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      Home of the Week: Gene Simmons’s $22 Million LA Mansion Was Made for Lovin’ You

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      Tongue-wagging rock legend Gene Simmons is kissing goodbye the Beverly Hills mansion he’s owned for 36 years. After paying $1.34 million for the property back in 1984, it’s now on the market for $22 million.
      Why sell? It seems Simmons, 71, and his actress and model wife, Shannon Tweed Simmons, are relocating to tax-free Washington State to escape what Simmons calls California’s “unacceptable” taxes.

      They’re giving up their stately 16,000-square-foot, three-story European-style home in the celebrity enclave of Benedict Canyon, to move to a 24-acre estate the couple owns close to Washington State’s Mount Rainer.

      When they originally bought the 1.84-acre hilltop property in Los Angeles, it came with just a rustic ranch home. They proceeded to spend five years and a reported $12 million replacing it with this majestic, though decidedly un-rock-star-looking home completed in 2000.
      Simmons’ Beverly Hills estate has a pool with waterslide and a tennis court.  Photo: Christopher Amitrano

      Extensively featured on the long-running A&E reality series Gene Simmons Family Jewels, the home has seven bedrooms, seven baths, a pro-size tennis court, a pool with a 60-foot water slide and parking for 30-plus cars.
      But prospective buyers might have to imagine what three of the bedrooms could look like. That’s because right now they’re being used to house the fire-breathing rocker’s mind-blowing collection of KISS memorabilia. They are jam-packed with everything from music awards and KISS-branded pinball machines to guitars and an endless array of KISS toys and figurines.
      The grand foyer.  Photo: Christopher Amitrano

      In a YouTube video on the collection, Simmons boasts: “We have more than 5,000 licensed products. Everything from KISS condoms to KISS caskets.” Sadly, for KISS fans, the collection is not included in the sale.
      One of the best-selling rock bands of all time, the group was founded by Simmons and guitarist Paul Stanley in the early 1970s. Since then, the rockers, known for their outrageous makeup and pyrotechnic stage shows, have sold more than 75 million albums.
      A 40-foot window marks the entryway.  Photo: Christopher Amitrano

      To reach the house, imposing security gates open from snaking Benedict Canyon Drive to a wide driveway and up to a huge circular motor court and a trio of garages.
      With towering hedgerows on three sides and a densely wooded area directly behind the home, the compound is well-hidden from prying eyes—and what Simmons has described as “buses with well-meaning tourists from Sandusky, Ohio.”

      The living room.  Photo: Christopher Amitrano

      Grand sweeping steps on either side of the garages lead up to the home’s imposing twin front doors. The foyer has a showpiece 40-foot-high window and a sweeping staircase topped by a gorgeous glass-domed ceiling
      The huge open-concept living room features Simmons’ grand piano, a cozy fireplace and big, overstuffed sofas, one of which is an unusual back-to-back design.
      The kitchen.  Photo: Christopher Amitrano

      Having raised two kids at the home—comic book creator Nick Simmons is now 31; sister Sophie, 28, is an actor and singer—the open-plan kitchen is truly family-sized. Simple in design, it features white country-cottage cabinets, wood floors and marble countertops.
      Upstairs, the primary suite with its vaulted ceiling is unpretentious, with its simple furniture, wide-planked floor and arched doorways. A rock star’s retreat it’s not.
      The dining room.  Photo: Christopher Amitrano

      Outside, the surprisingly small pool area is shielded by towering trees and includes a rustic, stone patio and stone-edged spa.
      Israeli-born Simmons, estimated by Money Inc. to be worth about $300 million, is showing his commitment to quitting California by recently listing yet another home he owns, this one in LA’s Laurel Canyon.
      The primary bedroom.  Photo: Christopher Amitrano

      Listed in August for $2.2 million, the unassuming, split-level 2,345-square-foot house has breathtaking views of the Los Angeles skyline and the Santa Monica Mountains all the way to the Pacific. It is now priced at $1.99 million.
      As for the Benedict Canyon compound, it’s on the market with Million Dollar Listing stars Matt and Josh Altman of The Altman Brothers and Douglas Elliman.
      The patio and pool.  Photo: Christopher Amitrano

