In Response...

...to Mister Big Time's December 23rd query about which celebrity sold the property at 1840 Camino Palmero in Los Angeles.

The answer is Beck. And don't any of you nut cases think it would be cute to be driving by waving, shouting and flashing your boobies because not only would that make you a dip shit, Mister Beck, his family and all their Thetans have long moved on to new digs.

Property records reveal that the quirky singer paid $3,950,000 for the house (pictured above) in June of 2005. The records also show the house measures 4,012 square feet. However, listing information for the property from the time that Mister Beck purchased show the square footage at 5,200 with six bedrooms and six bathrooms. The listing breaks it down as as follows: four bedrooms upstairs (all en suite), a staff room (and bath) on the main floor and the detached guest house out by the long and lovely rectangular pool claims another bedroom and bathroom. Your Mama presumes the difference in square footage between the records and the listing is roughly the size of the guest house.

Built in 1916 and done over in 2005 by a real estate agent with a flair for renovations, the quasi-craftsman style house has a wide wrap around porch for sipping cool cocktails on blistering summer days, a pecan paneled dining room, an "extravagant" kitchen, and three fireplaces (living room, master bedroom and another on the porch).

The children will recall that Beck and his missus Marissa Ribisi recently plunked down $6,750,000 for a big new crib on S. Hudson Avenue in Hancock Park. The couple also own a modest house on Larkspur Lane in the Point Dume area of Malee-boo.

Your Mama would like to thank Beeswax Betty and Lucy Spillerguts for helping us solve Mister Big Time's real estate puzzler.

Your Mama Hears...

...that celebrity hair honcho Sally Hershberger will be opening her very own Los Angeles outpost in the same building that houses celebrity decorator Kelly Wearstler. We're not surprised.

The budding tycoon is busting out all over with a line of tshirts called Shagg, a series of anti aging lotions and potions (with The Face Place), and she will shortly open the doors of her East 71st Street outpost (Sally Hershberger Uptown) on the top two floors of an exquisite brownstone a few steps from Central Park. Now all the rich behatchas and diva doyennes on Park Avenue won't have to to fret about whether it's safe to venture over to the west side where Sally Hershberger Downtown is discreetly located on the second floor of a non-descript building on far West 14th Street in the Meatpacking District..

Miz Hershberger, who charges a shocking 800 clams to snip and shape the tresses of rich and famous folks like Donna Karan, Sandra Bernhard, Roger Federer and Renée Zellweger, recently had her sexy, sleek and minimal Trousdale Estates home on the market for $6,500,000. The house never sold and appears to have been taken off the market. Gurl has got to live somewhere when she's in LA. Little Miss Sally Scissorhands also owns a small penthouse apartment in a gorgeous Bing and Bing building the West Village and a small water front cottage in an area of East Hampton called The Springs.

Paul McKenna: Celebrity Hypnotist Heads for the Hills

BUYER: Paul McKenna
LOCATION: Rising Glen Road, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $6,600,000 (sale)
SIZE: 4,529 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Rare four-bedroom Regency pavilion at the top of Rising Glen in excellent updated condition with many details that recall Hollywood's "Golden Age"" terrazzo floors; bar in living room; brick-paved pool area. Grounds include large grassy area, guest house, four car garage & screening room. On one level except one bedroom currently in use as office, opening to terrace.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Unless you're British, a vice-ridden celebrity, or know a little something about neuro-linguistic programming, it's quite possible the children won't recognize Paul McKenna's name. However, all you thick waisted, small breasted and impoverished self help cynics who are afraid of your own shadows might want to sit up and take notice because among Mister McKenna's many feats of mental miracles the very rich and very famous British hypnotist and self-help author claims he can fix phobias, help smokers give up the cancer sticks, make fatties thin, help the poor get rich, and in a 2004 interview in The Guardian he said he can make boobs bigger. Well move over Anne Sullivan, because Paul McKenna has set his sights on Hollywood and there is a new miracle worker in town.

After several television programs in the U.K., at least half a dozen self help best sellers, and reportedly treating a slew of British big names such as the Duchess of York, David Bowie, David Beckham, and George Michael, the self confessed star fucker has landed in the good old U.S. of A. where he's already cured talk show kween Ellen Degeneres of her filthy smoking habit. Your Mama speculates that we might be seeing Mister McKenna up on the American boob tube shortly, partick because the networks are scrambling to get anything new on the air in the wake of the writer's strike. We don't know anything nor have we heard anything through the gossip grapevine, we're just speculating kids.

