T.R. Knight Says Bye-Bye Hollywood

SELLER: T.R. Knight
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $3,995,000
SIZE: 4,160 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Back in the fall of 2007, when he was still gainfully employed on the Emmy and Golden Globe winning hospital drama Grey's Anatomy, actor T.R. Knight shelled out $2,912,500 for an historical 1930s Tudor style fixer-upper at the far eastern edge of the quietly star studded Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Unfortunately for Mister Knight, he probably gained the the most fame and attention by all the gossip glossies as the verbal punching bag for his former cast mate Isaiah Washington who (in)famously made homophobic slurs towards Mister Knight on set. As a result of the ugly kerfuffle, Mister Washington was relieved of his acting duties and Mister Knight was compelled to make a very public and unplanned exit from the proverbial closet. Iffin anyone were to ask Your Mama–and, of course, no one did–it is our humble and utterly meaningless opinion that Mister Knight handled the grisly bizness with grace and dignity and we hope his mama was as proud as Your Mama was of his decision to live openly in the notoriously homophobic Hollywood. Yes bunnies, we know that Hollywood is crawling with the gays and lesbians. However, it's not so often that a working and successful actor or actress actually lives publicly as an out, proud and gay individual. That's right big name celebrities, you know who you are and we're talking about you.

Anyhoo, perhaps as a result of the brouhaha–or not–his role on Grey's Anatomy was subsequently slimmed down until the summer of 2009 when Mister Knight chose to quit his lucrative gig on the boob-toob claiming that he just wasn't thrilled by or fulfilled with the direction his character was being taken. Mister Knight has reportedly relocated to New York City where he's getting back to his deep roots on the stage and will soon appear in David Mamet's A Life in the Theater with fellow thespian Sir Patrick Stewart.

No longer in need of his his 1930s Tudor that he spent the last 3 years and untold amounts of moo-lah renovating, Mister Knight recently hoisted the property back on the market with an asking price of $3,995,000. Listing information indicates the quirky and fully rehabbed residence with its distinct ecclesiastical thing going on measures 4,160 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms and 3.5 poopers.

Earlier reports claim that Mister Knight never even moved into the house having lived in a nearby rental while the extensive and costly renovations were underway. We don't know anything about that but listing photos do show the house is completely empty so whether he moved in or not, he's clearly not living there now.

A discreet front facade opens into an unexpectedly capacious double height entrance hall with a curving, hand-carved stair case and antique slate floors. A set of elaborately carved Gothic arched doors open from the entrance hall into a voluminous living room that features parquet flooring, a soaring vaulted ceiling with exposed beams and trusses, leaded glass windows, an imposing stone and carved wood fireplace, and a forest's worth of intricately carved wood detailing. The room's most interesting, unique, and somewhat bizarre feature is the minstrels gallery where back in the day, according to listing information, the Hollywood String Quartet played for parties of Tinseltown elites.

The living room opens out to a glassed in porch that has a heavy, dark stained beamed ceiling, antique slate flooring, a chunky brick fireplace and tree top views. A large dining room with gives way to the fully renovated galley style kitchen that has gorgeous gray flat fronted lower cabinetry, black counter tops, two side by side sinks in front of a large casement window, double ovens and a Hyundai sized range that probably cost as much as an entry level Mercedes.

Upstairs, the master bedroom has a gorgeous and whimsical corbel dome ceiling, glossy parquet floors, antique heating registers, and an attached private pooper with honeybee tile floors, white subway tile walls, a barrel vaulted ceiling, and a row of 4-pane windows with city views. In addition to the bedrooms, the second floor has a dee-voon sleeping porch with slate tile floor and a pitched ceiling. While we're certain that many of the more pampered children would prefer to flick on the air conditioner on a warm southern California summer evening, Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter would rather throw open the windows of a sleeping porch and let the soft breezes waft over us while we talk to the Sandman.

At least one of the other poopers in the house is completely encased–floors, walls and ceiling–in shiny jet black subway style tiles that look terribly sexy and more than a little sinister but are probably murderous when it comes to water spot removal. The children can be sure that if Mister Knight had an opinionated and vocal house gurl like our gal Svetlana, he would never have put all that black tile in a pooper.