      Another of the home’s seven bedrooms.  Photo: Christopher Amitrano

      The motor court.  Christopher Amitrano More

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      Toni Morrison’s Book-Filled Manhattan Loft Hits the Market for $4.75 Million

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      Size: 2,319 square feet, 2-3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
      Year: 1901
      Architect: Henry Janeway Hardenbergh

      Not all artists and/or intellectuals are starving. Case in point is the lower Manhattan loft of late literary lion Toni Morrison that’s come for sale just over a year after her passing, in August 2019 at 88, with an asking price of $4.75 million. The Nobel Prize winning writer and university professor, whose Pulitzer Prize winning 1987 novel “Beloved” was adapted into a 1998 film of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey, purchased the slightly more than 2,300-square-foot tenth-floor spread, according to tax records, in the early days of 2014 for $3.8 million.
      The loft’s clean-lined and carefully unadorned architecture is softened with gently worn antiques, plush upholstered sofas, an eclectic smattering of artworks and, of course, books, lots and lots of books. The comfortably commodious main living space stretches forty feet from end to end. Just off the main entrance, the kitchen anchors one end of the space, while the other end has a simply designed fireplace as its focal point. The convivial center of the room holds a trestle-style dining table and book-filled bookshelves extend from floor to ceiling. One of the two guest bedrooms was opened up to the living room, and served as Morrison’s library and writing room, while the primary bedroom offers open city views to the north and east, plus a spacious walk-in closet/dressing area and a bathroom with both a deep soaking tub and a glass enclosed shower.
      A glimpse into the home’s airy bedroom.  Brown Harris Stevens

      Built at the turn of the 20th century and known as the Textile Building, the grandiosely embellished Neo-classical building was originally designed as a commercial structure by architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, whose other more legendary handiwork includes the Plaza Hotel and the The Dakota apartment house. Restored and refurbished by architects Karl Fischer and Alan Ritchie, and converted to residences in 2001, the full-service, pet-friendly boutique building offers residents a 24-hour attended lobby, a package room with cold storage for grocery deliveries, a fitness center, a library/media room with full kitchen and wet bar, and a 5,000-square-foot landscaped roof terrace. Of course, residents pay dearly for the plethora of premium services; Morrison’s unit carries monthly maintenance charges of $2,350, plus another $2,500-or-so per month in property taxes, according to listings held by Brown Harris Stevens agents Amanda S. Brainerd, Simone Mailman and Gerard Ryan.
      Morrison, who once kept a historic Colonial-style home in Princeton, N.J., where at the time of her passing she served as the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, at Princeton University, previously owned a duplex apartment at the renowned Police Building on the frenetic border between Soho and Chinatown. Tax records show the “Song of Solomon” author sold the top-floor one-bedroom and 1.5-bath aerie in 2012 to businessman Dane Neller who combined it with a neighboring unit before he flipped the whole kit-and-kaboodle in 2013 for $4.3 million.
      Morrison’s real estate legacy is, however, not so much tied to lower Manhattan or Princeton as it is to a tiny sliver of a community known as Grand View-on-Hudson, about 25 miles north of Manhattan, where in the late 1970s Morrison bought a converted boathouse along the banks of the Hudson River for $120,000. In 1993, a fire destroyed a significant amount of the house and prompted a rebuild of the historic property that now includes a private dock. Tax records indicate the property was transferred to Morrison’s elder son in the months after her death.
      See more photos of the apartment below:
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      Home of the Week: Inside the $17 Million London Mansion That Tom Ford Turned Into a Den of Style

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      The stately London mansion once owned by fashion icon, perfumier and filmmaker Tom Ford, and with the designer’s stunning interior touches left intact, has just hit the market for $17.4 million.
      While clean and elegant on the outside, the inside of this four-story Victorian is all stainless steel, black glass, striated Macassar wood, and jet-black wall paneling. Sexy doesn’t even come close.

