Sitcom Star Matthew Perry Buys and Sells Above the Sunset Strip
BUYER: Matthew Perry
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $8,650,000
SIZE: 4,000 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Yes, pets, Your Mama realizes we are late-late-late to the parade on this particular matter but we're going to put on our celebrity real estate party shoes anyway and discuss the recent real estate activities of sitcom star Matthew Perry (Friends, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Mr. Sunshine).
About a week ago the lovely Ann Brenoff tattled to celebrity real estate fanatics the world over that Mister Perry plunked down a hefty $8,650,000 for a recently rehabilitated and sensationally sleek residence in the Bird Streets neighborhood just above the famed Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, CA. Listing information for the quintessential Tinseltown bachelor pad shows the L-shaped residence measures around 4,000 high-glam square feet with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.
An intimately scaled entry courtyard provides a buffer between the street, a quiet cul-de-sac with just four other high-priced private residences. The pivoting glass front door, a feat of engineering with with horizontal "fins," swings open to an entryway that spills into a vast glass walled living area with walnut floors, wenge wood cabinetry, free-standing three-sided fireplace, and a full wall of four custom made slim-framed glass sliders that muddy and even obliterate the distinction between indoors and out.
The sleek Poliform-brand kitchen, open to the living room, has cream colored and walnut lacquered cabinetry, CaesarStone counter tops–some of which are an interesting but slightly unsightly light lime green–integrated lighting strips in the ceilings and all the to-be-expected high-grade Euro-style appliances: two Sub-Zero fridge-freezers, wine cabinet, two Miele dishwashers, 5-burner range, two ovens (plus two warming drawers), and built-in coffee/espresso maker.
Each of the three bedrooms has a private facility but it's the master suite where the house reaches a kind of architectural orgasm with two full walls of floor to ceiling glass equipped with electronically-controlled blinds that allow the room to visually hover over the swimming pool and the wide expanse of city lights beyond. There's also an alcohol-fueled fireplace for romance, built in wenge wood patterned cabinets and wardrobes for Mister Perry designer duds, and a narrow patio lined with Mother's Tongue plants where the man of the house can suck down a post-coital cigarette. The attached bathroom has walls finished with slabs of Silestone, extra-long soaking tub with boob-toob sunk into the adjacent wall for concurrent bathing and reality tee-vee watching, a glassed-in separate steam shower with rain shower head and seat, and a door to a private patio.
Even the garage was given the high-style business with a virtually silent $27,000 garage door and interior spaces fitted with the same high-quality finishes as the interiors of the house. One wall is paneled in wenge wood, the floor is custom painted, cabinets hold all the home's home automation systems, and a custom lighting system includes European LED lights that change colors. Why a person would want disco lighting in the damn garage is beyond Your Mama's limited capabilities to comprehend.
As unexpectedly fancy-pants as the garage may be, perhaps the most notable, expensive, and architecturally nouveau feature of Mister Perry's newest in-town residence is the state-of-the-art home theater accessed via custom-lit terrazzo stair. The luxe and cozy-looking theater, tucked into the ground beneath the master suite. Not only are there two two-inch thick Perspex windows that look from the 9-seat home theater into the depths of the swimming pool, the over-sized screen disappears into the ceiling and the floor-to-ceiling velvet curtains part at the soft push of a button to expose an entire wall of frameless glass that frames a cinematic view of the carpet of lights that Los Angeles becomes when the sun goes down. Regardless of what a person might think of this house, the home theater is unequivocally impressive.
The house wraps around a surprisingly spacious courtyard that opens up the the solar and gas heated swimming pool, spa and jet liner views. The main living areas of the house open up to a terrazzo terrace and water feature with two plumes of fire. The remainder of the back yard area includes a patch of really high-quality fake grass with a 12-foot tall aluminum and acrylic sculpture of three cartoonish flowers by artist Nancy Braver, an open-air dining/lounging pavilion with ceiling-mounted television and adjacent fire pit, and a Porsche brand stainless steel barbecue.
Mister Perry's real estate portfolio currently bulges with a number of luxury residences in the Los Angeles area including another house high above the Sunset Strip that property records and previous reports reveal he acquired in March 2008 for $4,475,000. One of Your Mama's celebrity real estate canaries snitched that the sexy but undistinguished 4,100 square foot contemporary will soon get listed, if it doesn't sell off-market first.
A few months after snatching up his clean-lined and glass-wrapped house in the hills, he paid another $883,000 for a far more ordinary ranch style residence at the foot of Laurel Canyon in Studio City, CA. Your Mama thinks it's probably safe to assume this 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom abode with 1,701 square feet was purchased for family, staff or friends.
Just before selling yet another glassy modern mansion* in Beverly Hills' trendy Trousdale Estates 'hood in the fall of 2005 for $6,100,000, Mister Perry paid $6,550,000 for a contemporary residence privately perched on a Malibu, CA hillside with multimillion dollar panoramic ocean views.
*Before making catty comments on the house in Bev Hills take heed my little ponies, photographs on virtual tour do not depict the house as it looked when Mister Perry owned and occupied the property; It was created for a subsequent owner who listed the house in June 2010 for $12,300,000 and sold the property in October the same year for $10,280,000.
At the very same time Mister Perry purchased his hillside house in the Bu the notorious lady-celebrity dater dropped another $3,200,000 for a 2 bedroom and 2.5 bathroom city-view condo on a high floor of the celebrity-stacked Sierra Towers building in West Hollywood. As it turns out, Mister Perry also has his 1,672 square foot in-town residence (below) on the market with an asking price of $2,995,000.
Those children who haven't completely wrecked their minds on the dope may recall this ain't the first time Mister Perry tried to sell his louche and libidinal Sierra Towers condo. In May 2008 Your Mama discussed the petite by celebrity standards corner condo when it was listed with a much fatter price tag of $4,500,000.
Sierra Towers residents include a gaggle of high profile divas like Elton John, Cher, Diahann Carol and Joan Collins. Imagine what happens when two or three of those beeotches all turn up at the valet at the same time screaming for their $300,000 Bentleys. We tease, puppies, the ladies probably all get along like peanut butter and jelly. What do we know? Maybe they even get together every Tuesday at four for cribbage, liquor and gossip.
Mister Perry seems to have a solid case of The Celebrity Real Estate Fickle. That means as much money as the man has spent on his current list of pads and pied a terres Your Mama expects he'll continue to frequently shuffle his real estate deck, at least for as long as he's working and/or basking in the lucrative afterglow of fat residual checks that come from the heavily syndicated program Friends.
listing photos (house): Keller Williams / Hollywood Hills
listing photos (condo): The Partners Trust