Tori Spelling Settles Down (Temporarily) in Thousand Oaks

WHO: Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott
WHAT: A new lease on a huge house
WHERE: Lake Sherwood/Thousand Oaks, CA
HOW MUCH: $15,900 per month

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In case any of y'all somehow missed it all the tabs and on the blogs the last few months, Tinseltown royal turned reality tee-vee queen Tori Spelling has another bun in her oven, her fourth in five years. And what, my pretty ponies, frequently happens when a rich and/or famous person has a baby? That's right, they move house.

Case in point, earlier this week celebrity property gossips went hog wild with the news that preggers-again Miz Spelling and second husband Dean McDermott flipped the Malibu, CA residence they bought last September (2011) for $2,400,000 back on the market with an asking price of $2,675,000.

Listing broker (and Bravolebrity) Madison Hildebrand told the property gossip gals at The Wall Street Journal Tori & Dean, bought the 1.73 acre spread on Malibu's Point Dume "with every intention of staying." They added organic gardens, built a chicken coop, put in corral for a miniature horse, and installed expensive and utterly soo-blime 100-year old French oak floors. A miniature horse!?! For real?

Alas, they did not, it seems, plan to become impregnated with a fourth child and with just 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms (plus a vintage, single-wide mobile home guesthouse), there isn't room for a wealthy family of six used to living in much more sizable residential circumstances. Miz Spelling grew up, as we all know, in a grotesquely gargantuan mansion in the hoity-toity Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles—her momma Candy sold The Manor last year for $85 million to pampered 22-year old Formula One racing heiress Petra Ecclestone—and the Spelling-McDermotts moved to their petite pad in Malibu from a nearly 7,000 square foot faux-Tuscan mansion in ur-suburban Encino with 6 bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms they bought in October 2008 for $2,945,000 and sold last December (2011) for $2,500,000.

Anyhoodles poodles, current listing photos for the comparatively diminutive Spelling-McDermott digs in Malibu show the residence completely devoid of furnishings. Obviously, the couple and their growing gaggle of offspring have already moved but where, oh where, did the Spelling-McDermott clan go the children might wonder?

Well, puppies Your Mama learned yesterday from our impossibly knowledgeable amiga Lucy Spillerguts that the Spelling-McDermotts hightailed it from Point Dume over the mountains to the ex-urban community of Thousand Oaks, CA where they leased a sprawling mansion behind the guarded gates of the swanky Sherwood Country Club. We're not privy to what amount the Spelling-McDermotts agreed to shell out each month to rent the privately situated estate but evidence we conjured and cajoled out of the interweb reveals it was available for lease at $15,900 per month. The property had also been listed for sale as recently as April 2012 with a price tag of $4,995,000, reduced from $5,495,000.

Listing information we teased up out of the internets reveals the single-story, multi-winged mansion, an brick and stucco pastiche of unknowable (and unholy) architectural inspiration, sits on an elevated 2.45 acre lot accessed by a long and wide winding driveway equipped with not just one but two remote-controlled gates. Most online listings show the bulky behemoth measures 9,189 while the Ventura County Tax Man indicates it's slightly smaller at 8,739 square feet. Either way, it's humongous and at least three times the size of their little house in Malibu.

Some of the interior spaces, according to listing information we perused, have been recently remodeled and the house includes 6 bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms, a count that may or may not include any sleeping and/or terliting facilities in the detached pool/guesthouse that includes a substantial (and partially subterranean) lower level suitable for and convertible to an indoor roller skating rink, batting cage, bowling alley, fitness facility, a recording studio or live-in domestic quarters.

The expansive grounds include a circular motor court with a truly upsetting and unnecessary porte cochere supported by a quartet of columns meant to fancy the place up, a front-facing four-bay garage with room for five cars, manicured lawns, and a resort-style swimming pool and spa area with wide entertaining/dining/sunbathing patios and long views over the unnaturally green golf course, Lake Sherwood and the rugged peaks of surrounding Santa Monica Mountains.