      Ford, who’s credited with reviving the fortunes of Gucci and YSL before launching his own brand in 2006, is believed to have purchased the house in 1997 for £2.55 million—around $4.08 million at the time.

      His exhaustive makeover saw the interior gutted and the Texan designer’s own inimitable style reflected in every room. Back then, the 3,700-square-foot house featured just two bedrooms.
      For Ford, the home’s considerable appeal was no doubt its coveted location in the Boltons, a swank enclave of just 30 sprawling Victorian houses in West London’s A-list Chelsea district.
      The living room.  Photo: Alex Winship/Knight Frank

      Current or former neighbors have included Hugh Grant, Rowan Atkinson, the late David Bowie and George Michael. Rumor has it that the home’s previous owner was Duran Duran keyboard player Nick Rhodes.
      It’s not clear how long Ford and his longtime partner Richard Buckley lived in the house. All we know is that it was listed in 2009 for £8.5 million—roughly $13.3 million.
      The cozy study.  Photo: Alex Winship/Knight Frank

      We suspect that some time between 2009 and 2012, the house sold in an off-market deal, with the new owner adding a third bedroom, but leaving all the fabulous Tom Ford design cues in place.
      Eventually the home was sold in 2014 for £12 million ($18.7 million), with the new owner again electing to leave the Tom Ford design features intact, an homage to the longevity of designer’s creative talents.
      The dining room with its black walls.  Photo: Alex Winship/Knight Frank

      Today, imposing black double gates, under the watchful eyes of a barrage of security cameras, lead to the home’s white stucco-style facade. While photos might give the impression of the double-fronted mansion being free-standing, it’s actually joined to a row of similar-style homes at one side.
      Steps lead up to the single front door and into an entrance lobby with its stunning, alabaster marble open staircase edged with mirror-finished black glass walls. To one side there’s a black-walled, black sofa-filled reception room, on the other an elegant wood-paneled dining room.

      A guest bedroom.  Photo: Alex Winship/Knight Frank

      Large, floor-to-ceiling windows in the reception room look out on to a quiet, serene courtyard that’s hidden away behind towering trees and hedgerows.
      Back inside, stairs descend to the lower ground floor—don’t call it a basement—with its stainless steel and stark white kitchen, ensuite bedroom, compact gym, steam room and wine cellar.
      The primary bedroom with its stainless steel walls and ceiling.  Photo: Alex Winship/Knight Frank

      Now take the stairs—there’s no elevator in the residence—to the second level and there’s a gorgeous Mad Men-style Macassar wood-paneled study on one side and a cozy, gray-paneled guest bedroom on the other.
      You’ll find the true Tom Ford style, however, in the third-floor primary suite with its jaw-dropping bedroom with three walls and even the ceiling, lined in matte stainless steel. It might seem a little strange, sleeping in a steel box, but it works.
      The marble staircase appears to float.  Photo: Alex Winship/Knight Frank

      Across the hallway is the spacious, though uninspiring all-white master bath and the huge dressing area with endless closets, no doubt once filled with those trademark Tom Ford black suits and crisp, white dress shirts.
      Keep heading up the staircase, and you’ll step out on to the vast rooftop deck with views of the London skyline.
      The private courtyard.  Photo: Alex Winship/Knight Frank

      Charles Olver, partner and head of sales for listing broker Knight Frank, says the interior of the house gives “an overall sense of being immersed in an exquisite piece of fine art.”
      “With an interior created by none other than one of fashion’s biggest creative names, Tom Ford, perhaps you’d expect nothing less. But still prepare to be blown away,” he adds.
      The home sits in one of London’s best districts.  Photo: Alex Winship/Knight Frank More

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      Rob Lowe Just Sold His Epic Montecito Estate for a Cool $45 Million

