Floor Plan Porn: Jon Stryker

SELLER: Jon Stryker
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $48,000,000
SIZE: 5,600 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We received a unexpected but welcomed digital missive yesterday from an informant we'll call Steven Harris Brown who let Your Mama know that Jon Stryker—a notably philanthropic billionaire heir to a surgical and hospital supply fortune—slapped a heavy-duty $48,000,000 price tag on his sprawling duplex penthouse atop the Prásadá, a quirky yet elegant French Second Empire-style apartment house on New York City's Central Park West.

Mister Stryker, a middle-aged divorced father of two who came out as a homosexual sometime around the turn of the last century and—as far as we know—courts a younger and taller architect who works for Robert A.M. Stern, reportedly paid about $12.8 million for a pair of neighboring three bedroom apartments in 2002. At that time it was the highest amount paid for a single occupancy apartment on the Upper West Side.

Although a licensed architect in his home state of Michigan, Mister Stryker hired the white-shoe architecture firm Shelton, Mindel & Associates to handle the combination of the apartments, which were in their original state when they were acquired. Reports from the time of Mister Styrker's acquisition said the two apartments totaled 11,000 (or so) square feet with another 4,000 (or so) square feet of outdoor space but current listing details set the figures at a much more modest but still considerable 5,600 square feet with 2,500 square feet of private terraces.

Your Mama spent some time with the floor plan of the U-shaped spread and we quickly counted two circular foyers, two fireplaces, four bedrooms, and a total of 5.5 bathrooms including a someone inconvenient for the less-abled but smartly private half bathroom on the mezzanine that overlooks the living room. We counted three dedicated family/guest bedrooms, each with with small but windowed en-suite bathrooms, plus a centrally located master suite outfitted with a fitted walk-in closet and split bathroom.

Somewhat unexpectedly located off the main entrance, the crisply modern kitchen overlooks the building's courtyard and can be opened to or closed off from the 30-foot long combination living/dining room by pocket doors that—no doubt—slip effortlessly into the walls. Architectural details in the living/dining room that may or may not be original but are certainly correct for the provenance of the building include fluted pilasters, a coffered ceiling, and six-over-one sash windows filled with a head on view over all of Central Park and, in the distance, the swanky apartment houses that line Fifth Avenue.

The adjoining corner library, which appears to be disturbingly book free, also has park views and pocket doors that link to a wet-bar equipped study where Your Mama hopes Mister Stryker keeps his books. Less formal family accommodations were pushed to the opposite end of the apartment where even more pocket doors divide a roomy corner family room with fireplace from an adjoining study with built-in cabinetry.

Two separate and fairly discreet stairways ascend to the expansive, multi-level roof terrace divided into several sections that include a rigidly gridded terrace of potted trees, a fair-sized patch of (presumably faux) lawn, and a corner dining terrace with the exact sort of sweeping view from which many upper Manhattan real estate dreams are woven. Around the back of the penthouse-level conservatory an all but hidden stairway climbs to an upper level roof terrace with even more hair-curling wrap around views.

Other residents of the Prásadá include Oscar-nominated screenwriter Melissa Mathison, she's Harrison Ford's ex-wife; philanthropists and architecture buffs Jeanne and Kenneth Levy-Church, who lost big in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme scandal; and married actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas

Mister Stryker has owned an apartment in New York City since at least April 2005 when he shelled out $6.2 million for a 62nd floor three bedroom condo crib at the Time Warner Center that he turned around and sold in March of 2007 for $8,550,000. During that time he also, in April 2006, paid $585,000 for a studio-style unit on a lower floor that he flipped in October (2006) for $700,000.

Besides his no longer wanted (or needed or whatever) penthouse at the Prásadá, Mister Stryker owns at least half dozen properties in and around his native Kalamazoo, MI, and earlier this year he forked out more than $4 million for a a 129-acre spread called Mystery Point on the Hudson River in Garrison, NY. Most of the property will remain accessible to the public as open and unspoiled lands as a result of a conservation easement.

