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      in Luxury

      The Former Home of a Late Hollywood Heiress Is Newly Listed at $2.8 Million

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      Barbara Warner Howard grew up in one of the most famous homes in all of Beverly Hills. Built in the 1930s by her father, entertainment industry pioneer and film executive Jack Warner, the founder of Warner Bros., the palatial Georgian-style mansion (and its ten acres of landscaped grounds) was later owned by David Geffen, who, after three decades in residence, sold up in 2020 for $165 million to Jeff Bezos.

      As the daughter of one of Hollywood’s most influential moguls, Howard lived a life sprinkled with showbiz fairy dust. So the stories go: Judy Garland sang at her Sweet 16 party, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor attended her debutante ball, and she once climbed through a window at the legendary Brown Derby restaurant to escape the wandering hands of Robert Evans.

      She later lived in Paris, where she married and divorced twice before returning to Los Angeles and marrying screenwriter and producer Cy Howard. They were married until his 1993 death. Howard eventually settled in New York City, where she became a dedicated patron of the arts and a founding member of the New York Theatre Workshop. She lived for a time in a double-height apartment at the Gainsborough Studios building on Central Park South before moving downtown to a penthouse apartment atop an old, converted hotel on lower Fifth Avenue.

      The living room offers cinematic views thanks to massive picture windows.

      Jason Harlem

      In 2004, tax records show Howard dropped $1.45 million for a house back in Los Angeles, one much more modest in scale than her childhood home. The 2,600-square-foot home, set just above Hollywood Boulevard on a prime parcel in the historic Whitley Heights neighborhood and mostly obscured behind high hedging and security gates, is elevated atop a street-level two-car garage amid lush semi-tropical landscaping. The main living spaces are on the upper level to maximize light and views.

      Howard, who died late last year at 88, sold the house in late 2013 for $1.6 million to TV producer Nick Rabb Weidenfeld and his wife Amantha. Tax records show the property last changed hands in 2021, when the Weidenfelds sold it for $2.5 million, and now the circa 1950, late Moderne-style residence is newly on the market with Tim Swan at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties for a tetch under $2.8 million.

      Dubbed “Graciebird” and listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, the property offers sweeping views that, on a clear day, extend all the way from the downtown skyline to the Pacific Ocean. Updated with in-ceiling speakers and other creature comforts, the home retains many period details. Coved ceilings in the step-down fireside library/den and in the formal dining room add sensual curves matched in the decorative wrought iron railings featured both within the house and outside along a second-floor balcony.

      The backyard is a private, courtyard-style oasis.

      Jason Harlem

      Gigantic, mullioned picture windows converge in a corner of the nearly 400-square-foot living room, making for a cinematic view of the city lights through the surrounding trees, while the eat-in kitchen is up to date and the bathrooms showcase well-preserved vintage tile work. 

      All together, there are three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms dispersed over two floors. On the lower level, along with a couple of bedrooms and baths, a family room opens to a herringbone-pattern brick patio amid lush tropical plantings.

      The narrow, winding streets of the Whitley Heights neighborhood have long been popular with entertainment industry movers and shakers. Golden Age icons like Carole Lombard, Carmen Miranda, Rudolph Valentino, Ronald Reagan, and Charlie Chaplin all resided in the hilly enclave, as have modern-day film and TV stars Ellen Pompeo, Busy Philipps, Rachel Bilson, and Ginnifer Goodwin.

      Click here for all the images of 2019 Grace Avenue.

      Jason Harlem More

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      This One-Time Hollywood Hills Home of Celebrity Photographer Herb Ritts Can Be Yours

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      A lofty Hollywood Hills villa that Herb Ritts once called home just popped up for sale high above the Sunset Strip, asking a click under $8.4 million; and it’s every bit as sublime as the late photographer’s images capturing the likes of Olivia Newton John, Madonna, Cindy Crawford and many more notable personalities—complete with museum-quality furnishings, plus sweeping views of the Griffith Observatory, city lights and ocean beyond.

