landry and Mister Monteverde plan to move but we'd bet both out long-bodied bitches that their desire to move has something to do with their recent announcement that they're expecting a third child. Mazel tov!

*Okay, people, use yer noggins. Miz Landry didn't call him a "dog-ass" say he didn't "keep it in his pants" or otherwise publicly discuss Mister Lopez's obviously laborious grooming habits. Not so far as we know anyways. But she is on record repeatedly saying she kicked Mister Lopez to the curb—or whatever the kids call dumping a dog-ass spouse or trifling baby daddy nowadays—due to his infidelity.

listing photos: Keller Williams / Los Feliz

9 comments:

Sandpiper said...

I find the zen here very calming.

Small aside: When one house can't accommodate all the pieces of your decorating dreams* -- like this Siamese arrangement of soaking tub meets sink vanity -- hold that décor thought for another house on another day.

*As Stanley Turrentine might say.

Anonymous said...

Good Shabbos Dear Mama and Kleine Kinderlach:

The Rabbi is feeling much of the Landry-Monteverde home's architecture in a pleasing way. Nevertheless, as Mama suggests and the Rabbi concurs, the dining room ceiling needs to be removed and perhaps reworked with interlocking stenciled beams, similar to those she recently saw in Cuba, and the master bedroom needs to be infused with a happy sort of feng shui to counter its oppressingly low ceiling slope. The Rabbi loves the wrought iron lighting fixtures and, as opposed to Mama, is inclined to believe that the foyer tiles, including the indigo squares, are original. Of concern is the one bedroom, one bathroom, one thousand square foot discrepancy between the listing and taxable records, causing, the Rabbi to speculate Ms. Trambeau's pied a terre was installed without a permit. Along with Ms. Trambeau and unlike Ms. Landry and Mr. Monteverde, the Rabbi promotes a liberal sexual attitude, especially following the presentation she attended at the Centro Nacional de Educacion Sexsual in La Habana, led by Mariela Castro, who has done much to promote acceptance and understanding among all of Cuba's popupation for its LGBT citizens. All the same, the Rabbi likely agrees with Ms. Landry and Mr. Monteverde that abstinence before marriage is favorable to abstinence within marriage!

VIva la revolucion sexual!
Rabbi Hedda LaCasa

Anonymous said...

I'm sick and tired of all those pretty Spanish casas turn into the Faux Tuscan (lack of) style. No more Mock-Med adobes! [I mean it]

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Rosco Mare said...

Hi Mama Dearest. I like this property a lot with its nice detail work. The comfortable and appropriate day-core is nice; though, I would remove a few things for more room for entertaining and decreasing the possibility of spilling coffee while maneuvering around furniture and things. MCM is usually my thing, but I'd buy this beauty if I could.

I would also restore the exterior color to a beautiful Castillian white, eradicating the Bain de Soleil Orange Gelee color that resembles the complexion of iconic fashion designer Valentino.

Carla In California said...

This house once belonged to child actor-turned-teen hearthrob Jonathan Brandis (SeaQuest, Sidekicks, Neverendindg Story II).

And yes, Roscomare, Brandis had the house Castillian White for you to enjoy. However, Ali Landry has done A LOT of changes to this house besides the paint job. I could hardly recognize this house from when Brandis lived there for four years (1998-2002).

Her old house with Mario Lopez was just down the street (Lowry) and is currently owned by a congressman/politican of some sorts. She completely redone that house with that nasty rust/black trim as well. That's the only thing I don't like about the houses she remodeled.

I like her changes-except for paint color. She has taste. I love the pergola and spa. I bet the view must be interesting since it overlooks Forest Lawn Cemetary's entrance with the big fountain as well as part of the 101 freeway. At night, the red and white lights of cars look like souls entereing and leaving the cemetary. Spooky or eery?

Good job Ali. Good luck with the next house. ;)

Anonymous said...

Nice house but at that price, who wants to deal with those horrible power lines. Check it out on google satellite.

Carla In California said...

Oops. My bad. Ali Landry's former house on 3601 Holboro was NOT with Mario Lopez but she did sell it to former NY Secretary of State Alexander Treadwell. This current house on Lowry she shares with her hubby Senor Monteverde. Sorry for the misinfo...

Alena said...

I love her style, many years ago I was actually invited to her house ( with a group) and took away many fabulous ideas....her style has just become better and better over the years...WOW...she should consider going into interior design.