Amy Adams: New Baby, New House

BUYER: Amy Adams and Darren Le Gallo
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $3,165,000
SIZE: 4,311 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: According to no fewer than three of Your Mama's better connected sources, two-time Oscar nominated actress Amy Adams (Junebug, Enchanted, Sunshine Cleaning, Doubt, Julie & Julia) owns a perfectly lovely if architecturally ordinary 3 bedroom and 4 pooper Cape Cod-ish style crib with designer done interiors in the lower Benedict Canyon area of Beverly Hills. According to property records, Miss Adams' Benedict Canyon property was purchased through a trust in December of 2008 for $1,825,000.

In mid-May of 2010 Miss Adams pushed out a gurl baby that she made with her actor-artist fiancé Darren Le Gallo. If Your Mama has said it once we've said it 72 times: When the rich and famous get a new baby–or a new spouse–it often means they buy a new house. We're not sure why that is exactly but property records reveal that in late July of 2010 the very same trust and trustee associated with Miss Adams and her baby daddy's Benedict Canyon residence scooped up a new house on a secluded quiet cul de sac high in the Hills above Beverly.

Your Mama managed to dig up listing information for the new property which indicates the Connecticut style ranch was originally built in 1952 and extensively remodeled with contemporary elements in 2005. The sprawling and well maintained house measures 4,311 square feet according to listing information with 4 bedrooms and 3.5 poopers including a master suite privately situated on the second floor that provides tree top views, hardwood floors, a fireplace, two custom fitted walk-in closets, a posh pooper with spa tub, and a private patio with a slivery view of the city lights and Pacific Ocean.

An electronic drive gate opens to a small flagstone motor court lined with lush plantings. The children will note how the landscaping palette has been kept to just green things, a choice that along with the frosted glass paned garage doors lends a contemporary vibe to an otherwise architecturally traditional house. We're certain that some of the children will loathe this merger of modern with East Coast traditional–the somewhat cliché garage doors in particular–but Your Mama don't mind it a bit. Yes, we love and appreciate an architecturally and stylistically pure abode just as much as the next property snob, but we can also get on board when an architecturally undistinguished house is given a more contemporary spin on things.

Anyhoo, a short walkway leads to the front door that opens into a small foyer that immediately and unceremoniously gives way to the combination living and dining room that features original hardwood floors, a vaulted and beamed ceiling punched through with sky lights, built-in bookshelves, a stacked stone fireplace, and three sets of French doors that open the room to the gigantic flagstone terrace that extends off the back of the multi-winged ranch.

Very contemporary, frameless frosted glass panels that stretch from the floor to the ceiling divide the living/dining room from a good sized and oddly shaped study/den with charcoal colored slate floors, built-in shelving, and vaulted wood ceiling with exposed beams. Since the day-core in the listing photos is that of the previous owner we won't comment (much) on that but Your Mama will confess that we get goose pimples over how the crisp white and art-friendly walls in the living/dining room and the study/den beautifully juxtapose themselves against the more organic woods and stone elements that repeat themselves throughout both the interior and exterior of the property.

The charcoal colored slate floors continue into the commodious kitchen, into the adjacent family room that opens out to the back yard terrace and, somewhat unexpectedly and strangely, up the walls and onto the back splash in the kitchen. The gore-may cookery is essentially a wide galley style affair with a long work island/breakfast bar down the center. The sleek flat fronted cabinetry, sky lights, and high grade stainless steel appliances that include a sizable side by side Sub-Zero and a mac-daddy Viking brand range are, once again, set off against the more organic quality of the slate flooring and vaulted wood ceiling with exposed beams and trusses. Built-in cabinets in the family room area accommodate tee-vee and stereo/iPod equipment.

According to listing information, there are three bedrooms in addition to the master suite and a fourth that has been converted to a home gym. Your Mama really has no idea if Miss Adams and Mister Le Gallo plan to maintain a home gym, but this being Tinseltown it would certainly not be surprising if the well formed pair opted to install a whole bunch of body torture equipment in their new home to save them the trip and indignity of going to a public fitness facility.

A large room with a flat beamed ceiling and original hardwood floors was outfitted by the previous owners as a media room with a gigantic sectional sofa, floating built-in cabinetry for books and entertainment equipment and a wall mounted flat scree tee-vee. Short of putting it in a cabinet with closing doors it's nearly impossible to hide the squawk box. The children will take note, however, that the the boob-toob was cleverly disguised–or at least minimized–by hanging artwork in a tight cluster around the tee-vee.

In addition to the generously sized flagstone terrace that runs along the back of the house, the back yard area includes a built-in barbecue center, mature trees and plantings, an unnaturally green lawn that undulates gently with the terrain, and a gated and nearly hidden free-form swimming pool and spa. While all the trees and foliage that run up to the edge and hang over the pool and spa look amazingly au natural, we're certain that Miss Adams and Mister Le Gallo's pool man will quietly curse them out every week while he's skimming all the leaves and other crap off the surface and bottom of the swimming pool.

The nearly 1-acre property also includes a cactus garden–and Your Mama loves us a cactus garden–a fully fenced and partially shaded dog run with stacked stone walls, pathways that meander up and around the hillside and lead to stone benches, and at least one secluded deck with long views over the surrounding canyon towards the city lights and the Pacific Ocean.

Listen chickens, Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter don't pine to live in a Connecticut style ranch house in the 90210, but iffin we did and we had three and some million clams to spend, Miss Adams and Mister Le Gallo's new digs just might be the icing to that cake. It's wonderfully private, perfectly quiet, big without being obscene, luxurious but kick your feet up casual, done without being over done, traditionally built but modern minded and, generally speaking, looks like a lovely spot to escape the intensity and fakery of showbiz. Brava! Miss Adams.