Miz Spelling and Mister McDermott's do not lack for other high-profile neighbors they can invite over for a celebrities-only barbecue. Hockey hunk Wayne Gretzy (who sold his 12,000-plus square foot pile to Lenny Dykstra who tried to sell it for $25 million but eventually lost it down the gaping gullet of foreclosure) still owns a house in the 'hood as does tennis ace Pete Sampras (who custom built a contemporary compound in the community currently listed at $19,950,000), crooner Paul Anka, rocker Tom Petty. Pop superstar Britney Spears recently moved to the upscale enclave where she leases a substantial mansion on an elevated lot with views over the golf course, lake and mountains.

Unfortunately property records are a bit fuzzy—or maybe it's just the gin & tonic we drank for breakfast—but real estate listing aggregator Redfin shows the estate was sold to a non-celebrity couple in March 2010 for $2,700,000 by a non-celebrity woman who, innerestingly, bought it in March 2007 for $5,600,000.

aerial photo: Bing
listing photos: RE/MAX Olson & Associates via Orange County Real Estate

Your Mama Hears...

...from 90210 real estate insider Chatty Cathy that one of the several Beverly Hills mansions into which daredevil recluse Howard Hughes crash-landed his XF-11 airplane in 1946 has recently been listed with an asking price of $6,995,000.

At the time of the crash, the Wallace Neff-designed Spanish-style mansion in a decidedly desirable pocket of The Flats of Beverly Hills butted up against The Los Angeles Country Club, was owned by actress Rosemary DeCamp (Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is The Army).

Miz DeCamp and her husband were asleep when a piece of the plane's wing and a chunk or two of the neighbor's red tile roof slammed into the master bedroom. At least one neighboring home was destroyed but remarkably, neither Miz DeCamp nor her husband were injured.

Martin Scorcese created a dramatic and high-production reenactment of the crash in his five-time Oscar winning 2004 film The Aviator.

Current listing information and online virtual tour show the existing white stucco and red tile roofed residence was originally built in 1926 on a .39-acre mid-block lot, measures 6,246 square feet and includes 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms plus a staff suite. The stately and well-proportioned pad could benefit greatly, by Your Mama's humble and utterly meaningless opinion, from a deep breath of fresh decorative air. We also note with satisfaction that at least some of its original detailing has been retained such as arched doorways, iron grill work, tile accents, and exquisite hand-painted wood ceiling in the cavernous step-down formal living room that also has a wood-burning fireplace and bank of French doors the spill out to a covered terrace that overlooks the chevron-shaped swimming pool.

The property is now owned, according to Chatty Cathy, by the estate of Emmy-winning music composer Richard Stone, well known and highly regarded for having written a lot of music and catchy songs for a lot of successful Warner Bros. cartoons in the 1990s.

listing photos: Dream Home Photo for Nourmand & Associates

A New Krib in Tinseltown for Twilight's Anna Kendrick

BUYER: Anna Kendrick
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,020,000
SIZE: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It wasn't so long ago that just about any ol' reality tee-vee star and/or newly-rich neophyte Tinseltowner regularly (and perhaps foolishly) went out and dropped a couple million bucks on a flashy new house. The tide of that particular celebrity real estate trend has, perhaps, begun to turn as evidenced by the recent acquisition of a modestly sized Los Angeles, CA abode purchased—according to a well-connected source we'll call Ivana Tellyousomething—for $1,020,000 by young, genuinely talented and cute as a button Oscar-nominated actress Anna Kendrick.

Unlike many young (h)actresses in Hollywood 26-year old Miss Kendrick can actually act and knows how to massage her quirky sense of comedic timing to great effect. At just 12 years old she launched to child stardom with a Tony nomination her Broadway debut in High Society followed a number of years later by a pair of Independent Spirit Award nominations for her silver screen roles in Camp (2004) and Rocket Science (2008). She's a regular in the supernova-like successful—and presumably lucrative—Twilight Saga film franchise and she received Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations in 2010 for her supporting role in Up In The Air with George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. Her thespian chops have made her one of the the most in-demand young starlets in Tinseltown with starring roles in indie flicks such as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) and 50/50 (2011) plus a half a dozen or more projects in the hopper that include soon to be released films like The Company You Keep (with Robert Redford and Shia LaBeouf) and End of Watch (with Jake Gyllenhaal).

Property records and other online documentation Your Mama perused reveal the sellers of Miss Kendrick's new krib picked up the property in June 2009 for $550,000 and transformed the existing, ramshackle shingled cottage into a quintessentially southern California soft-contemporary with airy (if somewhat compact) interior spaces that spill out to fenced and tree-ringed outdoor living areas.