Outdoor areas include a covered terrace with hulking brick fireplace located just off the lowest level of the three story house, a small sunbathing terrace, and and several flat expanses of lawn amid the rough and tumble of the rugged but fully landscaped hillside that includes hand stacked rock retaining walls, and a stream that tumbles down the hillside into small pond.

Your Mama wishes Mister Knight more luck than some of his former Grey's Anatomy cast mates have had selling some of their pricey properties in Los Angeles' Los Feliz neighborood. Ginger haired Kate Walsh–who stars in the Private Practice spin-off of Grey's Anatomy–bought a Spanish style mansion in July of 2007 for $4,750,000. Not long after the decoratin' was done she and her huzband went splitsville and shortly after her dee-vorce was finalized she flipped the beehawtcha back on the market in May of 2010 with an asking price of $4,295,000. It doesn't take a genius or Your Mama's bejeweled abacus to see that even if Miss Walsh gets lucky and finds a full price buyer for her house, she's still facing a hefty half million dollar loss on her real estate mistake.

In September of 2007, Mister Knight's b.f.f. Katherine Heigl and her singer/songwriter man-mate Josh Kelley paid $2,250,000 for a 4 bedroom and 3.5 pooper property in Los Feliz. Shortly thereafter, in June of 2008, Mister Heigl put another Los Feliz home on the market with an asking price of $1,750,000. Records and the bizzy boys at Celebrity Address Aerial show Miss Heigl paid $1,500,000 for the 3 bedroom and 2.5 pooper house back in May of 2006. After more than a year on the market and several price chops that brought the price down to $1,595,000, the property was taken off the market. It remains in Miss Heigl's property portfolio.

listing photos: Peter Lorimer Group Estates

Amy Adams: New Baby, New House

BUYER: Amy Adams and Darren Le Gallo
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $3,165,000
SIZE: 4,311 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: According to no fewer than three of Your Mama's better connected sources, two-time Oscar nominated actress Amy Adams (Junebug, Enchanted, Sunshine Cleaning, Doubt, Julie & Julia) owns a perfectly lovely if architecturally ordinary 3 bedroom and 4 pooper Cape Cod-ish style crib with designer done interiors in the lower Benedict Canyon area of Beverly Hills. According to property records, Miss Adams' Benedict Canyon property was purchased through a trust in December of 2008 for $1,825,000.

In mid-May of 2010 Miss Adams pushed out a gurl baby that she made with her actor-artist fiancé Darren Le Gallo. If Your Mama has said it once we've said it 72 times: When the rich and famous get a new baby–or a new spouse–it often means they buy a new house. We're not sure why that is exactly but property records reveal that in late July of 2010 the very same trust and trustee associated with Miss Adams and her baby daddy's Benedict Canyon residence scooped up a new house on a secluded quiet cul de sac high in the Hills above Beverly.

Your Mama managed to dig up listing information for the new property which indicates the Connecticut style ranch was originally built in 1952 and extensively remodeled with contemporary elements in 2005. The sprawling and well maintained house measures 4,311 square feet according to listing information with 4 bedrooms and 3.5 poopers including a master suite privately situated on the second floor that provides tree top views, hardwood floors, a fireplace, two custom fitted walk-in closets, a posh pooper with spa tub, and a private patio with a slivery view of the city lights and Pacific Ocean.

An electronic drive gate opens to a small flagstone motor court lined with lush plantings. The children will note how the landscaping palette has been kept to just green things, a choice that along with the frosted glass paned garage doors lends a contemporary vibe to an otherwise architecturally traditional house. We're certain that some of the children will loathe this merger of modern with East Coast traditional–the somewhat cliché garage doors in particular–but Your Mama don't mind it a bit. Yes, we love and appreciate an architecturally and stylistically pure abode just as much as the next property snob, but we can also get on board when an architecturally undistinguished house is given a more contemporary spin on things.

Anyhoo, a short walkway leads to the front door that opens into a small foyer that immediately and unceremoniously gives way to the combination living and dining room that features original hardwood floors, a vaulted and beamed ceiling punched through with sky lights, built-in bookshelves, a stacked stone fireplace, and three sets of French doors that open the room to the gigantic flagstone terrace that extends off the back of the multi-winged ranch.

Very contemporary, frameless frosted glass panels that stretch from the floor to the ceiling divide the living/dining room from a good sized and oddly shaped study/den with charcoal colored slate floors, built-in shelving, and vaulted wood ceiling with exposed beams. Since the day-core in the listing photos is that of the previous owner we won't comment (much) on that but Your Mama will confess that we get goose pimples over how the crisp white and art-friendly walls in the living/dining room and the study/den beautifully juxtapose themselves against the more organic woods and stone elements that repeat themselves throughout both the interior and exterior of the property.

The charcoal colored slate floors continue into the commodious kitchen, into the adjacent family room that opens out to the back yard terrace and, somewhat unexpectedly and strangely, up the walls and onto the back splash in the kitchen. The gore-may cookery is essentially a wide galley style affair with a long work island/breakfast bar down the center. The sleek flat fronted cabinetry, sky lights, and high grade stainless steel appliances that include a sizable side by side Sub-Zero and a mac-daddy Viking brand range are, once again, set off against the more organic quality of the slate flooring and vaulted wood ceiling with exposed beams and trusses. Built-in cabinets in the family room area accommodate tee-vee and stereo/iPod equipment.

According to listing information, there are three bedrooms in addition to the master suite and a fourth that has been converted to a home gym. Your Mama really has no idea if Miss Adams and Mister Le Gallo plan to maintain a home gym, but this being Tinseltown it would certainly not be surprising if the well formed pair opted to install a whole bunch of body torture equipment in their new home to save them the trip and indignity of going to a public fitness facility.

A large room with a flat beamed ceiling and original hardwood floors was outfitted by the previous owners as a media room with a gigantic sectional sofa, floating built-in cabinetry for books and entertainment equipment and a wall mounted flat scree tee-vee. Short of putting it in a cabinet with closing doors it's nearly impossible to hide the squawk box. The children will take note, however, that the the boob-toob was cleverly disguised–or at least minimized–by hanging artwork in a tight cluster around the tee-vee.

In addition to the generously sized flagstone terrace that runs along the back of the house, the back yard area includes a built-in barbecue center, mature trees and plantings, an unnaturally green lawn that undulates gently with the terrain, and a gated and nearly hidden free-form swimming pool and spa. While all the trees and foliage that run up to the edge and hang over the pool and spa look amazingly au natural, we're certain that Miss Adams and Mister Le Gallo's pool man will quietly curse them out every week while he's skimming all the leaves and other crap off the surface and bottom of the swimming pool.

The nearly 1-acre property also includes a cactus garden–and Your Mama loves us a cactus garden–a fully fenced and partially shaded dog run with stacked stone walls, pathways that meander up and around the hillside and lead to stone benches, and at least one secluded deck with long views over the surrounding canyon towards the city lights and the Pacific Ocean.

Listen chickens, Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter don't pine to live in a Connecticut style ranch house in the 90210, but iffin we did and we had three and some million clams to spend, Miss Adams and Mister Le Gallo's new digs just might be the icing to that cake. It's wonderfully private, perfectly quiet, big without being obscene, luxurious but kick your feet up casual, done without being over done, traditionally built but modern minded and, generally speaking, looks like a lovely spot to escape the intensity and fakery of showbiz. Brava! Miss Adams.

Some of Miss Adams and Mister Le Gallo's new neighbors include Queen Latifah and, we presume, her "trainer" Jeanette Jenkins, Dixie Carter's widow Hal Holbrook, actor Jonathan Frakes and his soap star wife Genie Francis who put their 6 bedroom and 10 pooper house up for lease in 2009 when they moved to Maine, and leveraged buyout tycoon Ted Forstmann who owns the IMG talent agency and once courted Top Chef's statuesque stunner Padma Lakshmi.

listing photos: PostRain Productions for Partners Trust

Rachel Uchitel Does Park Avenue

Your Mama is well aware that any number of the children would rather roll themselves in flour and dip themselves in a deep fryer before reading another damn word about VIP ho-stess turned Tiger Woods mistress Rachel Uchitel, who received a rumored and reported ten million clams from Mister Woods for keeping her trap shut about their alleged affair. So, iffin you don't want to know about Miss Uchitel's real estate doings–and who could blame a person for not caring a whit?–then move right along until Your Mama gets to something more agreeable to your palette. Okaaay?