Why does Your Mama speculate and postulate that a show might be in the works? Because, in December of 2007, the eyeglass wearing and energetic forty something year old hypnotist put down some expensive roots in celebrity filled Los Angeles. Originally listed for $7,500,000 before being substantially reduced, property records reveal the mind bender scooped up a 4,529 square foot Regency style house high in the hills of Hollywood for a whopping $6,600,000.

According to property records, and the Movieland Directory, the 5 bedroom and 4 bathroom house on 1.5 acres has sheltered it's fair share of Hollywood types including gajillionaire gay David Geffen, song writing super star Diane Warren, and most recently prolific producer Chris Roberts, a man with an IMDB resume as long as Your Mama's arm but with nary a film we've ever bothered to watch.

Please note children that the interior spaces do not reflect the taste of Mister McKenna. In fact, according to the writer from The Guardian article Your Mama mentioned earlier, Mister McKenna favors, "frescos and swags of velvet." Yikes. Your Mama is petrified to think of what decorating crimes Mister McKenna's decorator has planned for the interiors of this house.

In addition to the main house, the private property features a 4 car detached garage perfect for Mister McKenna's Ferrari and a guest house that sits far enough from the main house that the new owner will never have to hear house guests fornicate or fight. According to listing information we received from Our Fairy Godmother in Bel Air, the media room includes it's own bathroom and it's own entrance from the outside, which is perfect for when you want to have a few folks over for film night but don't feel like washing the dishes or picking up dirty underwear that has been tossed aside in the living room.

The back of the house opens to a large brick terrace that surrounds a heated swimming pool. Can any of the snarky children that the long view down the hillside, over the flats of Los Angeles all the way to the Pacific Ocean drops the jaw, staggers the mind and creates envy in the hearts of all flat land dwellers who dream of a sliver of a view.

Mister McKenna's new digs sit just a couple doors down from the house notoriously kooky actress Brittany Murphy bought from he notoriously troubled krazy train that is Britney Spears back in 2003 for $3,850,000. Maybe Mister McKenna and his mental machinations can sort out the details on why the young and nubile Miz Murphy went and secretly married much older, much less attractive and wildly controversial screenwriter Simon Monjack. Now there's an odd couple for the children to ponder over a stiff cocktail or four. Not that Your Mama cares a lick about Miz Murphy and her puzzling ways, but we do confess to being a wee bit curious about what makes that relationship carousel go around.

Since Los Angeles has a long history of embracing alternative forms of everything, Your Mama suspects that Mister McKenna will be embraced with warm and open arms that will happily put many millions more into his already bulging pockets.

UPDATE: Babajian and Grasso

A little Sunday reading for the kids.

Your Mama has received many requests for information about indicted celebrity real estate agents Joseph Babajian and Kyle Grasso. While whispers and rumors continue to sweep along Sunset Boulevard, little real information has been revealed about the fates of the former top producers...until last week. In case the children missed it, the Los Angeles Times printed a thorough update about the current and fascinating state of affairs.

Your Mama is glued to this story like white on rice. We've got hugely successful brokers who made millions from big name clients like David and Victoria Beckham, Ryan Seacrest and Oscar de la Hoya, and allegedly risked it all for a few hundred thousand more. We've got the venerable investment bank Lehman Brothers writing down millions in bad real estate loans because they were duped by just about everyone. We've got straw buyers, obscenely over-valued properties and forged paper work. We've got the F.B.I. investigating, bigamists on the run, and showboating attorney Thomas Mesereau representing Mister Babajian, whose Trousdale Estates house remains on the market for $6,985,000.

Look for this mess to be turned into a Sunday night movie on USA or Lifetime.

According to the LA Times, Mssrs. Babajian and Grasso are scheduled to be tried in July unless some sort of plea agreement is reached, which seems unlikely given that both men pleaded not guilty and their attorneys are quoted in the LA Times saying their clients are innocent, expect to be acquitted and will be vindicated. We'll see.