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      It took a few years, but Rob Lowe has finally managed to offload his majestic Montecito estate for an equally majestic price, as was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The $45.5 million, off-market deal is one of the priciest to ever close in the celeb-studded seaside enclave, and it’s perhaps the largest since 2001, when Oprah Winfrey paid $50 million for her world-famous (and ever-expanding) compound, the so-called “Promised Land” estate.
      The new owners of Lowe’s former residence are healthcare-focused private equity executive Jack McGinley and his wife Julie, who have long been based mainly on the East Coast. But the couple are not new to Montecito, or to record-smashing sale prices, for that matter. Way back in 2012, the couple agreed to pay somewhere around $50 million for a different but no less sumptuous estate that happens to sit right next door to Oprah’s house. But for publicly unknown reasons, that deal collapsed and the mansion, long owned by now-deceased professional sports tycoon Ed Snider, was eventually sold in 2017 for a relatively paltry $35 million to cosmetics mogul Jamie Kern Lima. (The McGinleys instead paid $27.5 million for a smaller Montecito estate; records show that property was quietly sold last month for $27 million to an as-yet-unidentified buyer.)
      Although Lowe initially floated the property on the market for an even $47 million back in 2018, the final sales price is actually well above the $42.5 million that the Parks and Recreation star last asked for the property, which he custom built for his family.

      Known as Oakview, the 10,000 sq. ft. structure is sited on a 3.4-acre lot in a neighborhood filled to the brim with other megamansions, though the Lowe estate is certainly one of the bigger ones around. The East Coast-style construction was inspired by the antebellum architecture that graces the Virginian countryside, and is clad in white clapboard and accented with striking black shutters. Inside, the place was completely tailored for the Lowes by a small army of designers, among them acclaimed architect Don Nulty, who worked in tandem with Feng Shui expert David Cho, while the interiors were done up by designers David Phoenix and Kyle Irwin. The impeccably manicured, park-like grounds were dreamt up by Mark Rios.
      Four Doric columns stand guard in front of a Greek Revival-style portico that features a black coffered door. Inside, the styling follows the same grandiosity as the exterior—albeit with a modern twist. Pure white walls, handsome hardwood floors, bespoke architectural details and recessed lighting can be found throughout the space. The formal living room boasts an oversized traditional-style fireplace with an elaborate, all-white mantle, two eye-catching chandeliers, a series of three motorized pocket glass doors that lead out to the patio and delicate handcrafted moldings. The room is generously spacious and bathed in natural light, thanks to the glass doors.

      The kitchen is luxuriously roomy and offers an oversized island that works overtime as a kitchen prep area, breakfast bar. and a place to house the dishwasher and a proofing oven. The room is lit with a smattering of recessed lights, and by three pendulum lanterns that hang over the island. The kitchen also offers a tongue-and-groove coffered ceiling, plenty of cabinetry, Carrara marble countertops and chef’s grade appliances—including an industrial-sized gas range. Adjoining the breakfast bar, there’s a casual dining area located underneath a modern chandelier.
      On more posh occasions, meals can be taken in the mansion’s formal dining area, a regal space that boasts tastefully coffered walls, custom crown molding, fancy bronze wall sconces and a show-stopping chandelier. For large events, there’s also a secondary catering kitchen located in the basement, connected to the dining room via an old-fashioned dumbwaiter.

      Conveniently, each of the house’s guest and family rooms have their own ensuite bathroom. Several of the upstairs bedrooms have French doors that open up to a huge shared veranda with ocean views, plus ample seating and billiard and ping pong tables. The elegantly subdued master suite is stunning, with an obligatory fireplace, a private balcony, plus plenty of built-in shelving for the avid book collector. There are dual marble bathrooms, and a boutique-style closet/dressing room. Outdoors, an approximately 800-square-foot Greek Revival-style poolside cabana has one bedroom and bathroom, and there’s also a standalone two-bedroom, two-bath guest cottage.
      The grounds of the property are just as magnificent as one would expect, with verdantly lush gardens multiple ancient oaks. Lavender-lined paths lead to all of the luxe al fresco amenities, including a 55-foot swimming pool and a sunken tennis court.
      Check out more photos of the property below: More

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      Home of the Week: Country Music Superstar Alan Jackson Lists His Nashville Estate for $23 Million

