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      in Luxury

      The Founder of the Fear of God Label Has His Designer-Done L.A. Home Listed for $14.9 Million

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      Having stitched up a $20 million deal for a snazzy compound in Beverly Hills earlier this year, fashion designer Jerry Lorenzo, founder of the high-brow streetwear label Fear of God, has hoisted his perfectly tailored home in L.A.’s Los Feliz neighborhood on the market for $14.9 million.

      Originally built in the 1930s for the Ralph family, the founders of the Ralph’s grocery store chain, now owned by Kroger, the Spanish-style home sits on Nottingham Avenue, one of the neighborhood’s more coveted streets. It was later owned by soap star Ronn Moss (The Bold and the Beautiful), who sold up in 2015 to political operative Paul Manafort and his son-in-law Jeffrey Yohai. Long story short, Manafort got into a tussle with the government and the house was seized and sold to a couple of Hollywood managers who spent a year renovating before they flipped it in 2018 for $8.495 million to Lorenzo and his wife Desiree Manuel.

      The street-style style icon has subsequently given the place a total makeover spearheaded by Kathleen and Tommy Clements, who remade the interiors into what marketing materials describe as “a world of refined beauty, where warm-toned interiors and carefully curated finishes create an atmosphere of understated luxury.” The listing is held by Tyrone McKillen of Plus Real Estate Group.

      RELATED: A Well-Preserved 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival Manor Is Up for Grabs in L.A.

      The dining room is embellished with the original carved wood ceiling.

      Shade Degges

      Between the main house, guesthouse and poolside loggia, there’s about 7,200 square feet dressed in muted tones and soft textiles that reflect Lorenzo’s dedication to quiet luxury. Spare and refined but too plush and moody to be minimalist, the home features travertine-lined archways and variegated chevron-pattern parquet flooring throughout the main and upper floors. The spacious foyer’s focal point is a swooping staircase that echoes the sensual and precise drapes and shapes of Lorenzo’s clothing designs, and the formal sitting room is fashionable, if not especially formal, while the dining room features a baronial fireplace and a carved wood ceiling, both coated in the same milky beige color as the walls.

      Elsewhere, the eat-in kitchen is laid out around a doublewide island with a prep sink with white oak cabinetry, gourmet appliances and grey flannel-colored countertops and backsplashes shot through with lightning bolt-like streaks. A nearby lounge with floor-to-ceiling walls of glass looks out over the backyard

      A window-lined seating area spills out to the backyard.

      Shade Degges

      RELATED: Pee-Wee Herman’s Personal Playhouse in L.A. Could Be Yours for $5 Million

      Five bedrooms and seven bathrooms are dispersed across the one-third-acre property. One guest bedroom, done up as a study, has French doors to a column-supported loggia, while the primary suite is a private retreat with a fireplace, a sleek, compartmentalized bath, and a two-room closet and dressing area.

      At the back of the house, a vine-draped pergola shades a poolside terrace. There’s a sports court between the main house and a detached two-story guesthouse situated at the back of the property next to the swimming pool. On the opposite side of the yard is a sunken spa and a dining pergola.

      Click here for more photos of Jerry Lorenzo’s Los Feliz Home.

      Shade Degges More

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      in Luxury

      Pee-Wee Herman’s Personal Playhouse in L.A. Could Be Yours for $5 Million

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      Ten months after his death at age 70, the Los Angeles estate of actor, comedian, writer, and producer Paul Reubens—best known for his childlike, red bow tie-wearing alter-ego Pee-wee Herman—is available for the first time in almost four decades, asking just under $5 million. Built in the late 1950s and boasting nearly 3,000 square feet of living space, the midcentury ranch house sits atop a promontory in the sought-after Oaks neighborhood of Los Feliz and comes complete with views of the Griffith Park Observatory and the iconic Hollywood Sign from nearly every vantage point.

      A California Institute of the Arts theater student and member of West Coast comedy troupe The Groundlings—where he originated his Pee-wee character in the 1970s—Reubens went on to become a film and TV sensation in the ’80s, starring in The Pee-wee Herman Show, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Big Top Pee-wee, and Pee-wee’s Playhouse. The recipient of a 1988 Hollywood Walk of Fame star, he’s also known for his work on Mystery Men, Blow, and Murphy Brown, the latter of which earned him an Emmy nod.

      Though his image was somewhat tarnished in later years due to a couple of arrests—one for indecent exposure and another for possessing obscene material—he subsequently appeared in a new version of The Pee-wee Herman Show at L.A.’s Club Nokia and on Broadway, as well as the movie Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.

      A glass-lined living room spills out to the backyard.

