SELLER: Zsa Zsa GaborLOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $15,000,000
SIZE: 6,393 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Listen chickens, Your Mama is well aware we're far from the first cowboy to this celebrity real estate rodeo but we just can't resist the opportunity to discuss the Los Angeles, CA mansion of aged Hungarian hottie turned Hollywood icon Zsa Zsa Gabor and her rather eccentric publicity hound huzband Frédéric Prinz van Anhalt.
It's been a difficult few months for the ancient and increasingly infirm Miz Gabor who was crowned Miss Hungary way back in 1936 and became partially paralyzed in 2002 after a car accident. In January (2011) the beautiful and sometimes volatile Miz Gabor had one of her legs removed and a month later Prinz Freddy, bat in hand, (allegedly) chased a couple of intruders from the couple's gated mansion in Bel Air.
A few month later Z.Z.G.'s 67-year old whackadoodle ninth husband–she is his seventh wife–gabbed and yammered to the tabs and gossip glossies about how he planned to conceive a child with a surrogate and thus make his 94-year old wife a mother. Your Mama imagines that is just what every 94-year old woman with with one-leg and a feeding tube wants: a goddam infant. In mid-May Z.Z.G. was taken to a Los Angeles hospital where she slipped into an unresponsive coma. It looked like the diamond-lined road was finally at its end for Z.Z.G. but a week later the ever-feisty ol' girl came out of the coma. It is our understanding that as of this very moment Miz Gabor remains laid up in the hospital.
Some of the children will recall that back in January 2011 Prinz Freddy revealed via gossip juggernaut TMZ that the estate had become unpleasantly expensive to maintain and too large for their immediate daily needs. He planned, he said then, to list the estate for a hefty $25-28,000,000 and move into a much less expensive and simpler to maintain condo near Westwood. We're not sure about plans for a condo in Westwood but this week Z.Z.G.'s track-suit wearing "prinz" of a husband has officially foisted her frou-frou but faded Bel Air mansion on the open market with an asking price of $15,000,000.
It should be noted that Miz Gabor's daughter Francesca Gabor Hilton, who has been in a bitter and ongoing feud with Prinz Freddy, says that her mother would never want to live in a condo in Westwood and questions Prinz Freddy's legal right to sell the house due to the pre-nup he signed with her famous mother. In fact, at least one report quotes Miss Hilton as saying, "My mother is not aware that von anhalt is selling her house. I am not aware if von anhalt has the legal right to put my mother's house up for sale as he claims." She went on to add, "I am sure the Realtor has done his research (due diligence) concerning his legal right to sell my mother's house."
Listing information for Z.Z.G.'s somewhat threadbare crib–the the black top driveway is cracked and the vibrant yellow and red color scheme a la McDonalds is trés declassé–shows that it measures 6,393 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms including a master suite with celebrity-size bathroom and two-room walk-in closet/dressing room. The house includes an additional staff suite with 1 bedroom and 2 bathrooms and a second floor with family room, party room and additional bedroom and bath.
A well-patinated copper mansard roof provides scant cover from rare inclement weather over the recessed front door that sings opens into an über-glam if dated oval entrance hall with custom-laid parquetry floor, over-scaled crystal chandelier and blood red walls with fluted pilasters that do not, for some strange and disturbing reason, reach all the way to the ceiling. As for the miniature Louis the Something upholstered chair in which sits some sort of doll, we refer the children to Rule No. 17 in Your Mama's Big Book of Decoratin' Dos and Don'ts that states that doing up day-core with dolls is strictly verboten in the home(s) of grown folks. Young children may have dolls in their rooms but at the age of 12, hunnies, they get shipped off to the Goodwill.
Anyhoo, the generous formal living room has inlaid hardwood floors, a black and white marble fireplace surround, a gilded console or two and a handful of blackamoors atop which balance crystal light fixtures. We recognize that these blackamoors were once decoratively de rigueur but they a chill runs up and down Your Mama's spine every time we see one. Of course Your Mama barely knows red from yellow but as far as we're concerned the banquet hall sized dining room is sort of magnificent with its long table topped by a pair of candelabra and gilded horse head, hand-painted screen, pair of card/breakfast tables near the window and cabinet filled with porcelain curios and fussy tchotchke. Since we could never afford such an decorative extravagance, Your Mama would chop off our own pinky toes toes for the then orange barrel-backed Neoclassical Bergere chairs that surround the table.
In between the living and dining rooms a paneled library room with wet bar spills into a sitting area with black and white checked floor and, regrettably, walls mirrored from floor to ceiling that visually multiply the mismatched pair of sofas and coffee tables topped with various breakable knick-knacks and paddy-whacks.
Listing photos don't show the kitchen nor any of the many bathrooms on the property so perhaps they are less than pretty and/or in need of a serious spit and polish to bring them into the 21st century.
The 1.05 acre estate has a long gated drive that curves as it climbs to the aforementioned cracked blacktop motor court and a two-car attached garage. The backyard entertainment areas, located on the view side of the house, include a swimming pool surrounded by an expansive basket weave pattern brick terrace. A sizable roof terrace ringed by a stone balustrade offers the property's best views over the rooftops and canyons towards the glittery lights of Tinseltown.
According to Z.Z.G. herself the house was built in the 1950s by billionaire recluse Howard Hughes and occupied by hound dog rock legend Elvis Presley for a number of year while he made his mark in the Hollywood movie scene.
There have been reports that Prinz Freddy has put some unusual stipulations on the sale of the mansion. One report even said that Prinz Freddy wanted to remain in residence–with the new owners–until his death, which is just ludicrous of course. Your Mama contacted listing agent Christophe Choo who assured Your Mama that this is quite simply not the case and that Z.Z.G.'s mansion will be delivered 100% vacant upon the closing.
listing photos: James Butchart for Coldwell Banker Previews International