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      With its $23 million asking price, you can’t say that country singer Alan Jackson is letting his sprawling Tennessee mansion go for a song.
      If it sells for anywhere close to asking, it’ll be one of the most expensive pads ever sold in both the state and in the celebrity-rich enclave of Franklin, just a line dance away from Nashville, aka Music City USA.
      But the massive hilltop estate is certainly not short of curb appeal. Set on 4.3 private acres and surrounded by 120 more of dense woodland, Sweetbriar sprawls over 22,000 square feet, features five bedrooms, seven-and-a-half bathrooms and can garage up to 15 cars.
      Country Music Hall of Famer Jackson—he’s sold more than 75 million records worldwide—and his author wife Denise, originally bought the spread in 2009 for $795,000. They commissioned architect-to-the-country-stars Ron Farris to design the imposing stone residence in a style that Farris describes on his website as “New England Country.”
      The grand entryway and staircase fit for Scarlett O’Hara.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      Part of the home’s considerable attraction is its security and privacy. It’s part of the upscale Laurelbrooke community with a 24/7 guarded gate, while the heavily-wooded Jackson estate has its own set of imposing barriers.
      A winding driveway climbs up to a large motorcourt in front of the main house. Inside the foyer, with its rich inlaid wood flooring, is a sweeping wood-and-wrought-iron staircase in front of a towering two-story window.
      Decorated in a very traditional and elegant style, the interior is heavy on beautiful wood floors, paneling and arched windows.
      The kitchen.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      There’s a formal reception room with large fireplace, formal dining room with seating for 10, formal sitting room and what listing agent Rick French of French King Fine Properties describes as “grand public rooms.”
      Less stuffy is the wood-walled TV room with its belly-up bar and the 10-seat movie room.
      The formal reception room.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      Upstairs, the expansive primary suite features a cloister-ceilinged bedroom with doors leading out to a terrace. There are also dual bathrooms, one with a huge, marble-edged soaking tub with tall French doors that open on to a balcony.
      Outside there’s a pool and pool house, a large expanse of manicured lawn, a paved area around a firepit and a vast, covered, poolside loggia with stone arches and stone fireplace.
      When you want to gaze out on to those surrounding woodlands – of which
      The music room.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      Jackson is said to own another 84 in the area—the main house also includes a sizable roof-top deck with multiple tables and sun loungers.
      For car lovers, the home’s twin, stone-faced garage buildings will no doubt be a considerable draw. Inside there’s room for around 15 cars in heated and air-conditioned luxury.
      The formal sitting room.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      Jackson is well-known for his motoring passion. No one knows for sure how many cars he owns, but his eclectic collection is said to include everything from a 1929 Bentley Le Mans and a 1928 Stutz Black Hawk Boattail Speedster to an array of 1970s American muscle cars, an Amphicar and a 1977 Ford Bronco.
      Pride of place in the collection however, goes to a refrigerator-white 1955 Ford Thunderbird convertible—the car Jackson bought when he was 15 and took his wife out in on their first date. Seems he later sold the car for a down payment their first home. Denise Jackson surprised him by buying the car back for his birthday.
      The formal dining room.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      Before building the Laurelbrooke estate, the Jacksons lived in an 18,600-square-foot, custom-built antebellum mansion on 135 acres in Franklin, also called Sweetbriar, which was supposedly modeled after Tara in Gone With the Wind.
      After first listing that home for $38 million, they sold it to Copart salvage car auction founder, Willis Johnson, for $28 million in 2010.
      There’s no word on where the Jacksons and their three daughters plan to move to when they sell. Just don’t expect it to be too far away from the Grand Old Opry.
      The primary bedroom suite.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      The ensuite bathroom.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      The secluded pool.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      The patio.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      The patio at night.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties

      Sweetbriar is surrounded by forest.  Photo: Courtesy of French/King Fine Properties More

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      LeBron James Buys Katharine Hepburn’s Former Beverly Hills Compound for $36.8 Million