      Sam Wadieh

      As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Reubens purchased the home for a mere $415,000 in 1985, at the height of his career, and resided there until he passed away in July 2023. Fully gated and resting at the end of a lengthy private road, the single-story structure is nestled amid a 1.4-acre parcel and features three bedrooms and an equal number of baths, plus restored yet largely original interiors boasting slate floors, wood-beam ceilings, and vintage wallpaper throughout.

      A cozy den is warmed by a massive stone fireplace.

      Sam Wadieh

      Among the highlights are a fireside living room and an adjacent dining area with sliding glass doors leading out to the backyard. A “snazzy” den has a stone fireplace and a wet bar, while a kitchen is outfitted with yellow Formica countertops and an accompanying breakfast nook. There’s also a primary suite appointed with a seating alcove, a separate dressing area, and a bath that opens to an enclosed patio Reubens built to protect his cat Koko from the surrounding wildlife, along with two guest bedrooms that share a bath.

      Reubens used to entertain friends at this al fresco barbecue area.

      Sam Wadieh

      In addition to a swimming pool and a spa, the park-like grounds are laced with more than 100 varieties of native shrubs and trees and host a barbecue area, a pergola-shaded lounging spot, a cactus garden, walking trails, and a waterfall that flows into a pond. An added bonus: a concrete patio sporting actual handprints signed by the likes of the comic’s friend and actress Debi Mazar.

      In another celebrity-related connection, Reubens’s estate is also sited near two adjacent homes owned by Emmy-winning actress and stand-up comedian Sarah Silverman—one she bought nearly four years ago for $3.5 million and another she just picked up for $2.1 million.

      The listing is held by Juliette Hohnen of Douglas Elliman.

      Click here for more photos of Paul Reubens’s house.

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      in Luxury

      Halsey Buys a Spanish Colonial Revival Classic in Los Angeles

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      You could say Halsey is on a real estate roll. Three months ago, the “Without Me” singer sold her lavish estate near Calabasas for nearly $12 million; almost immediately following that, she paid $700,000 over the asking price for a gem of a house in Laurel Canyon. Now she’s done it again — dropping an impressive $5 million on an impeccably restored Spanish Colonial Revival house in Los Feliz.

      Located almost directly across the street from one of the most popular Griffith Park entrance points, the house was built in the late 1920s for restaurateur and civic reformer Clifford Clinton and designed by architect Arthur W. Larson. In 2011, the longtime Clinton family was awarded Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument status.

      Although it’s located on a very busy roadway, the nearly 6,000-square-foot house sits behind tall fences and stucco-clad walls. Inside, a coffered wood front door opens to a magnesite-tiled foyer, to the right of which is a formal living room featuring a grand fireplace, a stained glass picture window, coffered ceilings, and French doors that lead to a tiled veranda. To the left of the foyer is a formal dining room with coved ceilings, another stained glass picture window, and peg and groove hardwood floors.

      Across the hallway is an stylish office that showcases a curved fireplace, hand-stenciled ceilings, gorgeous woodwork, leaded-glass windows, and coat-of-arms sconces. Further down the hall is the butler’s pantry with wood countertops, an original zinc sink, and original Deco tile in robin’s egg blue, the kitchen, outfitted with a snazzy La Cornue range and a refurbished original Frigidaire refrigerator, and a sunny magnesite-tiled breakfast room.

      Upstairs are four bedroom suites with glorious original-tile baths in a variety of hues, built-in vanities, and “wedding cake” ornamental plaster. Also on this floor are multiple cedar closet, including one containing a very early version of a fire extinguisher, a sunroom, and multiple Juliet balconies offering city views. The sprawling home also has a plush home theater with a starry-night-sky ceiling and seating for six.

      Exterior amenities include an colorfully-tiled swimming pool, a sun deck, a bath house, a dining pavilion, and a three-car garage. Halsey also scored a deal on the property, securing the 0.34-acre estate for $800,000 under the $5.8 million asking price. More

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      in Luxury

      Ashley Benson Sells Her Historic Los Angeles Villa for $8.5 Million

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      Barely one month after she put it up for grabs, Ashley Benson’s Los Angeles home has officially sold. The 1930s Los Feliz residence, tucked away within the famously star-studded Laughlin Park gated community, went for $8.5 million — lower than the “Pretty Little Liars” star’s $9.5 million asking price, but far more than the $4.5 million she paid for the place back in 2020.

      Records show the buyers are Scott Parra-Matthews, the longtime CFO of major food wholesaler Vesta Foodservice, and his husband Jairo Parra-Matthews.

