Sunday, July 17, 2011

Goldie Hawn Bailing on Broad Beach





SELLERS: Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell
LOCATION: Malibu, CA
PRICE: $14,749,000
SIZE: 4,195 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: For at least as long as Your Mama has been getting dirty in the celebrity real estate sandbox Oscar-winning comedian and actress Goldie Hawn and her long-time man-mate Kurt Russell have put their Malibu, CA beach house on the summer rental market with an asking price of $95,000 per month. This year the Hawn-Russells not only lowered their monthly asking price to $80,000 per month they also hoisted their 1970s contemporary meets Bali beachfront digs on the market with an asking price of $14,749,000.

Miz Hawn started up her ladder of fame and fortune in the late 1960s and early 1970s as an amazingly ditsy dingle berry blond on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. She went on to star in iconic if sometimes silly cinematic gems that include but are far from limited to Cactus Flower, Private Benjamin, The First Wives Club and Overboard. Along the way she married twice and made a couple of babies (Kate and Oliver Hudson), both of whom have gone on to nepotistic showbiz success.

In the mid 1980s the bubbly and bubble-headed Miz Hawn–far more intelligent than her dizzy hair-brained image might suggest–hooked up with beau-hunky actor Kurt Russell (Used Cars, Silkwood, Tango & Cash, Backdraft). Almost 30 years later they remain coupled but have not hitched their wagons in the eyes of God and government. They did produce one child (Wyatt Russell) who looks a lot like his lantern-jawed daddy and who dabbles in the entertainment industry but primarily plays semi-professional ice hockey in Canada or Europe or somewhere.

The Hawn-Hudson-Russell family bunked in uppity Pacific Palisades community of Los Angeles starting sometime in the 1980s. Miz Hawn and Mister Russell still maintain a residence in the upscale enclave–as does daughter Kate Hudson–and property records indicate that sometime in the late 1980s Miz Hawn and Mister Russell acquired a beach house in the Bu for an undisclosed amount of money.

Current listing information for the Hawn-Russell residence, located along celebrity-lined Broad Beach, shows it was redesigned and renovated in 2005, measures around 4,300 square feet–the L.A. County Tax Man shows it's 4,195 square feet–and includes a total of 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms plus additional living space above the detached three car garage that stands between the street and the main house.

A small courtyard abloom in tropical flora creates a serene buffer between the hustle and bustle of the Pacific Coast Highway and the Zen extravaganza Miz Hawn has fashioned from a 1970s contemporary crib. A double height entry with flagstone floor makes a grand statement and sets the decorative stage for what Your Mama think of as the very epitome of west coast entertainment industry bigwig meets the Dalai Lama meets Calcutta brahmin style of day-core.

Far be it from Your Mama to cast aspersions, throw shade or otherwise dis the needy souls of others but there seems to be something about the ugly and grueling Bizness of Show that creates a gaping need in the souls of so many who toil in The Industry to seek out alternative religions and eastern philosophies. Never in our long and boozy life have we seen so many mandalas, altars, images of Shiva and statuettes of Buddha as in the showbiz-washed confines of the Los Angeles real estate whirligig.

Just like an epic mansion appearing in the pages of Architectural Digest sometimes signals that it will soon hit the market, a Buddha statue in the entrance hall or by the pool is a strong signal that a home is owned by a celebrity or someone else involved in the entertainment and glamour-puss professions. Anyhoodles poodles, getting back to the matter at hand...

The Hawn-Russell's spacious double-height entry, with its phalanx of Chinoserie this and thats and Buddhist knick-knacks makes a dramatic decorative statement that only catches on fire in the main living area of the house that includes a living room with soaring ceiling and fireplace with massive stone chimney breast and a dining room with frameless glass doors–the type usually seen installed at an office building or department store–that open the room to a large flagstone seaside terrace.