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      Although the deal was extensively reported in July, it’s only today—fittingly, near the end of a fantastic Lakers season—that LeBron James has finally closed on his $36.8 million residential upgrade in the 90210, a multi-structure compound packing fantastic views and a storied, only-in-Hollywood pedigree.
      Built in the 1930s, the colorful Mediterranean-esque villa was owned for years by Charles Boyer, an Oscar-nominated leading man actor of that era who starred in a number of black-and-white classics, among them Conquest and Algiers.
      In the late ’40s, Boyer and RKO Pictures, one of the big five Hollywood studios at that time, terminated the actor’s contract. As part of an unusual settlement negotiation, the studio agreed to buy out Boyer’s interest in his 2.5-acre estate; because RKO was owned at that time by Howard Hughes, the reclusive billionaire became the technical owner of the Boyer residence, though he never lived there. Instead, Hughes leased the palatial property to his ex-flame and longtime confidante Katharine Hepburn, who occupied the mansion during the height of her career.

      At some point after Hepburn moved out, the property fell into the hands of non-famous owners, where it remained until 1986, when soap opera pioneer Lee Phillip Bell and her business partner husband William J. Bell (The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful) bought it for $2.9 million, as per tax records. The couple significantly upgraded and restored the tired lady to her former Golden Age glory during their many years of ownership, and they expensively landscaped the grounds with mature trees and formal gardens.
      Bill Bell died in 1995, though Lee Bell continued residing at her beloved 90210 home until her own death this past March. Back in June, her lovingly maintained estate crash-landed on the market for the first time in decades with a $39 million asking price—the $36.8 million James paid represents a 6 percent discount.
      Secured by a celebrity-worthy collection of cameras and one of LA’s most massive driveway gates in existence, the compound is accessed via a epic long brick driveway flanked on either side by mature cypresses. The driveway eventually dead-ends at a commodious motorcourt that’s accented by a stone fountain and ringed by a dozen mature palm trees.

      The lavish interiors include a sunlight-flooded living room with a vaulted ceiling and exposed ceiling beams, an ethereal dining room set beneath a huge skylight—perfect for gazing up at the heavens while enjoying a chef-catered meal—and a carpeted library with built-in bookcases for real books. The cozy movie theater includes a fireplace for sophisticated ambiance, one of seven in the main mansion.
      Elsewhere on the property are two detached guesthouses, multiple al fresco dining and entertaining areas, and a lighted tennis court with viewing pavilion. At the far rear of the complex, soaring views of the entire LA skyline take center stage as they sweep over Benedict Canyon to the Pacific Ocean and Catalina. The oval swimming pool—a gorgeous remnant of the property’s Golden Hollywood history—adjoins a poolhouse and is watched over by a giant gold Buddha.
      James also continues to own two separate mansions in LA’s posh Brentwood neighborhood. The first was scooped up for $21 million in 2015 and has remained vacant for most of the time since. The second estate, the NBA superstar’s current main residence, is sited on plum hillltop and was purchased for $23 million in 2017.
      Jeff Hyland and Rick Hilton of Hilton & Hyland held the listing.
      Check out more photos below: More

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      Pierce Brosnan Is Selling His James Bond-Inspired Malibu Home for $100 Million

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      A former 007 is taking on what could be one of his trickiest assignments yet—selling his Malibu beach house.
      Pierce Brosnan, perhaps best known for playing the titular role in four James Bond movies, is unloading his Broad Beach mansion for no less than $100 million. The Irish actor and his wife, filmmaker Keely Brosnan, commissioned the home after the success of his fourth Bond film, Die Another Day. The mansion’s Southeast Asian aesthetic is in fact inspired by Brosnan’s time shooting the movie in Thailand, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

      Of course, bringing the nearly 12,500-square-foot home to life was no small feat. Prior to building the house, the Brosnans lived in a ranch-style residence on the same plot of land, but it proved to be too small for them. The current residence took about a decade to complete.
      The great room.  Compass

      They had some help, though—architects Ralph and Ross Anderson designed the resort-like property, and it was subsequently built by Albino Construction. The finished product sits on more than an acre of land with access to 117 feet of beachfront. The Brosnans dubbed it “Orchid House,” because, well, the landscaping includes plenty of orchids. (Plus palm trees and gardenias.)
      Broad Beach  Compass