Last week all the celebrity real estate gossips were atwitter about Miss Uchitel allegedly snatching up a two million dollar condo on Park Avenue. At the time, based on information from previous reports, Your Mama speculated that Miss Uchitel was fixing to buy an 8th floor apartment listed at $1,995,000 at The Griffon, a lovely, full-service pre-war building located on a lackluster stretch of Park Avenue just below Grand Central Station.

As it turns out, Miss Uchitel opted for a lower priced apartment on a lower floor at The Griffon. According to Housing Watch, Miss Uchitel just moments ago signed papers to purchase a condo at The Griffon paying $1,625,000 for a a 3 bedroom and 3 pooper unit on a low floor that was last listed at $1,849,000. How does Housing Watch know this the children might ask? Apparently the listing agent for the property, a Corcoran agent by the name of Beth Benalloul, walked out of the closing and immediately called the peeps at Housing Watch with all the doo-doo on the deal.

According to Miss Benalloul via Housing Watch, Miss Uchitel does not plan on making the apartment her primary residence and may choose to rent the unit out for as much as $8,500 per month. The 6-room apartment, which has a fireplace, separate dining room, small but proper foyer, 6 closets, a renovated galley style kitchen, and hardwood floors, carries monthly maintenance charges of $1,600 with another $1,313 additional per month in taxes.

The children might be amused to know that the otherwise ho-hum building gained some infamy back in 1936 when one of its residents, a Mrs. Abraham Z. Schiebel, aka Mary Briggs, was arrested, prosecuted, and jailed running a place of prostitution out of her apartment. We'll let the children decide for themselves if there's any irony there or not.

Now then, let's all hope this matter is put to bed for good.

listing photos: Corcoran

Brad and Angelina Do It In Italy

For American superstars and global do-gooders Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt all of the world is a real estate stage.

The comely couple own a 5-ish acre compound in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, a contemporary estate perched on a high bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, an historic mansion in the French Quarter of New Orleans, a hilltop hideaway and 60,000 hectares of jungle in Cambodia, and a 1,000 acre estate in the South of France known as Chateau Miraval*.

Back in April of 2010, while the Pitt-Jolie clan was spending a few months in Italy while Momma Jolie filmed scenes for her upcoming thriller film The Tourist with fellow Hollywood ex-pat Johnny Depp, Daddy Pitt headed out into the I-talian countryside in search of some marble for some renovation project or another.

Mister Pitt became quickly smitten with the area and by mid-July all the celebrity real estate gossips around the world were reporting that the peripatetic pair and their 427 children were house hunting in the rustic and rolling hills in the north eastern viticultural region of Valpolicella near Verona.

Eventually their search led them to the 17th century Villa Costanza San Pietro in Cariano, an historic and slightly disheveled, Palladian style mansion with a reported asking price of €32,000,000, an amount that Your Mama's currency conversion contraption indicates translates to $40,792,000 at today's rates.

Most reports say the spectacularly rich couple coughed up somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000,000 but at least one report from July 2010 in an Italian publication indicates that the couple paid around €15,000,000–$19,121,200–for the property.

According to previous reports, hotel sized house weighs in at a titanic 18,000 square feet and includes 15 bedrooms, 7 poopers, 2 swimming pools, several spas and waterfalls, 1 movie theater, a home fitness room, stables for the ponies, and a damn vineyard.

According to the official website for Comune di san Pietro In Cariano, the "U" shaped Villa Costanza–also known as Villa Saibante-Monga–wraps around a central courtyard that contains six mythological statues, a couple of carved stone lions, and a well that dates to 1623. Among the many rooms in the villa there are two large rooms, one with a tiled floor, coffered ceiling and walls decorated with 17th century frescoes and another with walls painted with landscapes.

*Although Your Mama don't know a pine tree from a coffee pot, we are not convinced that Mister Pitt and Miz Jolie actually bought the Chateau Miraval property but it is where the comely couple and their 87 children have been living on and off since the spring of 2008.

photos: Vogue