Some of Miss Adams and Mister Le Gallo's new neighbors include Queen Latifah and, we presume, her "trainer" Jeanette Jenkins, Dixie Carter's widow Hal Holbrook, actor Jonathan Frakes and his soap star wife Genie Francis who put their 6 bedroom and 10 pooper house up for lease in 2009 when they moved to Maine, and leveraged buyout tycoon Ted Forstmann who owns the IMG talent agency and once courted Top Chef's statuesque stunner Padma Lakshmi.

listing photos: PostRain Productions for Partners Trust

New Digs for Dr. and Missus Phil

BUYER: Phil and Robin McGraw
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: last listed at $29,500,000
SIZE: 15,000 square feet (approx.), 5 bedrooms, 9 full and 2 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Anyone and everyone who pays any attention to the real estate machinations of celebs and other high profile peeps already knows that talk show titan Dr. Phil McGraw and his decoratin' demon of a wife Robin recently listed their lavishly done Beverly Hills, CA mansion with an asking price of $16,500,000.

Soon after that tidbit found its way to the surface another juicy nugget came bubbling up out of the celebrity real estate gossip tar pit. Even though The Good (Not A Medical) Dr. and his wifey Robin had yet to unload their mock Mediterranean beast in Beverly Hills they'd already snatched up a newer, bigger, and more expensive monster mansion high in the hills above Beverly Hills.

As soon as Your Mama heard the Mister and Missus McGraw were moving we immediately imagined them moving into something even larger and more grand than their current home because, well, we always suspected that the tough talking celebrity psychologist and his book writing wife were real estate size queens. And sure enough, Mister and Missus McGraw's new mansion, according to previous reports and listing information, measures in the neighborhood of 15,000 square feet and includes 5 bedrooms and 9 full and 2 half poopers in the main house and another 1 bedroom and pooper in the detached guest house above the garage.

The very privately situated property sprawls across more than 3 acres of rugged hillside terrain high in the hills behind Beverly Hills and was last listed on the open market with an asking price of $29,500,000. A massive motor court with a spitting fountain in the center sits at the end of a long gated driveway and separates the main house from the detached garage and guest quarters.

Listing information shows that proportionally odd and squat looking mansion, which listing information called a "romantic European villa," includes a two-story entrance hall with sweeping staircase–natch–drawing room, formal dining room, library game/media room, and a kitchen/family room complex. If the couple's previous estate is any indication of what's to come, Your Mama expects that Missus McGraw will work over the vast interior spaces into an over-stuffed frenzy of faux-Tuscan extravagance mixed with glittery nouveau riche excess.

All four of the family bedrooms are, according to listing information, located on the second floor and each has a private pooper. In addition to dual poopers, the second floor master suite has a private sitting room and terrace. Given that in their previous house Mister and Missus McGraw each had lavish poopers and dressing rooms that combined are probably larger than Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's entire house, we imagine that they'll be creating a suite of poopers and dressing rooms equally as large and over the top dee-luxe in their new house.

A deep loggia with outdoor fireplace, terra cotta tile floors, and brick groin vaulted ceiling runs along a portion of the back of the house and steps down to an expansive back yard with flat lawn, swimming pool, and a panoramic city lights view. Over behind the garage and guest house is a sunken and lighted tennis court.

After it became public knowledge that Mister and Misssus McGraw were on the move, Dr. Phil–or his mouthpiece or some secret source or something–claimed that they were decamping for new digs because they wanted something a little larger to better accommodate their growing family. As far as Your Mama knows Mister and Missus McGraw's family currently consists entirely of two sons–one unmarried and another who's hitched to a gal who bared her naughty bits in Playboy–and one grandchild. We're not sure why their old 11,036 square foot house wasn't sufficiently large enough to accommodate their family of six–it has 8 bedrooms and 7 poopers plus a 2 bedroom guest house, after all–but such are the wacky real estate ways of the rich and famous.

listing photos: Coldwell Banker Previews International

Your Mama Hears...

...From two solid sources that the buyer of Candice Bergen's recently sold compound, located in a a guarded and star studded community in the Beverly Hills Post Office, is...wait for it...wait for it...are you waiting for it?...Cameron Diaz.

The exceedingly well paid and down to earth Miss Diaz (the never ending Shrek franchise, Charlie's Angeles, My Best Friend's Wedding, Being John Malkovich, There's Something About Mary) now owns a sprawling 3-acre celebrity style estate that includes a single-story, hacienda style main house with (approx.) 5,000 square feet and a fully detached guest house with another (approx.) 2,000 square feet. Altogether there are 6 bedrooms and 6.5 poopers, which is a lot of damn terlits for a single lady.

Miss Diaz (allegedly) hooking up with Kate Hudson's former man-ho Alex Rodriguez does not, by any measure, maker her a spoken for woman. Not that we know shit about anything but Your Mama sorta doubts that bowm-chicka-bow-bowm bizness between Miss Diaz and Mister Rodriguez is going anywhere because the pro baseballer hardly seems interested in settling down when he can have much more fun boinking a-list actresses who seem to throw themselves at him like he was the last man on earth with a functional penis. Who's next for Mister Rodriguez? Jennifer Aniston? Jessica Simpson? Oh. Ouch. Did Your Mama actually say that out loud?

Anyhoo, we digress. Although Miss Diaz's name appears nowhere on the property records that we could find, the paperwork does clearly show the name of Miss Diaz's mother as the trustee for the property. Taking that into account–Miss Diaz's mother is also the trustee for Miss Diaz's other Los Angeles home–as well as the the word of two of Your Mama's more reliable snitches and 1 + 1 + 1 does equal 3. We have yet to suss out a selling price for the property that was quietly listed at $10,250,000.

Miss Diaz's new neighbors include the recently secretly married Spanish calientes Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem who recently forked over $3,300,000 to buy the home of Tinseltown lesbians Sara Gilbert and Allison Adler, notorious romance rusher Jessica Simpson, porcelain skinned and frozen faced Aussie actress Nicole Kidman and her country crooning huzband Keith Urban, Madonna's manager/music mogul Guy Oseary, entertainment executive Tom Freston, actor (Welcome Back Kotter) turned professional gambler Gabe Kaplan, and Bob's son Ziggy Marley.

