Billy Bob (Thornton) Buys in Brentwood

BUYER: Billy Bob Thornton
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $2,700,000
SIZE: 3,603 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 3.75 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Last December (2012) Billy Bob Thornton sold his 11,000+ square foot hacienda style mansion in the flats of Beverly Hills for $8,000,000 to a not-famous but obviously very rich couple, he an orthopedic surgeon and she a dentist.*

The quirky Oscar winning actor/writer/director (Sling Blade, A Simple Plan, Jayne Mansfield's Car) must be looking for a little more peace, quiet and privacy. His new and secluded Tinseltown home—a modestly scaled Connecticut country traditional acquired in late January 2013 for $2,700,000—is located deep into affluent and Arcadian Mandeville Canyon in the Brentwood area, well past philanthropist Glorya Kaufman's 48-acre Amber Hills estate and the 112-acre Robert Taylor Ranch that, after first being listed years ago for $65,000,000, finally sold last year at auction for $12,000,000 to a Chicago-based concern. But we digress...

Listing details show the secluded two-story, 3,603 square foot sycamore tree surrounded house was built in the late 1950s at the tail end of a long gated driveway. We don't know if Mister Thornton chose to keep the color scheme or not but at the time he acquired the residence the board and batten exterior was painted a shade Your Mama might describe as light mushroom with bright white trim and an extra-vivid tomato red front door with Old-Timey diamond paned windows. Listing details we dug up online show the five bedroom and 3.75 bathroom domicile has been totally remodeled and updated with modern creature comforts that include central HVAC, water filtration and hardcore security systems.

A monolithic double-sided stacked stone fireplace separates the roomy living room—with wood floors and large windows on three walls—from the formal dining room that comfortably seats eights and spills out to the backyard through a matching pair of French-type doors on two walls.

The eat-in center island kitchen looks recently renovated in a country meets modern manner with crisp white Shaker style cabinetry, Carrara marble counter tops, a walk-in pantry, white porcelain apron front sink, high grade stainless steel appliances. A raised snack bar separates the kitchen proper from the built-in banquette dining area where French doors open to a partially covered flagstone dining terrace.

Four guest/family bedrooms on the main floor share two full and one three quarter bathrooms while the entire second floor is given over to the master suite that's complete with fitted walk-in closet, marble bathroom and an adjoining office/den/nursery that—like the bedroom itself—opens through French doors to a private balcony.

A sinuous, curving stacked stone wall topped by a meticulously clipped boxwood hedge makes a strong demarcation between the manicured areas of the backyard and the rugged, steep hillside that rises behind the house. The backyard isn't particularly big but its amenities are many and in addition to the aforementioned flagstone dining terrace off the kitchen, there's a pill-shaped and solar heated saltwater swimming pool ringed by more flagstone terracing, an also flag stoned lounge area with massive free-standing stacked stone fireplace, a flat and partially tree-shaded grassy area perfect for piddling pooches, a children's playhouse and a stacked stone barbecue/wet bar/ kitchen with built-in keg tap. Maybe it's just Your Mama who prefers real liquor over beer but a built-in beer tap is just never classy, is it? No, it's not, is it? Not even when its attached to a $2.7 million dollar house in a posh L.A. zip code.

There certain places one can look on the internets that say Mister Thornton owns—or owned—a penthouse in Paris but Your Mama don't know nuthin' about that celebrity real estate canard. We do know that property records show Mister Thornton still owns a four bedroom and three bathroom residence in Malibu, CA—on a gated cul-de-sac just north of the PCH above Point Dume—that he picked up in April 2007 for $2,350,000.

*Property records show Mister Thronton and his fifth and last wife Angelina Jolie purchased the gated mini-estate in August 2000 for  $3,750,000. In May 2003, subsequent to their much publicized split, the nine bedroom and eight bathroom Bev Hills abode was deeded exclusively to Mister Thornton.

listing photos: Prudential California

Hodge Podge Thursday: Those Crazy Grammers

Five time Emmy winning sitcom star Kelsey Grammer may be married to and making babies with his fourth wife, Kayte, but he's still deep in real estate doo-doo with his third ex-wife, Camille Grammer.

Those of the children who keep up to date on such things already know that third ex-Missus Grammer was, once upon a time, an MTV dancer and, along with Adrienne Maloof, was reportedly just relieved of her part-time gig on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Anyhoo, back when they were married Mister and third ex-Missus Grammer lived large, hunties. Their property portfolio swelled with luxury properties that they often bought and sold at a rapid fire rate. They owned several mansions in the pricier zip codes of Los Angeles including a gigantic 17,800 square foot pile with a dozen poopers in Beverly Park, an elegant Bel Air mini-mansion they sold in 2007 to Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault for $13.5 million and a sprawling equestrian-equipped compound in Malibu's serene and star studded Serra Retreat. Third ex-Missus Grammer, who still occupies (and owns) the Malibu compound, briefly put it on the open market last year for almost $18 million.