Listing information for the expanded and completely rehabbed residence, perched above the y-shaped intersection of two quiet cul-de-sacs above Beachwood Canyon, does not indicate square footage but does show the re-conceived two-story structure has 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, an attached 2-car garage with additional off-street parking, and a loft-like living area.

Deliciously variegated hickory wood floors run throughout the dwelling that includes an open plan main living space. The petite-ish living area has a wood-burning fireplace, the dining area opens through French doors to a concrete patio and tiny triangular grass patch, and an essentially all-white center-island kitchen is equipped white cabinetry, white marble counter tops, a wide window with tree top view, and—natch—the expected full complement of high-grade stainless steel appliances.

Each of the two bedrooms on the main level have sky lights and private renovated terliting and bathing facilities. The master suite, accessed by way of a tightly twisting wood staircase, occupies the entire second floor and encompasses a bedroom area, adjoining sitting room/office, slender step-out balcony with panoramic city view, celebrity-sized walk-in closet, and a bathroom with separate, free-standing soaking tub and glass-enclosed shower. The person (or persons) responsible for the design and renovation of this house must have some sort of thick exhibitionist streak because the exterior wall of the shower is punctuated by a vast ankle-to above-the-head window that Your Mama would bet a dozen donuts Miss Kendrick will soon frost or closed up.

French doors in the kitchen and on either side of the fireplace in the living room lead out to a partially covered tree house-like deck with outdoor fireplace and overhead heaters for taking the damp chill of early mornings and cool evenings.

listing photos: Michael Andrew McNamara Photography for Prudential California

Sly Stallone Flipping Out In...La Quinta?

SELLER: Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin
LOCATION: La Quinta, CA
PRICE: $4,500,000
SIZE: 5,173 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We probably wouldn't have believed it if it hadn't come from our freakishly well-informed friend and informant Lucy Spillerguts who gave Your Mama a ringy-dingy the other day to dish about eccentric action flick star Sylvester Stallone and his third wife Jennifer Flavin who flipped a mansion-sized vacation villa in the upscale California desert community of La Quinta on the market with an asking price of $4,500,000.

For those not familiar with the southern California's hot as Hades Coachella Valley: La Quinta spreads across a flat few square miles of generously watered and hence unnaturally green desert lands a few miles down the highway from Palm Springs. In the 1920s and 30s it was a remote hideaway for xenophobes and intrepid famous folks. Today it's a highly manicured resort city comprised almost exclusively of top-flight golf courses surrounded by gated golf-oriented developments with curving streets lined with eerily similar mock-Meds and faux-Tuscans owned by well-to-do snowbirds, (reasonably) wealthy retirees and etc. who—no shocker here—like to golf.

Property records show a Woodland Hills-based trust, which Miss Spillerguts swears on baby bunny rabbits is connected to Mister and Third Missus Stallone, acquired the two-story, Addison Mizner-inspired Mediterranean-style villa in January 2010 for $4,500,000.

The single-family residence in question, one of four that surrounds a shared motor court, is one of 19 similarly sized and styled luxury villas set amid the dozens of high-cost custom home sites behind the guarded gates of the hoity-toity The Madison Club where it's not uncommon for vacant lots well under an acre to list for more than two million bucks but rarely sell for anything close to that amount.


A fairly swift change of mind, or something—possibly (but not necessarily) a classic case of The Celebrity Real Estate Fickle—prompted Mister (and Third Misssus) Stallone to flip the desert abode back on the market in November 2011 with and asking price of $4,300,000. Within 10 days the price tag quickly (and inexplicably) jumped to its current $4,500,000.

Current listing information, public property records and floor plans included on The Madison Club's online portal (above) shows the 5,173 square foot villa was built in 2008, sits on a .45 acre parcel, has a total of 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, and includes a 2-car attached garage for regular automobiles plus a golf cart garage.

We're not sure what services (and etc.) the home owner's association dues cover or don't cover but listing information shows they run a hardly insubstantial $1,600 per month for the villa in question, high enough they make Your Mama's mouth run dry with—as our old pal Falsetta Knockers calls it—financial hypochondria.