Larger than life Kimora Lee Simmons owns a house in the same neighborhood as Miss Diaz, but the Bling Queen has done moved on to bigger and better digs and, we hear through the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine, has leased her house out and decamped for a bigger and better and more blinged out mansion about 2.5 miles closer to the heart of Beverly Hills.

Miss Diaz still owns, according to property records, the modern and modest but expensive home located up behind the Chateau Marmont Hotel that she bought in April of 2001 for $1,350,000.

Dr. Phil Finally and Officially Lists Beverly Hills House

SELLER: Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $16,500,000
SIZE: 11,036 square feet, 8 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Way back in early April of 2008, amid much speculation that Dr. Phil McGraw and his Stand By Your Man wifey Robin were on a fast train to Splitsville, Your Mama heard from no fewer than three real estate snitches who whispered in our big ear that the tee-vee psychologist–or whatever he is–had quietly floated his big Beverly Hills, CA mansion on the market as a pocket listing. A pocket listing, for all those not familiar with the term, means that the McGraw mansion was never officially on the market. However, according to Kenny Kissentell, one of Your Mama's saucier and more piquant canaries, the still married couple were quietly seeking offers in the $16-18,000,000 range.

Your Mama isn't sure if Mister and Missus McGraw fielded any offers for their Bev Hills estate but clearly they did not sell the property because now, more than two years after we first heard the real estate rumors of the pocket listing, Mister and Missus McGraw have officially heaved their hulking Mediterranean villa on the market with an asking price of $16,500,000.

Now listen chickens, in the interest of full disclosure Your Mama should say right off the bat that we're not much of a fan of Dr. Phil–who is not actually a medical doctor of any kind–nor do we care for his particular brand of tough talking psycho-babble hyperbole delivered in the most dramatic fashion possible in order to keep the television viewing audience from getting bored and flipping the channel to one of the many soap stories that plug up the airwaves during the mid-day hours. Here's our real beef puppies, we fear deep in our soul that what happens on Dr. Phil's program gets mistaken by his vast audience for actual therapy and, puppies, real therapy it is not. Perhaps we're not giving credit to his fans who may very well be able to properly discern television from therapy. None the less feel that Dr. Phil's program of "get real" advice gives the false and potentially damaging illusion that complex emotional quandaries and divisive marital dilemmas can be fixed in just 40-42 minutes, the real length of most 1 hour long shows minus the time it takes for commercials.

And too, we find it strange and creepy that Not A Medical Dr. Phil recently had his bushy beast of a 'stache shaved off–on national television–by none other than Oprah Winfrey, the woman responsible for foisting Dr. Phil onto the world. Lo-ward have mercy butter beans, does no one have any sense of decency or shame anymore? Maybe next time The Big O can take a pumice stone to his heels or maybe she'll use him as a model to illustrate how best to manscape your man's chest carpet.

Anyhoo, property records and other reports reveal that The Big O's talk television prodigy and his wife Robin purchased their Bev Hills property back in December of 2002 for around $7,500,000...in cash. While listing information for the .72 acre estate does not indicate the square footage of the McGraw manse, the tax man shows it measures 11,036 square feet and includes 8 bedrooms and 7 poopers including a master suite with sitting area, private balcony, and two lavish poopers and custom fitted dressing rooms. For what it's worth, we previously reported that the house had 9 bedrooms and 8 full and 2 half poopers but, in all honestly, our boozy-woozy brain just can't recall from where we got those numbers.

Information we received a couple of years ago from our trio of blabbermouthing birdies indicates the house includes a number of celebrity-style features like a double height rotunda entrance hall with diamond pattern stone flooring and sweeping dual staircases for making dramatic entrances (and exits), a screening room, natch, a billiards room, his and hers offices, staff quarters, and a beauty boo-teek where Dr. Phil could have his pate polished in private.

Other amenities of the completely walled and double-gated property located in what is arguably the best part of Beverly Hills include, according to listing information, a double height formal living room, formal dining room, library, family room, a colossal kitchen, and a half-circle shaped breakfast room with dizzying mirrored walls. There is also a media/music room, den, a home fitness center, covered parking for 5 cars, 3 fireplaces (in the den, library and master boo-dwar), and a detached 2 bedroom guest casita.

A wide and lavishly planted dining terrace extends off the back of the house with an outdoor fireplace and media center for staring at the boob-toob al fresco. A pathway descends to the large, rectangular shaped swimming pool that has kooky and kind of disturbing statues standing at the corners, and a raised, circular spa where Not A Medical Dr. Phil can soak away the stress of dealing with everyone else's stress on the boob-toob. What 16,500,000 smackers will not get you in the case of Dr. and Missus Phil's pile is a tennis court, which is a real shame because as fer as Your Mama is concerned 16,500,000 in Beverly Hills ought to buy a tennis court or at least a long, gated celebrity style driveway and the sort of view that will curl the toes of even the most jaded Angelino.

Where, oh where will Dr. Phil go now Your Mama hears the children asking? Well, in truth we don't know. But if Your Mama had to choose a Los Angeles location for Dr. Phil to next reside it would be an even bigger spread up in Beverly Park because Dr. Phil just seems like the sort of fellow who would get his real estate jollies off on living up in Beverly Park.

What we do know is that whomever snatches up Dr. Phil's real estate sloppy seconds will have a whole host of rich and famous neighbors including Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, Guess? founder Georges Marciano who lives in Shirley Temple's old Sunset Boulevard mansion, and right behind Dr. Phil's house sits Le Palais du Couchant, the recently completed 3-story, 36,000 square foot "French-Palladian" pile built by commercial real estate mogul Frederick C. Wehba that's currently listed at a teeth chattering $68,500,000.

photos from Hilton & Hyland listing

Penelope Cruz Claims New Crib In the Post Office

Yesterday Your Mama discussed the soon to be former home of sophisticated ladee Candice Bergen located in a guarded and star studded enclave in Beverly Hills. One of Candy B's many soon to be former celebrity neighbors that we mentioned in the course of our discussion is lezbionic actress (and Yale graduate) Sara Gilbert (Roseanne, The Big Bang Theory, ER, Twins) and her ladee-mate writer/producer Allison Adler (Chuck, Still Standing, Family Guy).