      “The property presents a peaceful tranquility to be experienced while living in a midcentury art-deco work of art,” says Ernie Carswell, who holds the listing with Spencer Daley, both of Douglas Elliman. “For purists, there is nothing finer.”

      The Hollywood Hills home is fronted by a walled and gated court entry boasting an organic vegetable garden.

      Brian Kaplan

      Ritts acquired the 1936-built premises at the start of the 2000s—shortly before his death in 2002 at age 50—and then undertook an extensive remodel and expansion that added a cabana entertainment room with a full kitchen and bath that could easily serve as a guest suite if needed, as well as an additional bedroom and bath for staff that could be accessed via its own entrance.

      Per Carswell, there have been four owners since Ritts’ tenure, all of whom meticulously maintained the residence; and the current owners even added high-tech amenities and security features, such as armored windows and “James Bond-level” surveillance, he says.

      Resting atop a promontory, amid a secluded cul-de-sac parcel spanning almost a half-acre, the white stucco structure is fronted by an attached two-car garage, and offers a total of five bedrooms and six baths in a little more than 4,200 square feet of two-level living space boasting dark hardwood floors, high ceilings and steel-case French doors spilling out to a wraparound balcony. There also are plenty of original museum-quality furnishings by the likes of Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier, Serge Mouille and Pierre Jeanneret that are all available for purchase.

      Furnishings crafted by French designers ranging from Jean Prouvé to Pierre Jeanneret are available for purchase separately from the home’s sale price.

      Brian Kaplan

      A walled and gated courtyard entryway centered around an organic vegetable garden leads to the main level, which features a living room/library sporting a concealed motorized screen, projector and surround sound for movie nights. Other highlights include a wet bar-equipped den, formal dining room with built-in banquette, and galley-style kitchen decked out with custom cherry wood cabinetry and high-end Sub-Zero and Viking appliances, plus a breakfast nook on one side and lounge with a wine fridge on the other.

      All of the bedrooms can be found on the lower level, including a spacious primary retreat displaying a private balcony, walk-in closets, and a tiled bath spotlighted by dual vanities, a fitted tub and glass-encased shower. As for the outdoors, the private grounds are laced with specimen trees, and host a black-bottom pool flanked by a sundeck and an al fresco dining patio; and, per the listing, the sale also comes with architectural plans for a two-story ADU/guesthouse to be built on the property, as well as permits for a Tesla Solar Roof that can provide off-grid power for the entire house.

      Click here to see more photos of 8724 St. Ives Drive. More

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      This $11 Million Vintage Bel Air Home Comes With an Impressive Hollywood Pedigree

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      Mia Farrow, 78, is best known for her role in the 1968 horror film “Rosemary’s Baby” and as Woody Allen’s former paramour. She did not, however, spring from nowhere to inhabit such rarefied showbiz circles. She was, in fact, born into it, her parents being showbiz legends in their own time. Her father, John Farrow, was an Oscar-winning film director from Australia, and her mother, Irish-born actress Maureen O’Sullivan, is most often remembered as Jane Parker in six “Tarzan” films between 1932 and 1942.

      In the mid-1930s, nearly a decade before Mia was born, Farrow and O’Sullivan hired architect Arlos R. Sedgley to design them a Monterey Colonial-style home along Chalon Road, one of the best streets in Bel Air. Called Greystoke Cottage, a designation signified on a plaque over the front door, the house sits on more than half an acre of naturalistic grounds.

      The dining room is enlivened with yellow floral curtains and an antique chandelier.

      Anthony Barcelo

      Tax records show the house was later owned by film and television composer Bruce Broughton, who sold it to the current owner in 2018 for almost $5.7 million. Now, after being renovated and worked over with interiors by designer John Cottrell, the historic home is back on the market for $10.9 million.