      During her ownership, Benson gave the property a big and very thorough remodel. In addition to bathing each room in vibrantly decadent colors, she also ripped out and replaced the entire kitchen, renovated the bathrooms and generally gave the whole place a new and very contemporary lease on life. And even the outdoors didn’t escape the magic Benson touch — the Orange County native added a high wall that surrounds the entire property, installed privacy hedges and even replaced the old swimming pool with a newer and sexier pool, complete with a big raised hot tub. “No money was spared during the recent remodel,” the listing proclaimed.

      Designed nearly a century ago by prolific L.A. architect Arthur Rowland Kelly, best known for also penning the Playboy Mansion, the nearly 5,000-square-foot house was modeled after the Mediterranean-style villas that lace the French and Italian Rivieras. Despite its age, Benson is reportedly only the Laughlin Park home’s fourth-ever owner.

      While plenty of original charm remains, those Benson upgrades are very bespoke. Some of the more unusual amenities include a hair salon, a speakeasy “VIP lounge bar” and a wood-paneled master bedroom with its own kitchenette and boutique-style closet. The master bath features separate greenhouse-like stations for the shower/tub area and the toilet, respectively, and other in-house upgrades include a dropdown projector screen and a state-of-the-art Control4 smart home system.

      The cul-de-sac property is atypical in that is surrounded on three sides by a roadway, meaning that outdoor space is somewhat limited, but there is a big and new stone patio with ample space for al fresco entertaining, plus a grassy patch of lawn. One extra-special feature: per this listing, this house is perched on a knoll at the very highest point of Laughlin Park, meaning it lords over all the neighbors and sports 360-degree views that encompass the Griffith Observatory, the Hollywood Hills and Downtown L.A. skyline.

      Laughlin Park has long been a favorite haunt of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Current residents include Brie Larson, Natalie Portman, Angelina Jolie, Kristen Stewart, Ellen Pompeo and Will.i.am, though the enclave is perhaps most famous for having been home to Cecil B. DeMille, the American cinema pioneer, for nearly 40 years. More

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      The Producer of ‘Kung Fu Panda’ Just Listed Her 1920s Spanish Colonial in Los Feliz for $11.5 Million

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      After barely four years of ownership, Melissa Cobb has decided to hoist her elegant residence in a prime Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles onto the market. And, according to the listing held by Marci Kays and Jonathan Mogharrabi of Carolwood Estates, the glam Spanish-style mansion “truly embodies Hollywood’s golden era.”

      The veteran entertainment industry executive—probably best known for producing the Kung Fu Panda franchise—is asking a speck under $11.5 million for the multi-level digs she picked up for nearly $6.4 million back in fall 2019.

      Originally commissioned by wealthy entrepreneur William C. Hay and completed by architect Charles C. Kyson in the early 1920s, the premises were prominently featured in a 1925 Architectural Digest article. The place recently underwent an extensive renovation courtesy of its previous owner, with Cobb also sprucing up the grounds during her tenure.

      The Spanish Colonial home is fronted by an inviting entryway lined with lush foliage.

      Andrew Bramasco

      Nestled on a gated hillside parcel spanning over a half-acre, the stucco and terra-cotta-roof structure features five bedrooms and five baths in almost 5,500 square feet of living space, all of it flaunting stylish interiors accented with a mix of hardwood and marble floors, hand-painted oak doors and stained-glass windows throughout.

      A walkway passes through a lushly landscaped yard before emptying out at an ornate wood front door, which leads into an entry foyer displaying a “scene-stealing” staircase topped by a barrel-vaulted ceiling. From there, highlights include a soaring fireside living room resting beneath a hand-painted coffered ceiling, and a step-down den and seated wet bar.

      The fireside living room is adorned with an ornamental fireplace, a hand-painted coffered ceiling, and French doors spilling outside.

      Andrew Bramasco

      A formal dining room sporting wood paneling imported from England and an ornamental tracery ceiling opens to a second-level veranda, and the gourmet kitchen is outfitted with high-end appliances, an eat-in island and a cozy breakfast nook. Elsewhere are a family room, library, wine cellar, home offices and staff accommodations, along with an oversized primary bedroom that houses a fireplace, an elevated closet, and a spa-inspired bath equipped with dual vanities, a soaking tub and glass-encased shower.

      Outdoors, the grounds are laced with fruit trees, terraces and gravel pathways leading to secluded gathering spaces, and host a sunken fire-pit lounge and private pool flanked by a grassy lawn centered around a period fountain. There’s also a street-level garage for three vehicles—all just minutes away from the Griffith Observatory and Greek Theatre.

      Cobb joined Netflix as head of kids and family in 2017 and went on to gain recognition for helping to build the company’s animation studio. In 2022, after acquiring The Lego Movie animation studio Animal Logic, the former DreamWorks executive stepped down as vice president of animation film and currently serves as a producer for Netflix.

      Click here for more photos of Melissa Cobb’s home. More