Well, chickens, buckle your safety belts because deep in the dark of the night Your Mama received yet another furtive missive from Leonard Leaksthenews informing us that the Sapphic spouses sold their 2,538 square feet house two weeks ago for $3,300,000 to none other than the Madonna of Madrid herself, Penelope Cruz. Your Mama was able to confirm the sale via property records but as best as we can suss out, the 4 bedroom and 3 pooper property was never on the open market.

Records reveal that Miss Gilbert and her luhbeezhun ladee-mate Miss Adler picked up the property in March of 2005 for $2,481,000 buying it from model maker Heinz Holba. Herr Holba may not be a household name for anyone outside the bizness of fashion, but he's a certainly a force to be reckoned with in the cut throat world of modeling. Herr Holba, for any of the butter beans who might care, owns both L.A. Models and New York Model Management and between the the two companies Herr Holba represents a bevy of bean pole thin beauties including fresh faced catwalk queens Melissa Tammerijn, Patricia van der Vliet, Sigrid Agren, and Amanda Booth.

The children will recall that in late April of 2010 Your Mama discussed the trying to be Balinese residence in the Hollywood Hills that Miss Cruz currently owns and has on the market with an asking price of $3,450,000, reduced from its original price of $3,695,000.

Candice Bergen Quietly Sells Compound in Beverly Hills

SELLER: Candice Bergen
LOCATION: Beverly Hills (Post Office), CA
PRICE: $10,250,000
SIZE: 5,000 square feet (approx.), 3 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Yesterday, while sitting on our back deck, picking our toenails and minding our own damn beeswax, Your Mama received a covert communique from a gentleman we'll call Leonard Leaksthenews who directed us towards an off-market listing for a sprawling compound in the Beverly Hills Post Office owned by actress/comedian/all around classy ladee Candice Bergen. Information Your Mama squeezed out of the interweb shows that the pretty property was quietly shopped around for $10,250,000. Although property records do not yet reveal a transaction or sale price, Your Mama hears from a second well connected informant we'll call Whispering Winnie, that Miz Bergen's Bev Hills Post Office compound is already done been sold.

Miz Bergen, the daughter of famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and actress Frances Bergen, was born of privilege and raised with a silver spoon in her mouth in the rarefied clime of Beverly Hills, CA where she was from the get-go swept up into the world of the famous and rich. As a wee, well groomed lassie of 9, and despite her famous father having a word with Walt Disney himself, little Candy Bergen was turned down for a spot on The Mickey Mouse Club. However, her showbiz career has only been uphill since that initial rejection from the mouse man. Her early films included two with lesbian story lines (The Group and The Adventurers) as well as a role in Mike Nichols' sexed up film Carnal Knowledge. In 1975 Miz Bergen became the first female to host Saturday Night Live and in 1979 she was nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in Starting Over.

The sophisticated and obviously intelligent Miz Bergen is perhaps–for better or worse–best known for her 10 year long run from 1988 to 1998 as the sassy journalist Murphy Brown on the Murphy Brown sitcom, a role that earned her 5 Emmy awards and the ire of that ridiculous Dan Quayle who criticized Miz Bergen's character for having a baby out of wedlock. After a long, cool streak with small roles in films and tee-vee programs Miss Congeniality, Sweet Home Alabama, Sex and the City, and The Women, Miz Bergen eventually landed on the now canceled comedy-drama hybrid Boston Legal on which she played tough talking attorney Shirley Schmidt to weird and wacky William Shatner's buffoonish Denny Crane.

From 1980 until his death in 1995, Miz Bergen was married to the iconic and enormously respected 3-time Oscar nominated film director Louis Malle (Vanya on 42nd Street, Au revoir les enfants, Atlantic City, My Dinner with Andre, Murmur of the Heart). Miz Bergen and Mister Malle made one baby together, a girl by the name of Chloë Malle who happens to be the New York Observer's current (celebrity) real estate gossip queen who also pens the occasional smart art review for The Daily Beast.

Property records and previous reports show that Miz Bergen bought her Beverly Hills Post Office property in May of 1996 for $3,100,000. Listing information for the perfectly private compound, located in a private community with a guard who sits in his cruiser and relies mostly on the stink eye to keep non-residents out of the 'hood, shows the gated (approximately) 3-acre estate has a hacienda style main casa that contains approximately 5,000 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 4.5 poopers plus a fully detached guest casa that encompasses an additional 2,000 square feet with another 3 bedrooms and 2 poopers.

The tile-roofed and vine laden residence includes various rooms with hardwood, tile and brick floors, vaulted ceilings with hand-painted beams, lots of books and landscape paintings, and a boat load of upholstered furniture with rolled arms with cushioned backs and a bevy of decorative needlepoint cushions. Altogether is has the distinct aura of being the country house of a sophisticated and cultured individual largely uninterested in hollow shine of glamour or current trends in interior day-core, which is–rightly or wrongly–exactly how Your Mama thinks of the urbane and accomplished Miz Bergen.

The expansive, park-like grounds contain a black-bottom, free form swimming pool and spa, brick dining terraces, vine shrouded patios, rolling lawns, lush gardens, mature shade trees, a gazebo, and a north/south situated tennis court.

Miz Bergen's soon to be former compound is located in the same celebrity packed private community as music mogul Guy Oseary, frozen faced ack-tress Nicole Kidman and her country crooning huzband Keith Urban, bling queen Kimora Lee Simmons Hansou and her real estate mistake, down on her professional luck singer Jessica Simpson, reggae scion Ziggy Marley, actor turned pro poker player Gabe Kaplan (Welcome Back, Kotter), lezbionic actress Sara Gilbert (Roseanne) and her ladee-mate writer/producer Allison Adler (Still Standing, Family Guy), and Craig Ellwood's Case Study House #17 now owned by by a Beverly Hills surgeon.