Mister Stryker has maintained a residence in Palm Beach since at least 1998 when he paid $3,838,000 for a .55 acre lot with a 6,600 square foot Mediterranean-style house built in 1926 and originally designed by high-society architect Marion Sims Wyeth, the same fella who did the opulent Mar-A-Lago. Some time later, possibly in 1999 or maybe in 2003, he laid out an unknown sum of money to buy and adjacent parcel that gave him direct access to the beach, albeit by crossing Ocean Boulevard. In June 2010 Mister Stryker expanded his Palm Beach holdings considerably when he paid musician Jimmy Buffet $18.5 million for the gated and high-hedged 1.61 acre estate next door with its swimming pool, tennis court and 10,000+ square foot house.

exterior photo: Kate Leonova for Property Shark
listing photos and floor plan: Brown Harris Stevens
aerial photo (Palm Beach): Bing 

Marilyn Manson Gets a New Lair

BUYER: Brian Warner, a.k.a. Marilyn Manson
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,085,000
SIZE: 2,711 square feet, 2-3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES It was actually actor Shia LaBeouf who, back in 2011, let the celebrity real estate cat out of the bag when he told Regis and Kelly—and, by extension, the world—that four-time Grammy-nominated goth-rocker Marilyn Mansion was then living—and remained living—in a rented loft above a liquor store on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood where he wrote and recorded much of his eighth studio album Born Villain.*

Fast forward to early October 2013 when three separate sources—first Raven Stringplucker, then Babbling Babette, and, finally, Lucy Spillerguts—snitched to Your Mama that the tenebrous and frequently polemical middle-aged rock-n-roll ghoul decided it's high time to settle into more traditional living circumstances and, just a couple weeks ago, plunked down $1,085,000 for a tired but dignified Spanish-style casa on two hillside lots in a little-lauded pocket of the Hollywood Hills.

Listing details show the two-story residence was built in 1926 and spans 2,711 square foot residence with two bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. A potential third bedroom—or office or art studio or whatever—is accessible by separate entrance and has a private patio, a private bathroom, and a large storage space.

A long stairway snakes up the hillside from the street to the front door that opens directly into a deliciously cavernous living room with wood floors, a double-height ceiling with exposed wood beams, a corner fireplace, and a tall arched window that opens to a rather utilitarian concrete terrace with through the tree top view. The extra-large formal dining room has enough room for separate eating and sitting spaces plus a shallow and architecturally appropriate barrel ceiling, and steel-framed French doors that open to to a Juliet balcony.

The fairly frumpy looking galley kitchen has ho-hum raised panel cabinetry, average-grade stainless steel appliances, out-dated orangey-beige tile counter tops, and one of those gawdawful greenhouse windows over the sink that Your Mama dislikes so much that Rule #1057 in Your Mama's Big Book of Decoratin' Dos and Don'ts specifically states that, "No kitchen of distinction or grace will feature a greenhouse window over the sink. Ever." Anyways...

An extra-wide second floor gallery overlooks the living room and leads to double master suites that are each complete, as per digital marketing materials, with a walk-in closet and an attached bathroom dressed in original tiles. While the black and white checked tile on the floor might be original in both bathrooms Your Mama is pretty damn sure the black toilet and brass-fixtured double sinks in the one bathroom are not original to the house.

The kitchen opens to a fenced side yard with a concrete terrace that backs up to a steep and planted if not exactly landscaped hillside and looks out over the a house-dotted canyon. The other side of the house opens from the upper level gallery to a smaller but grassy yard that's ringed by a tangle of foliage and punished with a too-wacky fountain. (If Mister Mansion would just take that cherub-encrusted central piece out and leave the tiled circular part it's a workable situation. But otherwise it's just poorly executed kitsch-crap.)