Adjoining the more traditional living area a low carved wood table with mis-matched pillow cushion seats aligns with another set of frameless glass doors that open to a pocket garden/shrine where a Buddha statue—or some other eastern god–sits atop a small fountain that spills into a carved stone lotus flower basin and evokes aural images of atonal chanting. Just a quick crawl from the low table a sizable and well-stocked wet bar with fabric tented ceiling treatment makes Your Mama pee with glee. It's not that we love the tented ceiling treatment–meh!–it's all the top shelf booze they got up in there. Plus we j'adore that absolutely asinine table lamp with the cast bronze pedestal and the shade painted with a giant camel standing stock still in a sunset desert scene.

The dining room is open to the large but cozy center island country kitchen with dark Shaker-style cabinets, heavily veined granite counter tops, commercial-style stainless steel appliances and an over-sized porcelain farmhouse sink. Just off the entry a small but state of the art media room has silky- and velvety-looking sofas, a giant tufted ottoman and scads of decorative pillows covered in what looks like fabrics purchased in The East. A wide-screen built into a wall of cabinetry is flanked by bookshelves with carved wood Islamic arches and fretwork.

The celebrity-sized second floor master bedroom has a pitched wood ceiling with exposed beams, clerestory windows, stone fireplace and a private ocean-side terrace with stunning view across the grassy backyard to the hot sand and glittering ocean beyond. There's a large walk-in closet, according to listing information, and a sky-lit Chinese onyx bathroom with dressing table, double sinks and separate shower. Louvered panels behind the soaking tub slide open to allow those who like to sit in a vat of hot water boiling like a potato to peer across the upper part of the living room/lounge/bar area below and out a tall wall of glass towards the ocean.

Above the garage Miz Hawn–both Jewish and a long-time practicing Buddhist–has a compact but well-equipped fitness room with mirrored walls and wood floors. An adjacent meditation room with vibrant orange walls looks to Your Mama like it probably has drawers full of finger cymbals and reeks of Nag Champa incense.

The back wall of the house, a towering wall of smoked glass, looks out and opens to a large ocean side entertainment and dining terrace protected from the prying eyes of paps and beach goers by rolling sand dunes. One side of the terrace is anchored by a built-in grilling station and the other by a carved wood pergola probably antique and probably imported from a shrine of some sort in Bombay or Jakarta. Thickets of tropical foliage frame the postcard perfect view past the picket fence and over the sand dunes towards the melodramatic magnificence of the Pacific Ocean.

Unfortunately for its multi-millionaire residents and their multi-million dollar residences, Broad Beach has a serious erosion problem and last year homeowners agreed to fund a 4,000 foot long and 8-foot high rock revetment meant to protect the homes on the sand from being destroyed by the relentless tides. A few of the other high-profile peeps who own ocean front homes along Broad Beach include Steven Spielberg, Jami Gertz, Ray Romano, Pierce Brosnan, Mike Ovitz, Danny Devito and Rhea Pearlman, Dustin Hoffman, Marvel Studios magnate Avi Arad, tool and die tycoon Eric Smidt and money manager Mark Attanasio.

Miz Hawn and Mister Russell own, according to property records and The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Real Estate Aerial, a number of other residences including a 5,057 square foot house in Pacific Palisades (CA) bought in August 2004 for $4,124,591. The Tinseltown couple purchased the property just a few months after they sold a much larger house 7 bedroom and 12 pooper house directly across the street to comedian Adam Sandler for $12,000,000.

Miz Hawn's daughter Kate Hudson–Mister Russell's step-daughter–has owned a Pac Pal residence just a few blocks away from her parents since 2003 and in March 2011–at that time preggers with musician Matt Bellamy's baby–she dropped $5,300,000 on the 5 bedroom and 6.5 bathroom mansion next door. We're not sure what Miss Hudson and Mister Bellamy's plans for the second residence are but we do know that they've already knocked down the fence between the two backyards.

Just outside of Snowmass (CO) Miz Hawn and Mister Russell own a 70-plus acre spread with at least two residences and several barns, up in Canada they have a substantial waterfront estate north of Toronto on Lake Rousseau and on they own a 3,549 square foot penthouse pad on the west side of Midtown Manhattan acquired in the summer of 1998 for an unknown amount of money.

listing photos: Coldwell Banker / Malibu Colony