Above and beyond her Bev Hills Post Office compound, Miz Bergen has an interesting real estate history and a rather porcine real estate portfolio full of pricey properties. In the late 1960s Miz Bergen, then Miss Bergen, lived in sin with legendary record producer Terry Melcher. Together they lived at 10500 Cielo Drive. After deciding to decamp to the then bohemian beach enclave of Malee-boo, the Ceilo Drive property was leased to film director Roman Polanski and his wife, up and coming actress Sharon Tate (The Beverly Hillbillies, Rosemary's Baby, Valley of the Dolls). The rest, thanks to Charlie Manson, Tex Watson, and their band of batty babes, is the famous and tragic story of a demented cult personality run totally amuck.

Property records and previous reports reveal that Miz Bergen and her second huzband, wildly rich real estate developer/arts supporter Marshall Rose, also own a 4 bedroom and 3 pooper property in Montecito, CA as well as a hideaway on a particularly posh lane in East Hampton, NY. When in New York City, the cosmopolitan couple make their home at the ludicrously la-di-da cooperative apartment house at 1040 Fifth Avenue.

The children will recall that 1040 Fifth is the very same building to where former first ladee Jackie Kennady Onassis moved shortly after her husband the President was gunned down in Dallas. The children may also remember or be interested in knowing that 1040 Fifth is where zinc king William "Bill" Flaherty and his sassy, soon to be ex-wife Clementina "Tina" have their palatial penthouse on the market with an asking price of $32,000,000–reduced from $43,000,000–and where Edgar Bronfman, Jr. spent $19,500,000 on a 10th floor spread in January of 2008 and without ever moving a stick of furniture into it, flipped it in September of 2008 for $21,000,000 to financier Thomas Lehrman.

Ten-forty Fifth is also the same building where very young hedge hog Scott Bommer sold his 14th floor crib in late 2007 to real estate executive Jeff Blau so that he and his wife Donya could move into the titanic doo-plex penthouse digs they'd bought a few doors up, at the equally insanely expensive 1060 Fifth Avenue in January of 2008 for a skin melting $46,000,000. But alas, before the ink on the deed even had a chance to dry, those crazy Bommers caught a classic case of The Real Estate Fickle and flipped the behawtcha in July 2008 for $48,836,000.

As usual we digress and we have exhausted ourselves so, as Belma Buttons and Tovah McQueen so eloquently say, "We. Are. Through."

Your Mama Hears...

...through the Beverly Hills celebrity real estate grapevine that the reason entertainment mogul/real estate size queen Tyler Perry, who made much of his many millions working it on the silver screen as a sassy and saggy boobed old woman named Madea, wants to sell his über modern mansion at the tippy top of the bird streets above Sunset Strip is because he's building and even bigger house on a 22-acre spread in Beverly Hills.

Mister Perry purchased the 22-acre property behind the guarded gates of the swank and showy Beverly Ridge community in April of 2004 for an undisclosed amount of money. He began building his multi-winged dream mansion but soon after the foundation was poured, some steel framing erected, and the tennis court pad graded Mister Tyler caught a case of The Real Estate Fickle and hoisted the property and the unfinished mansion on the market with an asking price of $15,000,000. Listing information from the time stated that plans were for a boo-teek hotel sized 22,000 square foot Tuscan style home. Although the property was featured on the first season of Bravo's Million Dollar Listing it was not identified as belonging to Mister Tyler and in October of 2007 Your Mama heard through the gossip grapevine that Mister Tyler showed his big Bev Hills spread to Puff Diddle (or Diddy Diddle or Fiddle Puff or whatever his name is) but no deal was consummated.

At some point, around the middle of 2008 as best as we can surmise, Mister Perry caught another case of The Real Estate Fickle because the 22-acre property was taken off the market and construction resumed with the idea, we hear, that this will be Mister Perry's rarely used west coast crib. But Your Mama ain't holding our breath because if history is any predictor of the future we'd not be least bit surprised if mercurial Mister Perry changed his damn mind and decided to flip this beehawtcha back on the market and buy a new damn house in Malee-boo–where he did once own a ocean front getaway that he sold in the spring of 2007. Phew!

The relatively new and totally nouveau riche Beverly Ridge community is home to a number of other hoity toity big name sorts including Alexis Carson–that would be Johnny's insanely rich widow, and former professional pigskinner turned interior decorator Keyshawn Johnson. It's also the same community where Paris Latsis, heir to a great Greek shipping, banking, and oil fortune, once bought a mansion for he and then fiancée Paris Hilton to live. However, like all of Miss Hilton's high profile romances with far less famous men, her short lived relationship with Boy Paris swirled down the terlit of love.

In early 2009, Atlanta-based Mister Perry heaved his Fairburn, GA home–all 17,252 square feet it–on the market with an asking price of $3,695,000 so that he could move to an even bigger, (approximately) 30,000 square foot monument to his wealth and success on 17 suburban Atlanta acres overlooking the Chatahootchie River. Mister Perry's Fairburn mansion no longer appears to be on the open market, but property records show it's still taking up space in his bulging real estate portfolio.

Superman Nabs New Nest in the Bev Hills Post Office

BUYER: Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford
LOCATION: Beverly Hills (Post Office), CA
PRICE: $1,213,000
SIZE: 1,690 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: With a tip from those bizzy boys at Celebrity Address Aerial and an additional assist by our all-knowing informant Lucy Spillerguts, Your Mama sussed out that corn fed former model turned chisel chinned actor Brandon Routh and his actress wife Courtney Ford recently picked up a modest–if not exactly inexpensive–new nest in Beverly Hills, CA. Technically, the Routh's new residence is located in the Beverly Hills Post Office area and not in the city of Beverly Hills proper, a geographic and civic distinction of vital import to real estate snobs in the 90210.