Some of Mister Manson's famous-y new neighbors include Morgan Fairchild, Brigitte Nielson—who only bought her fixer upper last year for $600,000, and Extreme Home Makeover designer Paul DiMeo who's had his house on and off the market a couple of times over the last couple years

As far as Your Mama's research shows Mister Manson has owned (at least) two other houses in the Los Angeles area. First he owned a multi-story Spanish with head on views of the Hollywood sign over Lake Hollywood—sold in 2004 for $1,510,000—and later a 4,500 square foot house in the ultra-suburban community of Chatsworth in the extreme northern section of the San Fernando Valley that he briefly shared with his ex-wife, burlesque queen Dita Von Teese, and sold in late October 2007 for $1,025,000.

*So the story goes, Mister Manson first spent time in the liquor store loft in the mid-1990s when it was occupied by busy actor Billy Zane.

listing photos: Keller Williams

Heidi Klum (Sort Of) Downsizes

BUYER: Heidi Klum
SELLER: Ed. Weinberger
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $9,875,000
SIZE: 11,600 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Shortly before German-born supermodel turned Emmy-winning Project Runway super-mogul and fecund sartorial entrepreneur Heidi Klum split with her musician ex-husband, Seal, the once-happy couple shelled out $14.2 million for an approximately 12,300 square foot mock-Med villa with 8 bedrooms and 9.5 bathrooms on just over 12 acres in the Brentwood Country Estates, a super exclusive guard-gated enclave in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles where some of the other multi-acre estates and massive mansions are owned by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, sitcom super-producer Kevin Bright, and—directly across the road from Miz Klum—fellow supermodel Gisele Bündchen and her professional pig skinner hubby Tom Brady.

As far as Your Mama knows, after the erstwhile couple parted ways Miz Klum remained in residence in the Brentwood family manse, presumably along with her beefy and rugged new bodyguard/boyfriend Martin Kristin. Howevuh, hunties, according to the ever-bounteous real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak, the Klum clan is on the move and, as rich and/or famous people so often do after a marriage slides down the garbage disposal of lost love, the super-rich 40-year old mother of four bought a new house, a (slightly) smaller mansion on a whole lot less land in a smaller and less glorified guard-gated enclave in the Bel Air area of Los Angeles for which she paid $9,875,000.*

Property records (and other online resources) show the ridge-top estate was sold by nine-time Emmy winning writer/producer Ed. Weinberger (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, The Cosby Show) and his wife, former actress Carline Watkins, who custom built the three-story red brick neo-Georgian mansion in 2000 and had the property on and off the market for more than three years at a variety of prices as high as $15 million.

The 11,600 square foot mansion sits on a 4.82 acre parcel with long and wide views down the steep canyons and over Sherman Oaks and the San Fernando Valley, a view that many who can afford to pay $10 million for a house would not want, according to the sometimes snobbish Yolanda, because "it faces the wrong way." A long private driveway cuts between a couple of mansions and forks awkwardly as it nears the symmetrical front of Miz Klum's new and stiff-shirted abode. To the right there's a featureless parking lot-like motor court and to the left a secondary motor court on the side of the house where there's also a detached two-car garage with self-contained one bedroom apartment above.

The center hall foyer will impress traditional architecture loving guests with lustrous chevron-pattern wood floors, the exact sort of sweeping floating staircase for which trail-blazing architect Paul Revere Williams is known and adored,* and glass doors at the back that open to a small veranda that overlooks the backyard. In addition to the graciously scaled formal living and dining rooms—both with wood floors, fireplace and elaborate moldings—lower level living spaces include a pair of offices and a library with yet another fireplace, French doors with semi-circular transoms, and a bunch of bookcases that may or may not be built in, we can't tell.

Family-oriented spaces include a generous family room that opens to the back yard and a spacious, eat-in kitchen that's expensively decked out with white cabinetry, marble counter tops and the customary suite of commercial-style stainless steel appliances that include side-by-side fridge/freezers, a 48-inch range plus wall ovens, and an under-counter wine cooler.