      In addition to a 29-foot-long living room and a separate dining room, highlights of the home’s main floor include a wood-paneled office/library, a spacious eat-in kitchen with a fireside lounge, and a media room that showcases a chevron-patterned vaulted wood ceiling and a trio of floor-to-ceiling French doors that open to a wrought-iron railed Juliet balcony.

      The gardens of Greystoke Cottage offer a private idyll in the heart of Bel Air.

      Anthony Barcelo

      Floor plans for the two-story home indicate there are four bedrooms and four bathrooms, plus a couple of powder rooms. The main-floor primary suite offers a fireplace, a roomy bath, a couple of walk-in closets, and a wraparound veranda. Another covered veranda outside the kitchen, dining room, and office/library has steps that lead down to a lower terrace for alfresco dining and lounging.

      Flagstone paths and stairways wind through the estate’s densely planted gardens below the back of the house. They lead to the swimming pool, along with several secluded patios hidden among the dense foliage and mature trees in a landscape by Tichenor & Thorpe Architects.

      The Tinseltown-pedigreed property is available via Jeffrey Hobgood and Allen Roth, both with Sotheby’s International Realty.

      Click here to see all the photos of 10770 Chalon Road. More

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      This Media Mogul’s Sprawling Hollywood Hills Estate Just Hit the Market for $60 Million

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      In early 1987, Mexican media tycoon Emilio Azcarraga Milmo paid $2.3 million for the famed Sunset Plaza Apartments building. Located in the lower Hollywood Hills just a short walk north of the Sunset Boulevard, the 1930s structure was designed by prominent architect Paul R. Williams and occupied through the decades by a litany of Tinseltown stars: Carole Lombard, Charles Farrell, Katharine Hepburn, Mitzi Gaynor and Bernadette Peters, to name a few.

      Months after acquiring the building, Milmo demolished it to build a lavish private estate that became his part-time residence. Designed by noted Mexican architect Tomas Cajiga, the hacienda-style compound was completed in 1990. Following Azcarraga Milmo’s 1997 death from pancreatic cancer, that estate was put up for sale at $16 million, though the ask was eventually slashed to $10 million. After the property did not sell, it eventually became a residence of Milmo’s son, billionaire Emilio Azcarraga Jean.

      Now offered at a whopping $60 million, indicative of how home values in the surrounding area have soared, the property is an anomaly in many ways. After all, 2.3 acres of usable land is an extremely rare find in the tightly-packed Hollywood Hills, particularly on a property so close to the Sunset Strip and West Hollywood. The estate’s gardens are also some of the most elaborate and manicured in the entire surrounding neighborhood, more akin to a palatial estate in Holmby Hills or Beverly Park.

      The estate includes an 11,000-square-foot main house, plus a separate guesthouse.

      Google

      The setting is also quirky. Though impressively private thanks to enormous hedge walls and mature trees, the house sits directly across the street from a large apartment complex, and it’s immediately next door to a spacious parking lot used by businesses on one of the Sunset Strip’s busiest blocks.

      Perhaps that’s why, despite the sky-high $60 million price tag, the place is being marketed as a development opportunity. According to the listing, which provides no interior photos of the residence, the estate is “an ideal canvas for visionary developers” and could be used to construct several new homes or multiple apartment buildings.

      But much like the loss of the Sunset Plaza Apartments, destruction of the Azcarraga Milmo estate would be a shame. Featuring appointments “suitable for royalty,” the Mexican Colonial-style property includes two dining rooms adorned with hand-cut stone and centuries-old wood beams, a chef’s kitchen, wine cellar and a library. Outside, stunningly sculpted grounds are decorated by the aforementioned lush gardens, grassy lawns and numerous fountains. There’s also a rectangular swimming pool abutted by a stone patio. And in addition to the 11,000-square-foot main house, the property includes a 2,000-square-foot guesthouse and off-street parking for more than 20 cars.

      Alejandro Aldrete and Mauricio Umansky of The Agency share the listing.