Mister Routh, a man with a vigorously pumped up chest as smooth as a baby's boo-tox, is best known for his 2006 portrayal of Superman, a role that earned him heaps of fame but not so much in the way of continued professional success. Although he has appeared in a dozen or so films since squeezing his bulging body into Superman's delectably revealing, skin tight spandex body suit, the most notable post-Superman role for comely Mister Routh has been as the boy-beau of a gay porn star in Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Among a long list of one-time appearances on a number of boob-toob programs, Mister Routh's lovely wife Courtney's claim to Tinseltown fame is a recurring role on the 2009 season of critically acclaimed, serial killer cable program Dexter.

In January of 2010, according to property records, the pulchritudinous pair paid $1,213,000 to purchase a cutesy cottage in the Beverly Hills Post Office area of Los Angeles. Listing information for the rustic, "treehouse" like residence indicates the house sits high above the street on a .29 acre hillside lot. Property records reveal cottage-style house measures 1,690 square feet and includes 3 bedrooms and 2 poopers.

A long, white picket fence lined driveway curls up the hill towards the two car garage that sits under the main portion of the house. A flight of glut-busting steps winds up to a wide, covered front porch with flagstone flooring. The front door opens into a narrow entrance hall that in turn gives way to the living/dining room where there are dark stained parquet floors, a beamed ceiling, large brick fireplace flanked by built-in book shelves, a window seat, and a wall of French doors that open to the wide terrace the stretches across the front of the house and looks out into the surrounding tree tops.

Beyond the living/dining room is the family room where the previous owners hung a flat screen tee-vee on the wall and rust colored Roman shades over the multi-paned sash windows. The charm of the room's charming Dutch door–Your Mama loves us a Dutch door–is somewhat diminished by the disturbingly old-fashioned ceiling fan that Your Mama recommends Mister and Missus Routh replace, iffin they haven't already done so. The children will note that while the color of the hardwood floors stays nicely consistent throughout the house, there is an undeniable and jarring decorative disturbance where parquet flooring in living/dining room butts up agains the multi-width plank flooring in the family room. This sort of pairing of floor patterns is entirely unacceptable as far as Your Mama is concerned but, if if must be done, the two pattens must, under all circumstances be divide by a sill of some sort.

Because the cottage is tucked up in the hillside, only a slim brick paved space at the rear serves at the backyard proper. However, there are several other terraces and outdoor areas including a grassy spot around the side of the house just outside the kitchen and family room where a stone terrace and freestanding brick built barbecue makes for shady summertime grillin' and chillin'.

Perhaps Mister and Missus Routh could not afford more a more celebrity style crib or maybe, just maybe, we're starting to see a trend towards young Hollywood types wising up and buying more modest, more affordable, and more livable homes than they were in the mid-2000s when a damn houseplant could get a million dollar mortgage and it seemed like every reality tee-vee denizen and anyone with a minor role on a second rate sitcom was buying shockingly expensive, showy, and high maintenance homes.

Mike Medavoy Catches a Case of the Real Estate Fickle

SELLER: Mike and Irena Medavoy
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $7,495,000
SIZE: 6,200 square feet (approx.), 4 bedrooms 7 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Since sometime in 2001, movie mogul Mike Medavoy and his former ack-tress wife Irena (Dallas, The Love Boat ) made a multitude of attempts to unload their 6 bedroom and 10 pooper quasi-Cape Cod style crib in the guard gated Beverly Park community high in the hills above Los Angeles. They had a real devil of a time, puppies, and over the years the asking price for the 11,729 square foot sprawler spiked as high as $23,500,000 and dipped as low as $15,750,000. Finally, in September of 2009, the Medavoys managed to unload their real estate white elephant for $12,500,000. Twelve and a half million clams is a ton of money by any real estate standard, but according to Your Mama's bejeweled abacus, it's fully 47% less than the twenty three and a half million they were asking in late 2007.

Mister Medavoy, for those who live under a rock, has had a hand in producing more than 300 films including (but far from limited to) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky, Annie Hall, The Terminator franchise, The Silence of the Lambs, and Sleepless in Seattle. In more recent years, as the co-founder and head honcho of Phoenix Pictures, Mister Medavoy has brought a large number of films to the silver screen that include The People Vs. Larry Flynt, The Thin Red Line, All the King's Men, Zodiac, and the Martin Scorsese directed thriller Shutter Island. He is also, for anyone who might care, the father of Emmy winning tee-vee producer Brian Medavoy (Dharma and Greg, Just Shoot Me, American High), and a co-executor of big ol' Marlon Brando's estate.

Anyhoo, at about the same time Mister and Missus Medavoy sold their Beverly Park pad to some corporation with an Indian sounding name–Indian as in India–they snatched up a much more modest residence in the Trousdale Estates area of Beverly Hills. Records show the Medavoy's new mini-manse, built in 1965 for an MGM studio head according to listing information, was purchased for $5,850,000, a million clams less than the original $6,900,000 asking price.

Thanks to our informant Jimmy Jibberjabber, Your Mama learned that Mister and Missus Medavoy caught a case of The Real Estate Fickle and recently flipped their new and newly rehabbed house back on the market with an asking price of of $7,495,000. A few quick flicks of the well worn beads on Your Mama's beloved and bejeweled abacus shows that figure is an eye popping and ballsy 22% increase over what Mister and Missus Medavoy paid for the place just 9 months earlier.

Listing information indicates the south facing single story residence measures (approximately) 6,200 square feet and counts 4 bedrooms and 7 full poopers including the master bedroom with its bland ecru colored carpeting, ebony built-in bookshelves, and glammy terliting facilities that feature marble floors, double sinks and vanities, a large spa tub for two set into a curving wall of sliver windows, and a glittery crystal chandelier hanging over a large, square, white tufted poof. The bedroom count also includes, according to listing information, a separate guest or office suite, den, and staff room.