The lavish living couple owned at least one house in Hawaii (ownership status unknown), maintained an almost 200-acre country compound in Upstate New York (still owned by Mister Grammer as far as we know) and a house in the Hamptons (sold in May 2011 for $9,995,000).

Mister and third ex-Missus Grammer also and still co-own a spacious ski chalet near Vail in Avon, CO—listed since at least March 2011 and currently priced at $6,995,000—as well as a nearly 11,000 square foot faux-Tudor sprawler in the north of Sunset section of L.A.'s hoity-toity Holmby Hills 'hood that they've been trying to sell since almost the day they bought it in June 2007 for $13,700,000. They first had it on the open market in July 2008 with an $19.9 million price tag but since then it has been de- and re-listed more times at various than Your Mama can be bothered to count. Earlier this week the price was slashed by a million bucks to $14,995,000.

It was recently revealed in the tabloid papers and celebrity gossip blogs that Mister Grammer hoped to move his new family into the Holmby Hills house in order to save some money but, as any sane person would imagine, third ex-Missus Grammer balked at the idea.

Mister Grammer, bless his real estate heart, dished out $6.5 million in April 2012 for an especially charming Spanish Colonial style casa in the flats of Beverly Hills, CA. His most recent sitcom endeavor, Boss, was axed in the fall of 2012 after its sophomore season and soon after that Mister and fourth Missus Grammer put their newly acquired house up for least at $30,000 per month. Shortly after than, just after 2012 became 2013, Mister and fourth Missus Grammer heaved the house back on the market with a notably higher $7,250,000 price tag.

listing photo: Coldwell Banker

Hodge Podge Thursday: Matt Drudge

The Miami Herald reported this week that famously reclusive pork pie hat wearing conservative-minded pundit and news media power player Matt Drudge—creator and operator of the influential, controversial and sometimes polarizing news portal the Drudge Report—paid $700,000 in cold hard cash for a decidedly unpretentious 4.7 acre spread about 35 miles south (and a bit west) of South Beach (FL).

Listing details Your Mama teased up out of the internets shows the a long electric gated protected driveway leads deep into the property where there's a 4,605 square foot residence divided into a three bedroom and three bathroom front house and separate, self-contained in-law quarters at the back with living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The property has a (raggedly looking) tennis court, what appears to be a long row of (icky looking) dog kennels, an organic garden and fruit orchard and plenty of room of an Olympic sized swimming pool

The property happens to sit right up next door to the 6,460 square foot house on 4.7 acres that Mister Drudge acquired in July 2011 for $1,450,000. That gives the internet mini-mogul a total of 9.4 acres and just over ten thousand square feet of living space out in the semi-rural suburban outskirts of Miami.

Property records also show Mister Drudge also owns a 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom home on Miami Beach's upscale Venetian Islands chain—due west of South Beach's Lincoln Road—that he scooped up in October 2003 for $1.4 million.

listing photos: Laplaya Properties Group via Hot Pads

Hodge Podge Thursday: Carmelo and La La

In early January (2013) the celebrity press corps reported that professional basketball supernova Carmelo "Melo" Anthony and his—ahem—whimsically named wife La La had done split up and were living on separate coasts. Rumors and reports of their split—denied by the couple—surfaced on the heels of an off-court altercation between the extraordinarily well compensated 6-foot-8 New York Knickerbocker forward* and some dude on the Boston Celtics who naughtily snarked that La La "tastes like Honey Nut Cheerios." Maybe that's not a very nice thing to say to a man about his lady—and it can definitely be construed as a not very nice thing to say about a lady—but there are certainly far less flattering things that Celtic could have said La La tastes like, right?

Anyhoo, we don't know if Melo and La La did or did not actually split up or take some sort of marital break but the newest reports from the celebrity property gossips at the New York Post reveal that the allegedly rekindled and maybe even always kindled couple have signed a $29,000 per month lease for a 4,022 square foot high-floor apartment in a completely renovated pre-war building on upper Fifth Avenue. And, children, we mean upper Fifth Avenue.

Twenty nine grand is a stunning sum of money to drop every month on rent by any reasonable standard but the building is so far up Fifth Avenue—it's at 102nd Street—that Your Mama is quite certain at least of few of our sassy resident estate snobs will clutch their pearls, narrow their eyes and straight up call it Harlem regardless of how much money Melo and La La are laying down every month in rent for the five bedroom and 4.5 bathroom spread.

Anyhoo, the park view apartment has, according to the floor plan included with marketing materials, a combination living/dining room, an adjoining library/music room, a separate den/media room and a decent sized but hardly huge kitchen tucked back behind an L-shaped service corridor with laundry, powder pooper, coat closet, pantry and an en suite bedroom suitable for a live in domestic. Most of the three other guest/family/staff bedrooms are pretty puny—one is just eight feet wide, another less than 10 feet wide—but, in addition to a good-sized bedroom, the circuitously accessed master suite has a separate sitting room, three walk-in closets and a hotel-style bathroom with two sink vanity and separate tub and shower set up.

Oddly and perhaps ironically enough, in 2011 there was talk in the media that Mister and Missus Anthony were not interested in spending thirty grand a month for a New York City rental apartment no matter how nice and were on the hunt for a house in some of New Jersey's more affluent areas. Well, Your Mama doesn't know a thing about the veracity of that but we do know that three years later—that would be now—they are (allegedly) dropping just about thirty big ones a month for an apartment in Manhattan. A bit more than two years ago, in December 2010, the couple unloaded a fully landscaped 5.74 acre compound in Littleton, CO compound for $6,180,000, nearly six million less than the $12 million they paid for the place four years earlier. Listing details still accessible online shows the 21,083 square foot main mansion (above) has 8 bedrooms, 7 fireplace, 15 terlits, a home theater and—natch—a gym. Ancillary structures include a guest house, sound studio, three stall barn (with fenced pasture and pond).

*According to the Hoops Hype website Mister Anthony is all set to rake in $21,490,000 for the 2013/14 season, not counting any endorsements, bonuses or other income he may have. His salary will fatten by more than two million dollars for the 1014/15 season.

listing photos and floor plan (New York City): Core via Street Easy
listing photo (Littleton): The Kentwood Company

Hodge Podge Thursday: Kathy Najimy

Actress and comedian Kathy Najimy (King of the Hill, Veronica's Closet, the Sister Act movie franchise) and her long-time actor/singer husband Dan Finnerty have hoisted their house in the hills above Studio City, CA on the market with an asking price of $1,875,000.

Property records show Miz Najimy paid $550,000 for the gated and very private property way back in 1994 and current listing details show the single story contemporary ranch style residence—the long-legged gal at Trulia Luxe Living called it a "Fixer-Upper"—measures 3,409 square feet with a voluminous vaulted ceiling in the living and dining rooms, an eat-in kitchen, four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Theres a backyard with swimming pool, spa and panoramic views of the San Fernando Valley as well as an attached garage that's been converted to a so-described "creative space" with a "recording room area."

Interesting tidbit apropos of nothing real estate related: Miz Najimy and Mister Finnerty were married in 1995 in New York City in a ceremony officiated by women's lib pioneer Gloria Steinem. Imagine that?

listing photos: Prudential California

Hodge Podge Thursday: Taylor Swift

Unlucky in love country music queen Taylor Swift was cryptic, antagonistic and seven kinds of sarcastic when Vanity Fair profiler Nancy Jo Sales recently asked her if she really spent $4.8 million to buy a house in Hyannis Port (M) that sits right up next door to her former boyfriend Conor Kennedy's fabled family compound on Cape Cod.

At the time these reports of her buying the 7 bedroom and 5.5 bathroom Cope Cod Colonial surfaced n all the gossip glossies she was dating the political scion but that summer romance came to an abrupt end about the time the leaves turned and weather went chilly that fall.

Said she, '"...that's a thing that I apparently do. If I like you I will apparently buy up the real=estate market just to freak you out so you leave me."'

Well, puppies, that little minx-y Grammy magnet did buy that house. However, it's now been revealed by the celebrity gossip juggernaut TMZ that a few weeks ago little Miss Swift very quietly flipped the waterfront property for $875,000 more than she paid.

Avid celebrity real estate watchers will recall that soon after she and young Mister Kennedy broke up Miss Swift quickly got with map-haired English boy bander Harry Styles and in November (2012) was much rumored and reported to be shopping for a house near the house in North London's Hampstead Heath that also 18 year old Mister Style scooped up last year for around £3 million. 'Member that? That probably wasn't true either.

Anyhoo, as far as we know Miss Swift still owns a mini-compound in Beverly Hills (CA), a ludicrously decorated duplex penthouse in downtown Nashville and a grand Neoclassical mini-mansion in a swanky gated enclave about 3.5 miles from downtown Nashville.

listing photos: Curbed via Robert Paul Properties via Zillow

Broadway Pasha Hal Prince Gives it Another Go

SELLER: Hal and Judith Prince
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $21,000,000
SIZE: 7,375 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 full and 3 half bathrooms (plus a 2,000 square foot basement level with a puny staff suite)

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Thanks to the ever intrepid digital machinations of our friend and aide de camp Hot Chocolate Your Mama has learned that 21-time Tony winning Broadway producer and director Hal Prince and his wife Judith have (re-)listed their rather theatrically decorated modern meets vintage New York City townhouse with an aksing price of $21,000,000.

