Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Your Mama Hears...

...from a frightfully well-connected informant we'll call Patty Propertyseller that Her Madgesty Madonna has surreptitiously made her Beverly Hills, CA estate available as a pocket listing.

As soon as Patty Propertyseller dropped that juicy celebrity real estate nugget in our fat lap a day or two ago we contacted a few of our other trusted tattletales and quickly heard back from Knancy Knowsthedish—like Patty Propertyseller, an exceedingly well-connected Beverly Hills real estate insider—who snitched that Madge wants $28,000,000 for her French Country-style mansion that sits down a long gated drive off a particularly swish stretch of Sunset Boulevard.

When in residence in Beverly Hills the still-epically-famous-at-50 international superstar is surrounded by massive mansions and exuberantly landscaped estates owned by high fallutin' folks like Stewart and Lynda Resnick, star maker Simon Cowell, sitcom royal Max Mutchnick, and shopping mall magnate Guilford Glazer. Last year it was widely reported Madonna's Bev Hills estate sits next door to the depressingly disheveled Richard Neutra-designed Kronish House bought last October (2011) for $12,800,000 by—Your Mama heard last year from Anita Tellsomebody—Paris Hilton's ex-beau, Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos.

Miz Ciccone Penn Ritchie bought her 1.14-acre Sunset Boulevard estate back in June 2003 when married to her most recent ex-hubby English filmmaker Guy Ritchie. The seller was actress Sela Ward (CSI: NY, House M.D., Sisters). Property records aren't entirely clear but most reports on the matter say she/they paid around (or exactly) $12,000,000.

The Los Angeles County Tax Man shows the main house measures 5,800 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms but those figures may or may not be accurate given the lavish-living Madonna is thought to have expanded and completely redecorated the residence. Knancy Knowsthedish didn't drop the 411 on the number of bedrooms and bathrooms but did mention the interiors are "comfy" and "surprisingly normal." 

The house sits at the rear of the essentially-flat parcel that includes substantial off-street parking, intimate gardens tucked behind and around the side of the main house, a lighted tennis court, and a rectangular swimming pool with an adjacent pool house.

Some of the children may recall this is the very house, so the story we (and others) heard through the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine goes, David and Victoria Beckham wanted to buy back when they moved to Los Angeles in 2007 but were turned off when Madge (allegedly) jacked up the price by ten or so million clams and then told them she didn't want to sell it after all. Rumor and gossip, kittens, rumor and gossip.

This is not the first—nor will it likely be the last—great house in Los Angeles owned by Madonna. In the mid-1990s she owned Longdons Castle (more familiarly known as Castillo del Lago), a legendary wedding cake of a mansion set high on a slim ridge above Lake Hollywood and currently owned by fashion designer Leon Max.

From there The Material Girl decamped to Los Pavoreales, a sprawling Wallace Neff-designed hacienda in Los Feliz, later owned by Bodhi and Jenna Elfman who sold it to Katey Sagal and Kurt Sutter who sold it to Rachel Sweet and Tom Palmer who sold it in April 2010 for $4,895,000 to a non-celebrity financier. Madge moved on from Los Pavoreales to another Wallace Neff-designed Mediterranean-mansion on North Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills she bought from actress and historic home saver Diane Keaton in May 2002 for around $6,500,000. She sold that house for $8,750,000 shortly after she purchased her current westcoast bedsit, the one she bought from Sela Ward and (allegedly) available for those with the dough able to get in touch with one of the real estate agents in the know.

In addition to her up for grabs abode in Beverly Hills, Madonna's stateside holdings currently include (but may not be limited to) a slew of contiguous apartments at Harperley Hall on New York City's Central Park West, a triple-wide townhouse on the Upper East Side she bought in 2009 for $32,500,000 and extensively renovated, and Wild Ocean Farm, an equestrian facility in Bridgehampton (NY) she picked up in late 2009 from fashion designer Calvin Klein's equestrian-minded ex-wife Kelly. Across the pond, the former couple's English country estate Ashcombe went to Mister Ritchie in the dee-vorce but Madonna continues to maintain at least one Georgian-style townhouse in London's Marylebone neighborhood.

Now remember kids, this is all just rumor and gossip for now but remember you got The T here when you see this matter discussedd in the property gossip columns of more mainstream and respectable publications and websites.

aerial photo: Pacific Coast News

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