Michael Bay Buys in Bel Air

BUYER: Michael Bay
LOCATION: Bel Air Road, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $10,900,000
SIZE: 3 parcels, 4.93 acres, 6,067 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms.
DESCRIPTION: Rare opportunity to purchase over 4.9 acres on 3 parcels in prime lower Bel Air with existing 1 story house and ample usable land. Main residence has spacious entertaining rms overlooking spectacular city & cyn views and includes 2 bedroom suites and maids. There are three additional detached structures for staff totaling 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Private grounds with pool & championship sunken tennis court. The possibilities are endless to maintain, build up or build a new estate altogether.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Late last night, just before Your Mama was fixin' to slather our face with cold cream and put our lotion gloves on in preparation for bed, we received a brief covert communique from an anonymous source whom we'll call Natalie Noname. According to Ms. Noname, producer/director Michael Bay recently bought a house on Bel Air Road that he is in the process of knocking down so that he can build something new, bigger, better or whatever.

Chisel chinned Mister Bay got his start in Tinseltown directing commercials and music videos for folks like Meat Loaf, Wilson Phillips and Donny Osmond. He busted into the film world in the mid-1990s with two hugely successful action flicks, Bad Boys and The Rock and has gone on to become –for better or worse–the man responsible for producing such cinematic gems as Pearl Harbor, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hitcher, The Unborn and, of course, the wildly successful money minting movies that are the Transformers franchise.

Property records do indeed confirm at least part of what Natalie Noname told us which is that Mister Bay forked over $10,900,000 for a 4.93 acre, 3-parcel property on super swank lower Bel Air Road. What Your Mama does not know, of course, is what Mister Bay's destruction and construction plans might be although Ms. Noname told us that at least some portion of the car port at the front of the property has already been razed to make way for some heavy equipment.

As best as we can tell, the property was listed with a much higher asking price of $18,250,000 and was purchased from the estate of big time philanthropist and recently deceased gal about Los Angeles Marion Jorgensen.

A little Hollywood meets real estate history lesson here: Ms. Jorgensen, born rich, was married to producer Milton Bren (Topper, There Goes My Heart, Wyoming, Barnacle Bill and etc.) way back in the golden days of early Hollywood. Marion and Milton went splitsville in the mid 1940s but not before they produced two sons, one of whom is Donald Bren, the multi-billionaire real estate mogul and sole owner of the Irvine Company whose primary holding is the 93,000 acre Irvine Ranch which encompasses more than 20% of all the land in Orange County, CA. Mister Bren went on to marry the "Queen of Film Noir," Oscar winning actress Claire Trevor (Dead End, Key Largo, The High and the Mighty and etc.), and ex-Missus Bren went on to become Missus Jorgensen in 1953 when she married steel magnate Earle Jorgensen who was a member of Ronald Reagan's White House kitchen cabinet, a group of unofficial but influential advisors to the president. But we digress...

Mister Bay's new property sits on its own promontory with sweeping views of Los Angeles. The current house, a sprawling single story contemporary built in 1951, wraps around a vast motor court accessed through two electronically controlled gates. According to listing information, the main house measures 6,067 square feet and includes two bedrooms, 2.5 poopers, plus a staff suite with private pooper. There are, according to listing information, three additional detached structures which contain 4 more bedrooms and 4 more poopers for staff bringing the total count to 7 bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms.

The front facade of the main house and accessory buildings surround a vast motor court on three sides and at the back, the house wraps around a terrace with an in-ground, free form swimming pool. There are well tended but somewhat old fashioned gardens an a properly oriented sunken tennis court. However, if what Ms. Noname says is true and Mister Bay is planning to tear the house down, the details of the house and landscaping matter little since they'll soon enough be replaced with something Herculean that is a tangible expression of his ego and more suitable to his own real estate tastes.

Mister Bay's new neighbors will include Salma Hayak and her wildly rich French biznessman husband Henri Pinault who live in one of Kelsey Grammar's many former homes, the decrepit but but still dee-voon Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Kekorian's first ex-wife Jean, billionaire media mogul Gerald Perenchio, swimsuit model turned ack-tress Cheryl Tiegs, and soft porn purveyor Joe Francis, just to name a few.

Curiously, Mister Bay already owns two other properties in Los Angeles. Property records reveal that in April of 1999 he paid $5,160,000 for a big house on Stradella Road in Bel Air and in November of 2005 he scooped up a 3 bedroom and 4 pooper property on Chalon Road in Brentwood. Mister Bay also owns 17,339 square foot mansion on N. Bay Road in Miami, FL that he bought from Hulk Hogan in August of 2007 for $17,000,000 and, apparently having had a real estate change of heart, quickly flipped it back on the market. The 11 bedroom and 11.5 pooper waterfront extravaganza remains on the market with an asking price of $18,900,000.