Listing information goes on to indicate there's a (less-than-ideally shaped) media room with angled ceiling and built-in wet bar/candy counter and, somewhere in the house, a temperature-controlled (and sorta dank-looking) wine cellar with stone-tiled walls and floor. Up on the (at least partially) finished third floor there's a home gym/dance studio and the basement, as per listing details, allows for further expansion.

Four guest/family bedrooms with en suite facilities occupy the mansion's second floor along with a roomy master suite that's complete with fireplace, a private deck with view across the entirety of the San Fernando Valley, dual dressing rooms, and two bathrooms—"his" with a vaguely vintage barbershop-y vibe and steam shower and "hers" with lots of mis-matched marble and a super-size soaking tub in front of a Palladian window. (Let's all cross our fingers that Miz Klum or her team of lady and/or nice-gay decorators has the good sense to do away with the cotton candy pink walls in the "her" master bath.)

The landscaping around the mansion is fairly simple with some clipped hedges and, besides total privacy from neighbors, outdoor amenities include an over-sized heated swimming pool sunk into a pancake flat swathe of lawn, several covered and shaded terraces, and an outdoor kitchen off the family room/kitchen. Listing details suggest there's room for a tennis court but we really have no idea if Miz Klum will undertake the installation of such.

We expect Miz Klum with sell her giant house in the Brentwood County Estates but, at this point, Your Mama has no inside intel on her plans. Until mid-2008, when she sold it for $5.35 million, Miz Klum maintained a two bedroom and two bathroom penthouse pad on Bank Street in New York City's Far West Village. We're not sure where the statuesque Miz Klum and family bunks when in New York City but our research suggests—but does not prove—it's a series of high-priced downtown rentals.

*While the property is, address-wise, located in Bel Air's prestigious 90077 zip code, some might say that the north of Mulholland Drive property ought to be in the relatively affluent (and star-soaked) but far less celebrated 91423 zip code of Sherman Oaks.

**We don't know who is responsible for the architecture of this home but it was most assuredly not Paul Revere Williams who met his great drafts(wo)man in the sky in 1980.

listing photos: The Agency

Adam Pally Lists Grove-Adjacent Spanish Bungalow

SELLER: Adam Pally
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,699,000
SIZE: 2,428 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Up and coming comedic actor and writer Adam Pally has put his modestly sized but hardly inexpensive Grove-adjacent* Spanish bungalow in Los Angeles, CA, on the market with an asking price of $1,699,000.

The usually scruffy-faced and Jewfro-ed Mister Pally, now in his early 30s, has long performed with various improv groups (i.e.the venerable Upright Citizens Brigade), occasionally plays around in the Funny or Die comedy sand box, and wrote and/or appeared in a handful of short films (The Indigenous Flowers of Southern California) and cable series (Californication) before he landed a co-starring role on the (now canceled) ensemble comedy Happy Endings. The ad-libbing actor currently appears as a series regular as a frat boy turned gynecologist on The Mindy Project and will soon be seen in the comedy moves A Better You with Natasha Leggero and Nick Kroll) and Search Party with Krysten Ritter, formerly the untrustworthy B---- in Apartment 23.

Property records show Mister Pally and his wife, Daniella, purchased the tile-roofed bungalow in July 2011—not long before they had their first baby—for $1,360,000 and their decision to move so soon after settling in to their Grove-adjacent digs may or may not have something to do with the recent birth of their second child. Current listing details show the 2,428 square foot house was originally built in 1927 and has three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms plus additional living space in the converted and detached two-car garage.

A low-walled, gated, foliage-encircled courtyard leads to the front door that opens directly into the living room where listing photographs show honey-blond wood floors, a coved ceiling, lots of windows (with gauzy curtains), and a wood-burning fireplace with stately carved stone (or poured concrete) mantel piece. The honey-blond floors and vintage architectural details (i.e. crown molding and articulated archways) continue into the adjoining (formal) dining room that looks out to the front courtyard through an over-sized window.

The most striking feature of the house would most certainly be the pumpkin-colored star burst patterned Spanish tile in the renovated kitchen that's well-equipped with egg shell-toned cabinetry, grey counter tops (of unknown but presumably high quality material), and high grade stainless steel appliances. The kitchen has a two-seat snack counter tucked a bit awkwardly behind the six-burner range plus a compact but cozy breakfast room with inset book/knick-knack shelves, a vintage light fixture, and a ceiling painted the same dusty pumpkin color as the base color of the floor tiles.

Of the three bedrooms only only the master bedroom opens through wood-framed glass doors to an elevated concrete terrace that runs the full width of the house, incorporates a spa, and steps down the plunge-sized swimming pool. A rock patio along the pool certainly photographs nicely but can't feel that great on bare-footed tootsies, right? Anyways...

The detached two-car garage at the rear of the property has been converted to flexi-use living space with concrete floors, raw wood open shelves that cover and entire wall, and large windows that over look the swimming pool. Since the swimming pool and spa eat up a significant percentage of the backyard space the former driveway is show in listing photos as a spacious outdoor dining area and lounge.

If the staged furnishings in their Grove-adjacent house wasn't enough to tip the kids off that the couple has already moved on to another house, property records show the couple recently paid $2,025,000 for a brand new and much larger 3,700 square foot East Coast-y residence in one of the more desirable neighborhoods in Studio City, CA.

*Grove-adjacent is a terms (sometimes) used by (some) real estate agents to describe a property that's within a few blocks of The Grove, an outdoor mall that's connected to the historic Farmer's Market and is essentially a quintessentially Los Angeles faux version of Main Street U.S.A.

listing photos: Keller Williams

In Case You Missed It This Week

After she backed out of the purchase of Olivia Newton's John's $6.2 million water front house in Jupiter Inlet (FL) because someone committed suicide on the property right before the closing, Rosie O'Donnell has gone and spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million for a gulf-front spread on Casey Key just south of Sarasota, FL. In addition to the four bedroom and seven bathroom plantation-style house with swimming pool and outdoor kitchen, the sale includes a covered boat slip at a nearby marina. Tennis queen Martina Navratilova sold her Casey Key house back in 2008 and prolific novelist Stephen King owns at least two homes including a modern manse on three lots the northern tip of the sand spit barrier island he bought in 2001 for $8.9 million. (source: Herald Tribune; listing photos: Sarasota Photography for Sotheby's International Realty)

Orlando Bloom listed his gated mini-estate in the star-studded Outpost Estates nabe in Los Angeles (CA) with a $4.5 million price tag. And, yes, this is the place famously burglarized by the Bling Ring and that, much to the chagrin of some of his neighbors, he painted black. (source: Redfin blog; listing photos: Coldwell Banker)

Barbadian-born international pop star Rihanna has moved out of her $12 million mansion in L.A.'s affluent and staid Pacific Palisades 'hood—because she keeps getting unwanted intruders—and (allegedly) leased a $39,000 per month duplex penthouse in New York City's SoHo 'hood. In case Riri might want to buy the penthouse it's also available for sale with a $14,660,000 price tag. (sources: TMZ and Daily Mail; listing photos: Town Residential)

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Facebook gajillionaire Mark Zuckerberg and his Doctor missus, Priscilla Chan, reportedly heard word that a developer planned to buy the house next door, build a big house and market it as being next door to Zuckerberg, as if that was a reason to buy a house. So, they did what anyone with a net worth near twenty billion dollars might (and can) do, they shelled out more than $23,000,000 to buy (at least) three of the adjacent properties. At that's in addition to the seven million bucks they paid in 2011 for their fully updated and upgraded five bedroom turn-of-the-century residence. The Zuckerberg-Chans reportedly don't have current plans to merge the properties and—so the story goes—have leased the houses back to the sellers. (San Jose Mercury News)

Your Mama Hears

...from Yolanda Yakketyyak, who swears on her mint-condition '85 Seville, that the mysterious buyer who paid $10.85 million for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi DeGeneres's equestrian-oriented ranch-compound in Hidden Valley near Thousand Oaks, CA is none other than luxury t-shirt tycoon (and budding real estate baller) James Perse and his wife, Brandi (with an "i") Briskman.

Your Mama has discussed the horsey compound several times so if you want a more detailed description of the bucolic and semi-remote spread you can go here or here. Otherwise, suffice to say, the Missus Degeneres acquired the 26 acre ranch property in June 2009 for $8.5 million and, in typical real estate fashion for them, soon flipped it back on the market, first as a pocket listing and then on the open market. Originally priced at $16.5 million and last listed for $10.995 million, the property includes eight renovated residential cottages, two art studio/entertainment space barns, a ranch office, a stable block for half a dozen horses (plus a riding ring, etc), a screened yoga porch, a tree house, and a tennis court. There is not, as far as we know, a swimming pool.

Mister Perse, in case you don't follow the intersecting highways and bi-ways of fashion and commerce, is the progeny of Tommy Perse, owner of the legendary Los Angeles clothing boutique Maxfield. Mister Perse (the son) has become successful designer and an international purveyor of an eponymous line of luxury lounge-around wear; Think $65 for 100% domestic cotton slub casual v-neck t-shirts, $225 for slouchy woven crepe elastic waist pants—essentially swanky sweat pants—and $165 for sueded double knit kangaroo pocket hoodies.

The entrepreneurial Mister Perse has branched out in recent years to—among other things—design low-slung (and prodigiously pricey) furniture, develop a moisture-wicking performance-wear brand (Yosemite), and produce high-cost limited edition lifestyle products such as hand-crafted vintage-inspired skateboards, a rather sinister-looking all-black beach cruiser, solid teak pool and ping pong tables, and teak dog beds fitted with an hypoallergenic organic foam cushion covered in a waterproof, 100% Belgian linen polyfill duvet.

Anyhoodles, poodles, avid watchers of the upper-end Los Angeles real estate game will recognize Mister Perse as an increasingly frequent buyer (and seller) of superbly sited and impressively expensive real estate. In late 2010 he and the missus quietly shelled out $16 million for a glassy, bluff-top house in the Point Dume area of Malibu, in April (2013), after more than a year on and off the market, he finally unloaded in an off-market deal a one-bedroom house at the tippy-top of the Bird Streets above the Sunset Strip, and, most recently, in July (2013), the stylish (and obviously considerably rich) couple dropped $6,690,000 on a nearly 2-acre gated estate—also in Malibu's Point Dume area—that they bought from Dave Matthews Band guitarist Stefan Lessard.

And, finally, everybody knows by now that two Mays ago (2012) the Missus DeGeneres paid $17.4 million an iconic mid-century modern mansion in the lower section of Trousdale Estates in Beverly Hills and this last May (2013) they coughed up $26.5 million for an elegant, ten-ish acre estate in Montecito, CA, with an elegant, 10,000+ square foot stone-built villa designed and built by the elegant decorator John Saladino.

video: Interior Pixels (via YouTube)

The Great Cuba Gooding Jr. Sell Off Continues

SELLER: Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Sara Kapfer
LOCATION: Pacific Palisades, CA
PRICE: $11,995,000
SIZE: 6,753 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In late 2009 he sold a ho-hum 1950s canyon-view ranch-style residence just off Mulholland Drive in Studio City (CA) for $1.375 million and just this last August (2013) he sold a large, dated and perfectly ordinary house in the affluent Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando Valley for $735,000 and now comes word down the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine that Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. listed his much more impressive and luxurious gated mini-estate in Pacific Palisades (CA) with an A-list asking price of $11,995,000.

His online resume shows Mister Gooding remains a steady working actor with starring roles in lots of (mostly straight to DVD action/thriller) movies we've never heard of before (i.e. The Devil's Tomb, Hardwired and The Hit List) and couple of small parts in more successful and/or critically well-regarded films such as the currently in theaters Don Juan and Lee Daniels' The Butler. However, at the risk of sounding like a catty beotch, it seems to Your Mama, Mister Gooding, Jr.'s (to-date) professional salad days were way back in the mid-1990s to the early-Aughts when he starred in films that include As Good As It Gets, Men of Honour, Pearl Harbor, and What Dreams May Come, and, in 1997, won an Academy Award for Jerry Maguire.*

Property records show Mister Gooding, Jr. and long-time wife and high-school sweetheart, Sara Kapfer, acquired their family-friendly Pacific Palisades mini-estate in May 2000 for $3,500,000. Current digital marketing materials don't state the square footage but the Los Angeles County Tax Man puts it at 6,753. The two-story, slate-roofed and smooth stucco-sided European-ish farmhouse-type abode was originally built in the early 1940s and currently contains seven bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, five fireplaces, and two laundry rooms. There's also a separate guest house and garage parking for six or more cars.

A gated driveway opens off a secluded and rustic lane near Will Rogers State Park to a long driveway that cuts through a manicured sylvan landscape to the front of the house where custom glass and steel front doors open into a circular entry vestibule with stone floors and a spoke-like display of exposed ceiling beams.

The formal living room has wide-plank wood floors, a boxed wood ceiling, fireplace with some sort of antique-y looking carved or cast stone mantelpiece, and floor-to-ceiling steel-framed French doors on three sides the expose the room to the landscaped surroundings and open to various outdoor living areas. The floor switches to tumbled travertine (or some other beige-colored tumbled stone) in the formal dining room that has more floor-to-ceiling steel-framed windows and French doors as well as a slender, walk-in wine cellar and a butler's pantry.

Less formal family quarters include loft-like combination kitchen and family room with wide-plank wood floors under foot and exposed ceiling beams over head. A massive stone fireplace anchors the family room end where lots of windows and French doors make for a smooth transition to the outdoors. The colossal, cook-friendly kitchen has two work islands, several counter top materials—marble, wood and some sort of slab stone, and a full suite of industrial-style appliances that include two dishwashers and at least a couple of built-in warming drawers. An adjoining mud room, as per listing details, does double duty as a home office.

In addition to the half dozen family/guest bedrooms throughout the property there's a spacious master suite with vaulted, exposed beam ceiling and direct access to a private terrace. There's also a sitting area with yet another stone-faced fireplace, furniture-grade closets, and a marble-floored bathroom with two-sink vanity, free-standing soaking tub set in front of a picture window with tree-top view, and a separate glass-enclosed steam shower with convenient built-in tiled bench.

Other celebrity-style features of the Gooding, Jr. mini-estate include: A second floor den where open rough hewn wood shelves flank a fireplace; A wood-floored, mirror-walled, and punching bag-equipped gym  installed in part of the garage—if y'all look closely you can see a covered car reflected in the mirror; And, naturally, a home theater with vaulted exposed wood ceiling, contemporary drum-style light fixtures, a wide-screen projection system, and tiered seating.

Shaded and stone-floored verandas ring the main living spaces on the lower level and give way to, verdant outdoor areas that include expansive lawns with lush landscaping and mature shade trees, and a hedge-enclosed swimming pool and elevated spa. Perhaps the most unusual and certainly unexpected outdoor recreational feature, tucked into a sweeping—and probably noisy—curve of Sunset Boulevard, in a spot where a person might understandably expect a tennis court, we find a lighted ice hockey rink complete with glass protection barrier. Now, children, how many private outdoor ice hockey rinks do you think there are in sunny southern California? Probably more than Your Mama might guess but it really can't be that many since ice hockey really isn't much of a thing in southern California, you know? Anyways...

*Mister Gooding, Jr. also won a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe nomination for Jerry Maguire, taken home three Image Awards—Firelight (2012), Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009), Radio (2003), and in 2002 he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

listing photos: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices