Katie Holmes Cruise Moves Out

The celebrity gossips at X17 reported today moving trucks were spotted entering and exiting the Beverly Hills (CA) estate that, until recently, Katie Holmes shared with her soon-to-be-ex-husband Tom Cruise. Presumably the trucks were there to haul someone's things out of the 7 bedroom and 9 bathroom mansion the kaput couple picked up in early 2007 for $30,500,000 but Your Mama don't know a thing about a thing so we really don't know for sure which of the two is schlepping their shit to storage.

Ownership of the 10,000-plus square foot residence, originally built in 1937 and situated privately and securely on 1.2 gated and fortified acres with swimming pool, tennis court and parking lot-sized motor court, is reported by the folks at X17 to be up for grabs, meaning it's not accounted for in the couple's pre-nup. The X17 folks also said the former couple's pre-nup (allegedly) grants third-ex-Missus Cruise ownership of a Montecito, CA mansion, but honestly chickadoodles, Your Mama isn't aware of any Montecito mansion owned by Mister and/or third-ex-Missus Cruise and apparently neither do some top realtors in Montecito, according to local society chronicler Richard Mineards at the Montecito Journal (page 19).

Since their divorce announcement last month Mister Cruise has been spotted on a feverish hunt for a high-priced home in some of the more affluent suburbs around New York City such as Snedens Landing, NY and Greenich, CT and third-ex-Missus Cruise has settled into a rented apartment in a celebrity-friendly building in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood.

aerial photo: Pacific Coast News

Michele Lee Lists Little Holmby Estate

SELLERS: Michele Lee and Fred Rappoport
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $7,850,000
SIZE: 9,593 square feet, 5-6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Every now and then a multi-million dollar estate promoted as a celebrity owned home will pop up on the market. Your Mama's years of celebrity real estate experience tells us that more often than not a home pushed on the open market labeled as owned by a famous person usually turns out to be owned by a "famous" person Your Mama ain't never heard of before.

That's not the case with a large, Los Angeles, CA mansion recently listed for $7,850,000 that floridly advertises itself in (online) marketing materials as an "enchanting celebrity-owned villa steeped in romance and generation." As it turns out, we learned first from The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial and then confirmed with property records, the "celebrity-owned villa" is owned by Emmy- and Tony-nominated singer/dancer/actress/writer/producer/director Michele Lee and her producer husband of 25 (or so) years, Fred Rappoport.

'Course, the youngins won't have a clue who Miz Lee is but old people like Your Mama anyone with a high-camp view of Hollywood certainly knows Miz Michele Lee was a frequent game show panelist in the 1960s and '70s (Match Game, Celebrity Sweepstakes, Hollywood Squares) who also appeared multiple times on The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Her Showbiz salad days really kicked into high gear in 1978 when she landed a starring role on the long-running prime time soap story Knots Landing. The evening melodrama, which also starred Joan van Ark, ran for 14 seasons into the mid-1990s and Miz Lee is the only cast member to appear in all 344 episodes. That may sound bizarrely trivial to someone who farms or saves lives for a living, akin to the Best Attendance Award in sixth grade, but in Tinseltown, where air-time equals money and power for actors and actresses, that is quite an accomplishment.

Since Knots Landing went off the air in 1993, Miz Lee, now 70 years old, hasn't worked much in front of the camera. Perhaps that's by choice and perhaps not. Let's be honest, Hollywood is an ugly, rejecting place for actresses older than 32 or maybe 35. In 1998 she starred in and executive produced the biopic Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story and her slender post-millennial credits include a few small parts on the big screen (Along Came Polly) and a number of smaller parts on the small screen (Miss Match, Will & Grace and Family Guy).

Property records aren't entirely clear, but as best as Your Mama can tell, Miz Lee and Mister Rappoport have owned their Los Angeles estate—at times together and separately—since at least July 1992 and possibly longer.

Property records and listing information shows the gated estate encompasses a pair of pie-shaped parcels that total just over an acre on a narrow, quiet lane in the affluent Los Angeles enclave known in real estate circles as Little Holmby Hills, a collection of curving streets lined with large, well-maintained mansions (and mini-mansions) on the western border of the hoity-toity Los Angeles Country Club, just north of Wilshire Boulevard. The property does not, it should be noted, directly back up to the golf course but a gentle but definitive slope from the front of the property to the back allows for an over-the tree tops view of the links from the mansion's second floor balconies.

The red-tile-roofed Mediterranean villa was originally built in 1929 and was updated and upgraded by its current owners who, according to listing information, engaged the services of architect Eli Attia for said renovations. We're not sure how big this place was when it was built in 1929 but listing information indicates it currently weighs in at a quite commodious but far from colossal 9,593 square feet. Each of the five family/guest bedrooms has an attached bathroom, as per listing information, and there are additional staff quarters for those folks who require or desire live-in domestic assistance.

The multi-winged mansion wraps around a double-gated motor court paved with Spanish tiles that continue into the turreted entry and large foyer outfitted with a fireplace and archways that connect to the various wings of the residence. The red tile floors turn to gleaming, wide-plank hardwood in the light flooded formal living room that also features a fireplace, antique-looking wood-beamed ceiling and banks of French doors on three sides that open to the semi-tropically landscaped backyard entertainment areas.

A wide corridor—conveniently outfitted with a sunken built-in wet bar for refreshing cocktails on the way to dinner—connects the formal living room to the formal dining room. One of the mansion's two kitchens comes equipped with a large center island with snack counter, high grade stainless steel appliances, slab granite counter tops, glass-fronted (upper) cabinetry, and a row of arched windows that over look the lush backyard gardens. We're just going to pretend we don't see the pair of pot racks that flank the copper hood over the range top or that deeply upsetting and perplexing, over-sized rooster figurine on the floor by the spiral staircase that, quite frankly, gives Your Mama the heebie-jeebies. Imagine coming up on that thing on a shadowy and boozy late-night candy run? No thank you.

Listing information indicates the Lee-Rappoport residence also includes a cozy den with built in book cases; window-wrapped home office; wine tasting room; substantial (second floor) fitness room; and a multi-level screening room on the main floor where a wide screen rolls magically down from the ceiling in front of a wide, curving grid of square window that overlook the backyard areas.


The second floor master suite includes a sitting room (with fireplace), bedroom area (with breakfast kitchenette), balcony access, and a out-dated but superstar-style boutique-like closet/dressing room with tons of built-in cabinets and hanging racks and an elevated viewing platform with angled, three-panel mirror for checking panty lines.

The back of the house spills out to multi-level brick terraces that surround a swimming pool and spa with outdoor kitchen and cabana. Listing information indicates there's room for a tennis court should the next owner desire one. Secluded stone pathways meander the tree-shaded slope below the house and backyard.

Your Mama remembers reading somewhere—we can't recall just where now—that Miz Lee and Mister Rappoport also maintain a residence in New York City but unfortunately we can't provide the children with any details of that.

listing photos: Coldwell Banker / Beverly Hills North

Ben Stiller List Manhattan Duplex at a Loss

SELLERS: Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $9,600,000
SIZE: (approx.) 4,000 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Four years ago comedian turned sizzlingly successful and toilet-humored screenwriter/director/producer/movie star Ben Stiller and wife Christine Taylor packed up their trio of shorties and decamped their two residence compound in Los Angeles's Hollywood Hills for the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where Mister Stiller grew up. He said, in a 2008 interview quoted in The Observer, they opted to move east from the near constant SoCal sunshine to the angsty urbanity of New York City in order to provide his off-springs with more excitement or some such thing.

In August 2008 the suntanned Stillers spent $10,00,000 to acquire a spacious duplex apartment a swank but low-key Upper West Side building. Property records and reports from the time of their 2008 purchase show the apartment was purchased off-market (with a blind trust) from gourmet/kosher grocery store scion Ann Zabar who's family owns an eponymous Upper West Side food shopping emporium.

Your Mama isn't sure what their real estate motivations may be but last week the Stiller-Taylors quietly slipped the completely and expensively renovated duplex back on the market with an asking price of $9,600,000.

It only takes one or two quick flicks of the well worn beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus to figure out that Mister and Missus Stiller must really want to move because even with a full price offer—and it could happen—they're faced with a spine-straightening $400,000 gut punch to their pocketbook, not counting renovations and improvements, upkeep and carrying costs, and any associated real estate fees they'll pay out of the proceeds of the sale.

Current listing information, forwarded to Your Mama by one of the more helpful children, shows the substantial river-view spread has four family/guest bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms plus (as per the floor plan, above) a discrete, staff suite tucked into the service wing behind the kitchen with an additional, prison-cell-sized but river-facing bedroom and (windowless) bathroom as well as a laundry room and access to the service elevator.

The main living and entertaining areas, located on the duplex's upper level, include a double-wide (and somewhat corporate-looking) foyer with long built-in waiting bench that connects through to an unusually roomy, river-view living/dining combination space finished with gallery white walls, pale pale pale wood floors (that may or may not be white oak) and a quartet of over-sized windows with direct and unobstructed views across the Hudson River towards the not entirely scenic shore of New Jersey.

As with the couple's former Tinseltown compound—part of which was sold for $7,325,000 in summer 2011 to hunky action movie stud Jason Statham—the duplex's low-slung mid-century modern infused day-core was conceived and installed by the fine folks at Roman and Williams who juxtaposed the light and airy living/dining room and the crisp, light-flooded eat-in kitchen against a more richly textured and moody media room (marked library on the floor plan) outfitted with seal grey silk wall-to-wall carpeting, heavy, light-blocking drapery, (what appears to be) upholstered walls, and state-of-the-art equipment.

An adjacent wet bar houses the a/v equipment in a custom cabinet and also features open glass shelves for bar ware display and storage, a handy-dandy dishwasher, and an under-counter mounted fridge/freezer/ice maker.

The master suite, all done up with more than a hint of high-glam, 1930s ocean liner chic, has cherry wood paneled walls, grey silk wall-to-wall carpeting, ship-like views of the Hudson River, and a to-die-for dressing room lined with custom, cherry-wood wardrobes and built-in dressers. The attached master bathroom has double sinks and a mosaic-tiled wet area with super-sized soaking tub and glassed in steam shower fitted with a huge, river-view window.

Two of the three family bedrooms have direct access to a private bathroom and, as per the floor plan, the unlucky occupant of the remaining bedroom must either traipse through one of the other bedrooms to access a restroom or climb the stairs to make use of the full bath that adjoins the media room, the half bathroom off the foyer or the squeezy one in the service wing.

We're not sure what real estate plans are in store for Mister and Missus Stiller but we do know they're hardly homeless. Our research indicates they still own a modest, 1,608 square foot residence on the Studio City side of Laurel Canyon bought August 2006 for $1,100,000 and, as far as Your Mama can tell, they still maintain an ocean front estate on the northern shore of the Hawaiian island of Kauai purchased in October 2002 for $8,500,000.

listing photos: Prudential Douglas Elliman

Jeffrey Katzenberg to Sell Utah Ski Chalet

SELLER: Jeffrey Katzenberg
LOCATION: Deer Park, UT
PRICE: $20,500,000
SIZE: 14,100 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 7 full and 3 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Those ever industrious and clever kids at Curbed somehow sorted out that Tinseltown titan Jeffrey Katzenberg has pushed his (partly) Rick Otto- and (partly) Charles Gwathmey-designed log cabin ski chalet in Deer Valley, UT on the market with an asking price of $20,500,000.

Current listing information shows the multi-level hillside pile, on two cul-de-sac lots behind the gated Bald Eagle Club, measures 14,100 square feet with a total of seven bedrooms and seven full and three half bathrooms.

Pre- and après ski-time can be spent in a multiple of airy but woodsy living and lounging areas as well as a billiard room, game room, indoor plunge pool and spa and, right outside the so-called ski room (complete with lounge, bar and fireplace), there's a super convenient ski run.

Mister Katzenberg, former chairman of The Walt Disney Studios and currently CEO of DreamWorks Animation, made all the real estate headlines in 2010 when he shoveled out around $35,000,000 to purchase a private, 6.34 acre Beverly Hills, CA promontory with an existing 8,704 square foot, low-slung mid-century modern era mansion that, much to the chagrin of many L.A. architecture aficionados, he razed in order to erect his own, fully-loaded residential real estate monument to his near billion dollar fortune.

We apologize to any of the children who may be annoyed—and we acknowledge all those who wish we'd always be more brief—but we have some unavoidable personal matters to attend to this afternoon and so iffin you want more information about Mister Katzenberg's winter getaway in Utah and/or pine for more eye candy in the form of the maybe-too-picture-perfect, Ralph Lauren-esque Rocky Mountain day-core seen in listing photos, we recommend you visit the folks at Curbed.

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty