Billy Baldwin and Chynna Phillips: Renters

RENTERS: Billy Baldwin and Chynna Phillips
LOCATION: S. Spalding Drive, Beverly Hills, CA
RENT: $14,000 / month
SIZE: 5,302 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Best lease in Beverly Hills. Newly updated, 2-story traditional. Great street - one block from Beverly Hills High School. Hardwood throughout. Fabulous kitchen with all new appliances. Master suite plus three additional bedroom suites. Multi-zone heat/air, pool, & garage.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A little birdie tells Your Mama that the least controversial Baldwin brother Billy and his wifey Chynna Phillips, formerly of the impossibly saccharine gurl group Wilson Phillips, have recently moved their family into a Bev Hills property where they are paying a whopping $14,000 per month.

The 5,302 square foot house, which coincidentally has the same house number as Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's beach house, sits close enough to Century City to be in the shadow of the tall towers and backs up to fancy pants Roxbury Park. The property is also just a quick walk to Beverly Hills High School where loads of rich and famous have matriculated, and Your Mama has a relative who tirelessly works to educate the children of rich and famous who do not think they need to be educated simply because they are the children of the rich and famous.

Unfortunately Your Mama does not know much about the house or even why a couple as famous and well to do as the Baldwin/Phillips' would lease a house like this at such tremendous expense. Perhaps they are not as rich as we imagine them to be and can't afford a $25,000+ mortgage each month? Or perhaps they are renovating another property and need a place to live during the process? Or maybe they just do not want the hassle of having to hire, pay and monitor the landscapers, cleaning ladies, pool people, tree trimmers and etc., and prefer to have a landlord who handles all those mundane and expensive details of high end home ownership. Anyone know?

Before Your Mama signs out so that we can head out to the wineries where the Dr. Cooter and his mama will likely get smashed on not very good white wine, let's discuss the Baldwin brothers for just a moment, because they are really just so chaotic and interesting.

First there is the oldest and arguably best looking Baldwin, Alec, who Your Mama used to see wandering the streets of the Upper West Side of Manhattan lookin' all sultry, disheveled and celebrity like. This Mister Baldwin has ongoing, very public, and never ending baby mama drama with the ex-wifey ack-tress Kim Basinger. These two once married people would sooner disembowel each other than act like mature adults who are capable of being civil to each other at their daughter's birthday parties. People, is it really that difficult to be civil? There are no winners in this situation babies, least of all the child, who Your Mama wishes fortitude, a clear mind, and a very good psychiatrist.

Next comes Daniel, perhaps the least well known Baldwin brother. This Baldwin brother, who is basically a very bizzy b-movie actor, has at least three children by three different women, was once arrested for running naked and cracked out through the halls of the Plaza Hotel in New York City, was more recently arrested after plowing his automobile into two parked cars in Los Angeles, and just six months later was arrested for allegedly stealing a car (since cleared of the charges). Can you spell drug problem? He does seem to be on the mend (good for him) and even offered that train wreck Britney Spears support while she did her apparently not very successful stint in rehab and the uber-posh Promises in Malee-boo.

And let's not forget the youngest Baldwin brother Stephen. Although baptized as a Roman Catholic, Stephen converted to a born again evangelical Christian on a mission to save the wayward youth of America. The one-time actor reportedly teamed up recently with Little Lindsay Lohan's ex-con daddy Michael to form some sort of religious detox center in swanky Southampton, NY. Children, this is an unholy union if we've ever seen one and Your Mama predicts this will end in tears and law suits.

And that does not even begin to discuss the other side of the Billy Baldwin/Chynna Phillips family which includes the lovably whacko Michelle Phillips, who shuns direct sunlight in order to help retain her youth, beauty, and supple skin. The extended family would also have to include the former members of the Wilson Phillips band which includes that cry baby Carnie Wilson who has made a career out of her vacillating weight. Hunny, we appreciate that you struggle with your weight. Seriously, we do. But gurl, you gotta stop embarrassing yourself by forever talking about it and making your weight issues the hub of the wheel of your career.

Phew! We know y'all tune in to our little blog to look at fancy celebrity real estate and not to have Your Mama expound on the daily dramas of celebrities, there are many thousands of blogs for that after all. So we appreciate you allowing us this indulgence this morning.

Be assured we'll be bringing you more celebrity houses today and in the days to come including more photos of the $165,000,000 Lenny Ross mansion in Beverly Hills.

Sources: NY Post, Internet Movie Data Base, People, Hecklerspray, Contact Music,

John Wells Buys Hancock Park Mansion

BUYER: John and Marilyn Wells
LOCATION: S. Hudson Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $11,000,000
SIZE: 9,676 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms (main house)
DESCRIPTION: Exquisitely renovated, landmark, HP tennis estate on extraordinary lot. Behind gates w/ 6 br, an elegant statement of uncomman refinement. Exceptional flrpln. 2sty entry & sweeping strcse, breathtaking LR w/ marble FP, antiquie hand painted paneled FDR, wide hall galleria w/ port entrance, piine paneled library w/ FP & lavish eat-in country kitchen/FR overlooking lush grdns & dining loggia. 12,000 bottle wine rom, 2br self contained staff apt, 2 sty pl pavillion w/ br, kitchen & ba. Sparkling pl & spa.

YOUR MAMAS UPDATE: Your Mama originally thought this house had been purchased by Tobey Maguire (see here).

However, this house was in fact purchased by uber producer John Wells and his wifey Marilyn who are moving from a lovely Spanish Style house in the Laughlin Park area of Los Feliz.

Your Mama hears the Wells' house, which was once part of the Charlie Chaplin estate and later bought by the legendary filmmaker Cecil B. De Mille who used it as a business address, was sold for just over $6,000,000 and was never officially on the market. We also hear the new owner is another bigwig in "the bizness" named Mary Parent.

We are going to refrain from discussing and picking apart the interior details and move on to other celebrity retreats and hideouts.

David Geffen: Is He or Isn't He?

WHO: David Geffen
WHAT: 10 acre estate
WHERE: Angelo Drive, Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: rumored to be $100,000,000

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A blurb in a recent Wall Street Journal article about insanely expensive homes mentioned that itty bitty billionaire David Geffen, who is believed by many to be the richest man in Hollywood, "has quietly shopped his historic 9.4-acre Los Angeles estate for $100 million, according to a broker who has shown the property."

You can imaging the firestorm of emails and phone calls that went from real estate gossips to high end real estate agents all up and down Sunset Boulevard. Two agents told Your Mama that the estate is NOT for sale, and Miz Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood , who typically has very accurate poop, also reported that the estate is absolutely not for sale and that Mister Geffen turns down offers in excess of $100,000,000 "all the time." The Wall Street Journal itself amended their article to reflect that Mister Geffen himself says the estate is not for sale. Hmm.

Your Mama hears something a little different. Not only did ol' Ms. Louella, who believes Mister Geffen's estate may in fact be worth close to $100,000,000, tell us that Mister Geffen, "has quietly been peddling his humble abode for some time." We have also heard through the gossip grapevine that the estate will soon be coming to the open market. Now children, please do not go repeating that rumor as truth, because it is NOT substantiated by anyone connected with Mister Geffen. It's just what we heard from a swanky and well connected real estate agent in Bev Hills who has visited the estate. Given that Mister Geffen has an ego at least as large and hungry as all the other billionaires with homes on the market for $100,000,000+, it's not such a stretch for Your Mama to believe that vanity will force Mister Geffen to put his big and beautiful house on the market. Keep in mind that just because it's on the open market, does not mean it's actually for sale.

Mister Geffen purchased the 9.38 acre former Jack Warner (of Warner Bros.) estate on Angelo Drive in Bev Hills in 1990 for a reported and staggering $47.5 million dollars. At the time that was the highest price ever paid for a private home in the United States. Your Mama hears that the price included all the interior fittings and furniture. Ms. Louella whispered to Your Mama that after purchasing the estate Mister Geffen had the priceless antiques hauled across the pond to London where they were sold for many millions of dollars.

Reports of the property say that Mister Geffen spent another $45,000,000 renovating the property, including a reported and shocking $20,000,000 on landscaping alone. Somehow we doubt the landscaping bills were anywhere near that high. Several acres of sod, a few dozen specimen trees and some extremely tall hedging just can't be that expensive...or can it? We do however, understand that the behemoth mansion houses a nice selection of Mister Geffen's outrageous contemporary art collection, some of which has been recently sold off at spine tingling and record prices.

According to the tax man, the impressive colonial style house, which is accessed by a long and swooping driveway, sprawls across 13,612 square feet and includes 8 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. Since Your Mama has read no recent reports of the number of sleeping chambers and poopers, we're just going to have to go with what the tax man says. If any of you many, and we mean many, young, smooth and well toned gentlemen that have visited the estate want to clue us in to anymore more specific, we'd be happy to hear what you have to say.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Deadline Hollywood, Pacific Coast News (photo)