      Between the main house and the guest house, the home has five beds and 14 baths. The primary motif here is teak, which is ideal in oceanfront communities as the wood weathers the moisture well: The floors are wide-plank teak and the entry gates and cabinetry are made of the same material. Another architectural standout is the green clay tile roof, which was directly inspired by the temples in Thailand.
      There’s a separate guest house on the property, plus a two-car garage.  Compass

      Ocean views are also a priority—it’s so close, after all—so many of the interior spaces have large glass windows and doors that look out onto the crashing Pacific. The great room opens up to the beachside deck, and the adjacent kitchen, which has two islands and two stoves, also has a view of the water.
      There’s a fire pit on the property for entertaining.  Compass

      Two bedroom suites also occupy this main level, but it’s the primary bedroom upstairs that’s the real showstopper. The space takes up 4,000 square feet all on its own, and includes two bathrooms, a private deck and a large sitting area. Also upstairs is a private office and an additional guest room.
      The saltwater pool.  Compass

      The amenities fit out the lower level, including a soundproof movie theater with tiered seating and a bar—great for mixing a martini and putting on your favorite Bond flick, naturally—and a gym, music room and spa with two soaking tubs.

      One of hte outdoor dining areas.  Photo: Courtesy of Compass

      Outside there’s the beach, obviously, but the Brosnans also installed a saltwater pool with a waterfall, plus two glass-enclosed areas for outdoor dining. The nearby guest house has two levels, so guests can enjoy a gorgeous view from their upstairs perch—or the whole building can be repurposed into a pool house. Also on the grounds is a two-car garage, which may be worth expanding for larger gatherings in the future.
      The view from one of the decks.  Photo: Courtesy of Compass

      That $100 million asking price is right in line for Malibu. Last year Whatsapp founder Jan Koum shelled out nine figures on a 14,000-square-foot home in the area. And Orchid House isn’t even the most expensive Malibu home on the market—that distinction belongs to a seven-bed, 10-bath property off Pacific Coast Highway that’s hoping for $125 million.
      As for the Brosnans? They’ve decamped to Hawaii, according to The Wall Street Journal. So they’re still not too far from the beach. More

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      Inside John Legend and Chrissy Teigen’s New $17.5 Million Beverly Hills Mansion

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      With their third bundle of joy due to arrive in March, high-profile celebrity power couple John Legend and Chrissy Teigen have bid adieu to their 90210 “starter” house—once owned by Rihanna—and upgraded to a more roomy, $17.5 million home elsewhere in the mountains above Beverly Hills, in a neighborhood known as Beverly Hills Post Office. The Wall Street Journal first reported the deal.
      Built new this year and sheathed in metal and glass, the hard-edged contemporary mansion contains 10,700 square feet of living space, with 6 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. Developed by local contractor JB Builders, the nearly one-acre estate offers a prairie-sized motorcourt, perfect for hosting large events.

      Inside, the home boasts a collection of bespoke materials, with exotic wood and marble trim, wide-plank oak wood floors and a soaring glass atrium that floods the massive great room with light. Naturally, the house is equipped with a slew of designer goodies—Toto toilets, Miele kitchen appliances, LED mirrors, Crestron smart home technology, and a five tankless water heaters.
      Realtor.com

      From the residence, disappearing walls of glass lead out to a backyard with a 100-foot saltwater swimming pool and lush views across Benedict Canyon, down to the Century City skyline. There’s also a petite pool house, plus a 500-square-foot media room with top-notch acoustics for a theater-quality movie experience.
      Amid a frenzied media blitz, Teigen and Legend hoisted their former Beverly Hills home onto the market last month with a $23.95 million ask. Despite that aggressive price point, the couple almost immediately received an offer and the house is currently in escrow to be sold, according to the MLS. For the moment, the growing family is quarantining in a leased mansion—also designed in the contemporary architectural style—down in the Beverly Hills Flats neighborhood.
      Sally Forster Jones of Compass held the listing; Marshall Peck of Douglas Elliman repped Legend and Teigen.
      Check out more photos of the property below:
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