Our pal over at Real Sedated predicts the embattled Prudential agents will be fined, forever stripped of their real estate licenses and set free. Your Mama wonders, if they might also be made to spend a little time up in Lompoc where they can read, do macramé and network with other well to do white collar criminals. After all, a jury of their peers is unlikely to see them as sympathetic figures. Real estate agents are seldom well thought of by the general public and those accused of bank fraud and money laundering face an steep uphill battle in a room full of folks struggling to pay their mortgages.

Stay tuned.

Burt Reynolds Downsizing in Florida

SELLER: Burt Reynolds
LOCATION: SE Federal Highway, Hobe Sound, FL
PRICE: $10,500,000
SIZE: 12,500 (approx.), 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Extremely desirable, hard to find private three acre estate. Neighboring State Park, & directly located on Intrac. overlooking Jupiter Isl., large yacht dockage, private two bedroom guest house, billiard & cinema rooms.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Okay children, today we are discussing the home of a senior citizen, so Your Mama will try and be as kind and respectful as our nerve medication will allow. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that 71 year old Academy Award nominated and Emmy winning ack-tur Burt Reynolds has drastically reduced the price of his waterfront estate in Hobe Sound, Florida.

Mister Reynolds' estate, only about 15 miles north of Palm Beach was first put on the market in 2005 with a listing price of $15,000,000, which was stoopidly raised to $15,900,000 about a year ago before being chopped to $12,900,000 last summer and then slashed again to it's current asking price of $10,500,000.

According to Mister Reynolds' PR flak, who was interviewed by the gal who writes the always informative Private Properties column at The Journal, stated that the 1970s sex symbol was downsizing from the 12,500 square foot mansion because he no longer has use "for something so huge." The spokesman went on to say that Mister Reynolds intends to purchase something smaller in the area and at any rate, the WSJ article indicates, Mister Reynolds' primary residence is in Beverly Hills.

Back in 1980, when Mister Burt Reynolds was still a mustachioed piece of silver screen beefcake who sassily popped gum and posed nekkid as a hirsute jaybird in the glossy pages of Cosmopolitan, he scooped up this Hobe Sound hacienda for a mere $700,000. You read that correctly children, $700,000.

Presumably this is just one of several poorly decorated homes that Mister Reynolds shared with the seemingly ageless Miz Anderson. Your Mama happens to have a soft spot in our cold heart for Miz Anderson, who unfortunately hasn't changed her lacquered hair-do since her salad days on WKRP in Cincinnati. Burt's ex participated in a few real estate transactions of her own recently when she unloaded her disturbing mausoleum of 1980s era trad decor in Mulholland Estates and reportedly purchased a 4,300 square foot freshly built Montecito-style mini-manse in Sherman Oaks.

According to property records and listing information, Mister Reynolds' three acre spread butts up against a State Park, and the 12,500 (approx.) square foot Mediterranean style house features 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, a billiard room, a cinema room and a 2 bedroom guest house.

Your Mama's stomach is weak today, so we're just going to sum up our two cents in as few words as possible and then we're going move on and let the children slice and dice the place. The setting is lovely (if you dig this part of Florida, which Your Mama does not) and the enormously long driveway, water side swimming pool, helipad, and dock space large enough for a big ol' yacht are all nice features in a high priced Florida getaway.

But Jeezis, Mary and Joseph the interior spaces are a hot mess and Your Mama would Cannonball Run outta that house as quickly as our little legs could carry us before our eyeballs burned up in their sockets from looking too closely at the decorating disaster that is Mister Reynolds residence. Please note the migraine inducing pink and paneled game room with the stuffed bear and also that snowball like dining room chandelier which probably hasn't been touched since Loni lived there and very well might still have a tuft of her shellacked hair clinging to it. Ugh!

Oh Burt. Your Mama is just so disappointed. We really hoped you would have gone the extra mile and used some of your deep pockets and big bank accounts to hire a nice gay decorator to update and do over your house with the restraint and style benefiting an aging film and television icon like yourself. Perhaps in your next and more modest digs you'll see fit to have someone help you edit your lifetime worth of memorabilia and shape it into a killer and coherent collection that succinctly reflects your long, long career rather than looking like piles of clutter and junk you're too lazy to take to the dump.