      Azcarraga Jean remains chairman of Televisa, Mexico’s largest television broadcasting company, though in 2018 he stepped away from the CEO role following two decades at the reins. The 55-year-old owns a number of other homes around the world; in 2016, he reduced the asking price of his 257-foot yacht from $144 million to $102 million. More

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      Inside a $6.4 Million Encino Mansion That’s Been Home to LeBron James, Megan Fox and More

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      You can’t swing a cat on a tree-lined street in one of the more coveted zip codes across Los Angeles without running into a lavishly appointed home that has been owned or rented by a showbiz mover and shaker. And, in upscale Encino, the semi-suburban San Fernando Valley enclave long popular with celebs, a gated mansion listed at $6.4 million has been home to many.

      Now owned by Canadian recording artist and real estate investor Betty Moon, who acquired the property with her late husband almost a decade ago for $3.54 million, according to tax records, the popular-with-famous-folks home has at various times been occupied by Lebron James, Cardi B, Megan Fox, and Machine Gun Kelly. It has also been featured in films and TV shows that include “Lethal Weapon” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.”

      The formal dining room.

      Wayne Ford

      Originally built in 1960 and substantially updated and upgraded since, the Mediterranean-inspired residence sits on more than half an acre of landscaped grounds. Beyond the fancifully curlicued iron gates and driveway that circles up around a three-tiered fountain, the home’s many living and entertaining spaces include a double-height fireside sitting room and a double-height formal dining room. 

      In the family room, with a built-in media center and a wet bar, glass doors lead to the backyard, and in the eat-in kitchen, there are up-to-date stainless-steel appliances and a huge island with an integrated snack bar. Elsewhere are a card/billiards room, a 12-seat home theater, a library/office, and a gym.

      Among the spacious bedrooms are an expansive primary suite replete with a double-sided fireplace between the sitting room and bedroom, a fitted walk-in closet, and an oversized marble bathroom with a built-in armoire for bath linens and toiletries.

      The sports court.

      Wayne Ford

      The ample grounds, which include more than 40 fruit trees of various types, provide all the bells and whistles. In the terraced backyard, alongside the swimming pool and spillover spa, there’s an awning shaded outdoor kitchen and bar. On an upper terrace, an open-air pavilion is enshrouded in lush greenery and flowering plants, and on the uppermost terrace—pickleball aficionados take note—there’s a sports court bordered by a stone balustrade.

      Moon’s southern California properties include multimillion-dollar homes in Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, and Malibu. According to the New York Post, she owns Cary Grant’s former home in Holmby Hills, which she recently rented out for $35,000 a month, and Isaac Tigrett, the co-founder of the Hard Rock Café and House of Blues franchises, is renting one of her Malibu properties.

      The Encino property is listed with Sally Forster Jones and Tomer Fridman at Compass.

      Click here to see all the photos of 16020 Valley Vista Boulevard. More

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      French Montana’s Sprawling Los Angeles Mansion Hits the Market Nearly $23 Million

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      Moroccan-born rapper French Montana, born Karim Kharbouch, is saying goodbye to his Los Angeles home.

      The “Unforgettable” artist first purchased the home in late 2020 from basketball player Paul George, a forward on the Los Angeles Clippers, for $8.4 million, and is now spinning off the home for a whopping $22.75 million. After purchasing the home, he embarked on an extensive remodel with Iqosa Interior and Architecture Design to suit his vision for the property.

      The great room.

      Mike Kelley courtesy of The Fridman Group

      The home is located in the exclusive guard-gated enclave called Ashley Ridge, part of the glitzy, celebrity-filled Hidden Hills community. It’s sited on a 1.5-acre parcel of land, and you’re welcomed in via a private circular driveway with lush, manicured landscaping and towering mature trees with leafy canopies. The residence spans 16,000 square feet and has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, ideal for those who love to entertain or those with a large family. 