Double drive gates slide open to a circular drive and small motor court with a pair of side facing two car garages. The entry, flanked by a dizzying number of columns, sits smack in the center of the symmetrical front façade. The double front doors open to a curving, marble floored entry where two mirrored pedestals topped with tall and tight boo-kays of white roses mark the entrance to the oval-shaped formal living room. Your Mama loves us some fresh flowers in the house, but upon our first boozy glance at those' big ol boo-kays in the Medavoy's entry Your Mama thought we were peering inside the front hall of some uppity funeral home on Long Island. The large living room, open to the view and backyard through a trio of French doors that pierce the curving back wall, includes a chunky fireplace, heavy moldings and plush slate gray carpeting that looks to be set into the marble floor. Iffin that carpet is silk–and for seven and a half million bucks we hope it is–it would most certainly feel dee-lishus under bare feet.

The deep pile slate colored carpeting continues into the adjacent and oddly shaped dining room where someone has made the wrong choice to attach a dark, carved wood mantel piece around the fireplace and fill the room with a florist shop's worth of blood red roses that, unfortunately, only furthers the unintentional but distinct and disturbing funeral parlor motif. The kitchen, a long and lean affair with a landing strip like work island, has a generous amount of ebony cabinets, a full complement of high grade stainless steel appliances, and acres of mottled beige and black granite counter tops with a bull nosed edge.

The best room in the Medavoy house, at least as far as Your Mama is concerned, is the oval-shaped library. The dignified but not stuffy and cozily scaled room is lined floor to ceiling with custom built, book filled wood bookshelves (maybe they're maple or pecan?) and glass display shelves full of knick-knacks, paddy-whacks, and other objet d'art. However, someone might want to tell the Medavoy's nice, gay decorator that karate chopping decorative pillows is just not done anymore. In fact, Your Mama's Decorative Rule #17 has long stated that decorative cushions of any size, shape or pattern are not, under any circumstances, to be karate chopped in the middle.

Many of the Medovy's main rooms open to the large, flat, south facing backyard. The palm tree dotted yard has large and well clipped expanses of unnaturally green lawn that stretch out on either side of the swimming pool and attached, circular spa and, according to listing information, and outdoor sauna with shower and bath, whatever that means. And then, of course, there is the unobstructed view that are wide and long to drop the jaw of even the most jaded hillside dwelling Angeleno, at least on the days when the smog and the fog roll out.

The Trousdale Estates neighborhood, which winds up into the hills at the eastern border of Beverly Hills, has a long and rich history of rich and famous residents. According to property records and our knowledgeable compatriot Heidi Hightower, Mister Medavoy's immediate neighbors are a real who's who of Tinseltown, just as they were when he lived up in Beverly Park. They include Gilligan's Island and Brady Bunch creator Sherwood Schwartz, heavy hitting artist Ed Ruscha who owns über agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar's old place, celebrity photographer and prolific music video director Matthew Rolston who now owns former Tonight Show producer Freddy deCordova's old house, super producer Gavin Palone (Curb Your Enthusiasm, My Boys, Zombieland, The Showbiz Show with David Spade, Gilmore Girls), and Andy Sidaris, pioneering director of TV sports programs such the Olympics and the NFL Monday Night Football juggernaut.

With such an abrupt real estate change of heart, Your Mama wonders where oh where will Mike and Irena Medavoy go next? Are they looking to downsize even further? Have they decided that 6,200 square feet is simply two small and are sizing up again? Going condo? Leaving Los Angeles? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?

UPDATE: Mischa Barton

In early March of 2010, Your Mama revealed that down on her professional luck ack-tress/model/troubled starlet about town Mischa Barton (The OC, The Sixth Sense) listed the Beverly Hills, CA house she shares–or shared, we don't know–with her parents and equally troubled sister Whatsername. Our sources snitched–and we were able to confirm–that the property was being shopped off-market for $8,395,000.

Conventional real estate wisdom say that if a house does not sell at $8,395,000, it should probably undergo a price chop and not a price increase as was done with Miss Barton's Mediterranean manse this week when it was officially listed–with a different real estate agent, dontcha know–with a puzzlingly higher asking price of $8,695,000. It's also been put out for lease at $30,000 per month.

Miss Barton and her wealthy parents purchased the 7,607 square foot residence in July of 2005 for $6,400,000 according to property records and previous reports. The gated, three story mansion is located in the same gated enclave as filthy rich HSN-co-founder Bud Paxton and actor John Stamos who Your Mama thinks is a fine specimen of manhood despite his rather bizarre belly button situation.

Listing information indicates that in addition to the 8 bedrooms and 10 poopers, the Barton above has 6 fireplaces, a colossal eat-in kitchen with walk-in pantry, a library, fitness facilities, staff quarters, and guest quarters with separate entrances, private patios, and "hotel style amenities," whatever that is. There are, according to listing information, a seemingly unnecessary cacophony of of flooring materials including carpet, hardwood, marble, stone and tile. The hillside property has views of canyons and Catalina Island, a heated swimming pool and spa, expansive terraces, and meandering pathways that wind along the lower part of the property.

Miss Barton, who seems to have a penchant for bad boy boyfriends and fast living, has in the past expressed interest in living in New York or London but Your Mama hasn't an iota of where she currently resides or what her future real estate plans may be.

Madea–aka Tyler Perry–Lists Modern Mansion in Los Angeles

SELLER: Tyler Perry
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $13,250,000
SIZE: 8,751 square feet, 4 bedrooms 6 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Tyler Perry, the spectacularly successful and prolific writer/actor/director who has made a mountain of money dressing up as a crotchety old woman named Madea, is an out and out real estate size queen. In January of 2009 he listed Avec Chateau, his 17,252 square foot pile in Fairburn, GA that he once told Ebony magazine was a "testament to the rewards of faith" and "what God can do when you believe." Bitch, please. We don't begrudge you your smashing success or vast wealth, but going around saying silly stuff like that chaps Your Mama's already chapped hide. It is just so insulting to all the God fearers and holy rollers out there who spend their entire lives speaking in tongues and tithing ten percent of their meager income and still have to live in a damn double wide smack in the path of a tornado. How are these less fortunate lives a testament to what God can do when you believe? If God wanted Mister Tyler to be so filthy, stinking rich, how come s/he leaves so many true believers to be hungry and poor?

