Thursday, May 3, 2012

Thursday This and Thats: Reese Witherspoon

Reports out of the U.K. suggest newly wedded, (allegedly) preggers and Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line, Legally Blonde, and Election), may have scooped up a new house in the uppity Bel Air area of Los Angeles. The real estate scuttlebutt from across the pond has spread like wildfire in the States but, all due respect to our property gossip compadres, we're not convinced this isn't all just a bunch of hooey and hot air.

Yes, a new spouse and/or a new baby often presages a new house for the pampered and highly paid denizens of Tinseltown. But, Miz Witherspoon, despite spending more than $21,000,000 on her residential real estate portfolio, doesn't strike Your Mama as the type to uproot her family just because there's a new bun in her oven.

Since late 2003 Miz Witherspoon has owned and occupied a gated, 6,956 square foot mansion on a tight corner lot in a leafy, gated enclave in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles just north of Sunset Boulevard and below the gleaming Getty Center. She paid, according to the property records we peeped, $4,725,000 for the then almost brand new 5 bedroom and 6 bathroom mock-Med manse (shown above in 2004).

In May 2009 she dropped another $3,325,000, according to property records, to pick up a down-on-its-heels contemporary residence next door, since razed and replaced with terraced gardens and a small, gated parking pad.

The following August (2010) Miz Witherspoon, through the same trust associated with her Brentwood properties, quietly paid eccentric (and sort of frightening) actor Steven Seagal $6,900,000 for a 2.53 acre estate tucked down a long, gated driveway in a perfectly private hollow in the bucolic (and expensive) Mandeville Canyon area between Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. At the time of the sale, the equestrian-friendly property encompassed stables, swimming pool, flat lawns, a riding ring, and an existing Spanish-style casa built, as per the L.A. County Tax Man, in 1937 with 7 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms in 6,125 square feet (above).

Miz Witherspoon also owns an almost 6,500 square foot faux-French Provincial residence in Nashville, TN (above, top) where she spent her childhood and where, as fer as we know, her parents still live. She also maintains a stunning 7-acre ranch in Ojai, CA (above, bottom)—bought from Million Dollar Decorator Kathryn Irelend in March 2008 for $5,800,000—where she and Mister Toth were married last year in an intimate ceremony attended by a considerable cadre of celebrities.

So what gives?

Iffin we had to hazard a guess—and it is, to be sure, only a guess based on little more than clouds of pink cotton candy—we'd guess Miz Witherspoon( and Mister Toth) have planned or embarked on some renovation or another to one of their several homes and merely visited the aforementioned, currently under-renovation residence in Bel Air in order to get a good look-see at samples of the handiwork of one or more artisans and/or contractors. Make of all this nonsense what you will but our money is on Miz Witherspoon et famille stayin' put.

photos: Pacific Coast News

7 comments:

Shopgirl said...

I would not be at all surprised if she blew out the old Brentwood digs. If she previously lived in the home with her ex-hubby, I could see why the new mr. & mrs would want to start fresh.

Anonymous said...

My understanding is that she has been living in the Mandeville Canyon house. The Brentwood house just north of Sunset was where she lived with the ex.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Mama on this one. I see her all around Brentwood, esp at the Country Mart. I'm guessing she takes yoga classes at Maha and parks at the Country Mart when she jogs. I can't picture her moving to Bel Air. Bel Air isn't far from Brentwood, but at certain times of day, traffic can be intense. But perhaps she'll do her jogging at the UCLA track, who knows?

Ann Romney Stay at Home Mom said...

Love her Mandeville Canyon and Ojai estates. That's how you spend good money.

I do see her as a Bel Air gal than a BH's sycophant though!

Anonymous said...

The story is in The Daily Mail Online, with an accompanying picture of her walking around a house in construction is the house you show as being the one she owns below the Getty. She's clearly renovating the house. So somebody made up a story, either knowing full well that she was inspecting her own property or they were just clueless. But since you say this is in a gated enclave, I'd have to go with construction worker.

Anonymous said...

@5:39

I'd have to go with construction worker.

I think this goes in the Ryan Seacrest post. :)

Anonymous said...

She's very pregnant there's no allegedly about it. I wouldn't be surprised if baby is born before fall.

I agree with construction worker