A private, gated courtyard entry leads to the front door that opens in to the T-shaped main living/dining/entertaining space that includes a capacious 32-foot long "great" room with double-height wood ceiling, wood floors, colossal carved stone fireplace, multiple seating areas and multi-mullioned windows that slide open to disappear into the extra-thick walls and connect to a narrow loggia that overlooks the backyard and swimming pool.

Varied-width wood floors extend into the formal dining room through a pair of archways that flank the fireplace. A wider archway leads into the triple-wide galley-style kitchen with large center island, granite counter tops, top-grade appliances, wood-beamed ceiling, wine storage room and walk-in pantry. An adjoining space perfect for informal dining opens to both the front courtyard and a deep dining loggia equipped with a outdoor kitchen and barbecue station.

An L-shaped corridor off the kitchen/lounge eventually connects to the garage but not before passing an interior laundry room and a secluded guest or staff suite with nursery-sized walk-in closet and private bathroom. French doors that open to the front courtyard make it easy for a live-in domestic (or brazen hussy like our boozy b.f.f. Fiona Trambeau) to squirrel a beau (or no-name conquest) in and out without the homeowner being unnecessarily interrupted (or the wiser).

The main floor master suite, situated nicely for privacy off the front entrance hall behind the "great' room, has a modestly-sized bedroom with fireplace and more mullioned windows that disappear into the walls, one medium-sized walk-in closet, slender dressing hall, and  over-sized bathroom with two sinks, separate cubicle for the crapper, spa tub, and separate shower with glass door to a walled courtyard and outdoor shower.

Second floor bedrooms (and an adjoining loft sitting room) are conveniently accessed by the interior stairway in the entrance hall or via an exterior staircase in the front courtyard. One of the upstairs bedroom suites has a fireplace and both offer entry vestibules, walk-in closets, deluxe bathrooms and private terraces with views through the swaying palms and over the hyper-manicured golf course to the rugged and dramatic mountains that rise steeply and form the western border of the valley.

The kitchen/lounge and formal dining room both open to a somewhat secluded covered dining terrace outfitted with a high-grade outdoor kitchen. The wrap-around backyard has broad terraces for dining and sunbathing, a heated swimming pool lorded over by a pair of palm trees, a nearby spa and a built-in fire pit just outside the lower-level master suite.

We don't know a hammer from a sickle so really can't say if the existing day-core is the handiwork of Staging Lady in a Pink Toyota, if it reflects Mister (and Third Missus) Stallone's combined decorative tastes, or this is simply a nice-gay or lady decorator's notion of a casual but quite pricey multi-million dollar desert getaway. Whatever the case, listing information indicates—but doesn't make entirely clear—that the posh villa is offered furnished. Your Mama does not know if the more vibrantly colored contemporary art is negotiable or not nor to we know if they are works produced by Mister Stallone who—in case y'all didn't know—paints.

The Madison Club was designed, according to its own website, "In the tradition of California's classic old-line country clubs" and its many luxury amentieis include 24-7 private security, concierge services, a 56,000 square foot clubhouse with several dining options (one with a sushi bar), movie theater, billiard room, fitness center with men's and women's locker room, full-service spa facility and outdoor swimming pool complex. A croquet lawn and numerous terraces with fire pits and quiet seating areas surround the sprawling clubhouse that overlooks a meandering pond and immaculate Tom Fazio-deisgned course.


Back in Los Angeles, Mister Stallone's primary residence is a 15,121 square foot mansion the guard-gated, high-profile, whisper quiet and Beverly Park community where even the smallest of the mega mansions are positively steroidal and his nearest neighbor is octogenarian media and Showbiz tycoon Sumner Redstone.

From July 2008 until September 2011 Mister Stallone owned a waterfront compound on Lake Sherwood, near Thousand Oaks, CA. Online documentation shows the still-buff senior citizen paid $4,850,000 for the property and sold it for $4,200,000, a serious-by-any-standard $650,000 loss not counting carrying costs, improvements and real estate fees that combined easily ran into the hundreds of thousands.

For a few years in the 1990s Mister Stallone owned a 11.8 acre waterfront estate with a titanic 18,000-plus square foot mansion in the supah-swank Cliff Hammocks 'hood in Miami, FL he sold in December 1999 for $16,200,000 to local banker Leonard Abess and his wife Jane

listing photos: Hideaway Properties Corporation via Trulia
floor plan: The Madison Club