Property records show that Mister Perry has yet to sell his titanic "testament," which is currently listed at $3,650,000. According to multiple and many previous reports, Mister Perry wants to get rid of his first real estate testament to what God can do when you believe because he has spent the last few years building an even larger testament to what God can do if you believe, a 30,000+ square foot beast on 17 acres overlooking the Chatahoochie River in suburban Atlanta, GA. Well, good for him. This is America, dammit, where a filthy rich single man can and should be able to have a house the size of a damn Wal-Mart iffin he has a fool notion to want it. Have mercy and hand Your Mama a nerve pill, please.

Anyhoo, we digress. Word on the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine is that for the last few months Mister Perry and his real estate people quietly shopped his little used uber-modern mansion in Los Angeles' Sunset Strip area with an asking price of around $15,000,000. With no takers, or at least no one serious enough to sign on the dotted line, Mister Perry shifted gears, swapped real estate agents, and hoisted his dramatic digs on to the open market with an asking price of $13,250,000.

Property records and other sources Your Mama can't reveal tell us that in November of 2006 Mister Perry paid $9,600,000 for the sleek and sexified SPF:architects designed edifice that measures, according to listing information, 8,751 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms and 6 poopers. When the glassy manse was built it contained, according to the architects' website, a two level "concrete plinth base" that holds the 3 car garage fronted by stainless steel doors, a screening room, billiards room, home fitness center, wine cellar and a damn disco, because everyone needs a nightclub in their private home, right? Current listing information also states that the boldly built house boasts "spaceship views" and several feats of architectural chutzpah including a curved and mirrored wall in the billiards room that is actually a window into the depths of the swimming pool–perfect for pervy voyeurs–and a glass catwalk that acts as the ceiling of the wine cellar, another potentially pervy architectural device.

Although it is a long, long, long slog up Byzantine and twisty roads, trust Your Mama when we tell the children that Mister Perry's house is supremely sited at the tippy-top of the famed Bird Street neighborhood. The house hovers high above the surrounding homes, some of which are owned by famous folks like crooner Michael Bublé, R&B singer Robin Thicke–that's Alan's son, Fran Drescher's recently outed gay ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson, and Jenny Aniston, who still owns the very first bachelorette pad she bought with Friends money and appears to still use as some sort of office/storage facility for her vintage Mercedes.

Mister Perry is hardly a stranger to high priced real estate in Los Angeles. The cross-dressing showbiz mogul owned ocean front house in Malee-boo that he purchased in 2005 for $3,375,000 and, according to property records, sold in April of 2007 for $4,800,000. In the mid-2000s, Mister Perry planned to build an approximately 22,000 square foot Mediterranean mansion on an undeveloped 22-acre sprawl behind the guarded gates of the Beverly Ridge community up in the hills above Beverly Hills. In the fall of 2007, after laying down the cement foundation for the big house, Mister Perry caught a case of The Real Estate Fickle and heaved the property on the market for $15,000,000. Public records indicate that the property remains in Mister Perry's property portfolio.

photos: Keller Williams Realty Sunset via Redfin

Your Mama Hears...

...from two separate sources that Michael Huffington–the oil heir turned Republican Congressman turned wannabe Senator turned homosexual activist turned film producer who was once married to political commentator and media maven Arianna Huffington, was recently thisclose to closing on a very contemporary crib high above the Sunset Strip but got some real estate cold feet and bailed out.

The rejected property, a newly built beast high up in the famed and star studded Bird Streets where the streets are named after, you got it, birds, has 6,200 square feet (approx.), 4 bedrooms 5.5 poopers, all the electronic bells and whistles a person can imagine, 200 bottle wine cellar, Valcucine kitchen, an 1,800 square foot master suite with private sitting and study, generous terraces both covered and not, a fire on ice fire pit–jeezis holy mary mother of god Your Mama hates those things–built in barbecue, roof top terrace, dramatic infinity edged swimming pool, too die for jetliner views, and an beefy asking price of $13,900,000.

Your Mama hears through the gay gossip grapevine–but can not confirm–that the Boston-based late bloomer and his man-friend want a bigger and better west coast crib–they already own at least 1 condo in L.A–so they can spend more time in L.A. to better facilitate Mister Huffington's desire to increase his prominence in the showbiz industry as a producer of small but meaningful films. To date he has executive produced a number of (mostly) gay-themed films and documentaries including Father vs. Son, Bi the Way, the earnest but wildly campy We're All Angels, A Jihad for Love and For the Bible Tells Me So.

A peep and a poke through property records indicates Mister Huffington's real estate portfolio bulges with high priced properties, mostly condominiums. In Boston, Mister Huffington beds down in a 2,621 square foot penthouse condo near the Boston Common with 3 bedrooms and 4.5 poopers purchased in May of 2005 for $3,200,000. Records also indicate that Mister Huffington maintains a 2 bedroom and 3 pooper condo property in a fancy high-rise building in Marina del Rey, CA purchased in April of 2006 for $2,025,000 as well as a 4,522 square foot condo purchased in October of 2007 and located in the same hoity-toity Houston, TX high-rise where that scoundrel Ken Lay and his wife lived in a full floor extravaganza of expensive but not particularly good taste. Records also reveal that in October of 2003, Mister Huffington laid out $1,360,000 for residential lot inside the gates of the swank Four Seasons Resort Lana'i at Manele Bay on the island of Lana'i in Hawaii and a few years later, in July of 2006, he scooped up the adjacent property for $1,250,00.