Mister Prince, an octogenarian with a career in The Theatre that spans more than 60 years, produced and/or directed dozens of plays, musicals and operas including but far from limted to The Pajama Game (1955), Cabaret (1966), Company (1970), Sweeney Todd (1979), The Phantom of the Opera (1988), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993), the original and numerous revivals of Fiddler on the Roof (including the most recent one in 2005) and the recently closed revival of Evita that starred Puerto Rican bon-bon shaker Ricky Martin, a musical theater mega-hit originally directed by Mister Prince in 1978.

Property records and various online reports from the time show Mister and Missus Prince purchase their Upper East Side townhouse in December 2009 for $12,500,000. This was several months after he and his missus listed their 4,750 square foot multi-terrace duplex digs at the particularly posh 834 Fifth Avenue with a sky high asking pice of $33,000,000.*

This is not, as it turns out, the first time at this real estate rodeo for Mister and Missus Prince who first listed the six story tall and 20-foot wide Neo-Georgian townhouse back in July 2012 with a slightly higher $22 million asking price.

Some of the notable features of the Princes' townhouse pad include: A cavernous 44-floot long living room with fireplace, tiny terrace, candy apple red wall to wall carpeting and soaring 20-foot ceilings; A four-story skylit atrium over the main stair case; A fully finished basement level with various mechanical equipment rooms, laundry facility, itty-bitty staff room with equally bantam bathroom, a flexi-use "recreation room" and a sky-lit home gym set.

In addition to the elevator and the nearly hidden staircase in the ground floor foyer, the basement in general and the gym in particular can be accessed via a discrete (and discreet) glass enclosed staircase in the refurbished eat-in kitchen. Speaking of the kitchen, it's located on the ground floor behind the candy-cane inspired formal dining room. Your Mama most assuredly appreciates the size of the kitchen and the fact that it opens to the rear garden but we're more than a little betwixt and befuddled by the pill-shaped center island that's set disturbingly at an askew to the room and surmounted by a rather elaborate, industrial and lethal-looking pot rack.

There's a single bedroom space on the third floor that does not, according to the floor plan (above) have direct access to a full bathroom except by traipsing through one of the two other bedrooms on the fourth floor that each have built-in cabinetry and small but private attached bathrooms.

The fifth floor master suite is, unfortunately, composed of two separate spaces bisected by the stair hall and atrium. At the south end there's a dressing hall, large bathroom that looks over the tub into the atrium and a decent sized bedroom with a full wall of windows that probably effectively harness any available light but don't do much for privacy from the surrounding townhouse and apartment buildings. At the street-facing north end a bedroom (with private attached bathroom) has been converted into a custom-fitted dressing room.

Other creature comforts and luxurious amenities of the fully renovated townhouse include a complete Crestron home automation system throughout, all new systems and mechanicals throughout and an elevator that serves all floors including the basement but excluding the sixth floor penthouse level solarium that Mister and Missus Prince use as Pilates studio and that opens through a wall of windows to a south-facing roof terrace whimsically carpeted with faux grass.

*In early 2010 the price for Mister Prince's duplex at 834 Fifth Avenue dropped to $29,500,00. In mid 2010 it plummeted another two million to $27,500,000 and finally in November 2010 the price was chopped to $24,900,000 before it was removed from the market just before the comsumer-driven Christian holidays in December (2010). The apartment finally sold in the late spring of 2011 for its full final asking price of $24,900,000 to Blackstone president and COO Hamilton "Tony" James and his wife Amabel. The apartment has three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms (plus two staff rooms and bathrooms), a fully paneled solarium, a 550-square foot formal living room, a formal dining room that does double duty as a library and roomy kitchen with massive butler's pantry and walk-in pantry.

Other residents in the low-key but super swank Roasrio Candela-designed pre-war edifice at 834 Fifth Avenue include Laurie Tisch, Levi's widow and hieress Miriam Haas, Charles (and Helen) Schwab, financier John Gutfreund and his internationally social wife Susan, couture clad high society fixture Carole Petrie, Bing Crosby's son Harry, Greek shipping tycoon George Livanos and Rupert Murdoch who owns the titanic triplex penthouse. One of the newest residents of 834 is high earning hedge hog Phillipe Laffont who last October (2012) paid $24 million for a low floor 15-room duplex with extensive staff quarters that include more than half a dozen staff rooms. In early 2012 multi-billionaire Robert Bass and wife Anne dropped $42,000,000 for the 12th floor sprawler sold by financier Damon Mezzacappa. For a more complete list of residents (as of late 2010) see here. 

listing photos and floor plan: Fox Residential and Brown Harris Stevens