      The custom-built estate features bespoke wooden ceilings and oak beams, limestone floors, grand skylights, custom lighting, carved wooden doors, and marble fireplaces. No detail or expense was spared when it came to materiality. There are also floor-to-ceiling windows and custom glass sliding doors that overlook the pastoral grounds and welcome in plenty of natural light. There’s a spacious chef’s kitchen, which feels bright and airy thanks to vaulted beamed ceilings and open skylights. The home has a minimalist, natural aesthetic with indoor greenery at every turn.

      The chef’s kitchen.

      Mike Kelley courtesy of The Fridman Group

      The heart of the home is the 4,000-square-foot great room with vaulted wooden ceilings, motorized skylights, sliding glass doors that open to the backyard, a bar, and two large living areas with fireplaces. The primary suite is also of note and occupies a wing of the house. There are vaulted wooden ceilings, a two-sided fireplace, a lounge with a kitchenette, massive walk-in closet, and a spa-like bathroom with a built-in sofa near the glass-enclosed shower and soaking tub. 

      Amenities include a movie theater, gym, steam shower, wrapping room, bonus room, library, walk-in wine cellar, outdoor kitchen, custom barbecue, fire pit, fountains, five-car garage, RV storage space, and a full-size basketball court. The outdoor areas are resort-like with a pool and spa, stone deck, incredible landscaping, and an outdoor entertainment area with a music and TV center. There  are also fruit and shade trees located throughout the property.

      The primary suite.

      Mike Kelley courtesy of The Fridman Group

      According to listing agent Tomer Fridman of The Fridman Group at Compass, Montana is deciding to sell so he can focus on expanding his portfolio globally, possibly in Miami, New York, and Paris. 

      Click here for more photos of French Montana’s L.A. house. 

      Mike Kelley courtesy of The Fridman Group More

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      Rod Stewart’s Maximalist $70 Million L.A. Château Comes With Its Own Soccer Field

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      It seems like Rod Stewart no longer thinks his Los Angeles mansion is all that sexy.

      The British rock star just listed his massive North Beverly Park estate for an eye-popping $70 million, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Listing agent Michelle Oliver of Douglas Elliman wouldn’t say why Stewart had decided to give up his abode, which he bought in 1991 for a mere $12 million, and the musician’s spokesperson didn’t respond to the WSJ’s request for comment.

      The great room

      Ryan Lahiff

      The nine-bedroom main house was designed by the architect Richard Landry to look like a European château, with an imposing yellow exterior and double doors. To get to the building, you have to navigate down a long driveway featuring a motor court with a classical fountain. Once inside, you’re greeted by marble floors and Corinthian columns—ornate details that continue throughout the house, in touches such as wood paneling and crystal chandeliers.

      The primary suite contains a large sitting room, spacious closets, and a fireplace, with an outdoor terrace that looks out over the pool. The rest of the house, meanwhile, is ideal for entertaining: A formal dining room has space for 20, and a great room on the main floor comes with a bar and a raised platform where a grand piano currently sits. Elsewhere, there’s a stately library and a speakeasy decked out in green wood paneling.

      The pool area

      Ryan Lahiff

      Outside, on the almost three acres of land, you’ll find a three-story guesthouse and a full-on soccer field (Stewart is apparently a major fan of footie, according to Oliver). If you prefer indoor exercise, you can choose between two gyms on the property.

      Recently, Stewart’s former neighbor Mark Wahlberg sold his Beverly Park home for $55 million, although he had initially listed it for $87.5 million. In that same vein, Stewart’s 33,000-square-foot estate pairs its ostentatious price tag with similarly maximalist decor. But unlike the mega-expensive L.A. homes that lean modern, Oliver told The Wall Street Journal, Stewart’s manse is “something that looks different and stands out . . . This is truly bespoke.” We wouldn’t expect anything less from the man who made a hit of “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?”

      Click here to see all the images of Rod Stewart’s home. More