CELEBRITY HOMES
If you’ve ever wondered where Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca and their cronies hang out between making Star Wars films, look no further than the out-of-this-world home in a gated Los Angeles Hidden Hills neighborhood that is now for sale. For decades, Hidden Hills has been a secure celebrity-rich enclave for those wishing to hold the paparazzi at bay. However, little did anyone know that it was also home to the Star Wars cast of characters, who live in the 5,000-square-foot basement of an 18,183-square-foot contemporary Craftsman home. Now with their hideout finally discovered and no longer a well-kept secret, it has just been put on the market, priced at $26.5 million.
Kelly Clarkson made a meteoric rise to stardom after singing and winning the first season of American Idol in 2002. Kelly is now one of America’s favorite entertainers, judge on The Voice and host of her new NBC talk show. Ten years after her American Idol win, Kelly bought a Tennessee lake home in Hendersonville, 25 miles up the Cumberland River from Nashville. Her Tennessee mansion is for sale, priced at $7.49 million.
For English actor Jason Statham, the decision in 2009 to buy a Malibu beach house was not part of the plan. He didn’t even know if it would be a sound investment. All impulse, the idea came about while staying with a friend in their Malibu Colony home. “It made such an impact on me,” he recalls. “In the U.K. we don’t get to the beach much, and these houses have a great connection with the ocean and nature.” Morning walks along the sand glimpsing abundant sea life and surfers riding swell proved irresistible. “I had been in L.A. quite a while, but I just thought, This is the place I want to live,” says Statham.
Jennifer Lawrence, the Academy Award-winning star of Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games and American Hustle put her stunning New York penthouse in The Laurel up for sale last July and, with a downturn in the Manhattan luxury-condo market, has lowered the original price of $15.45 million to $14.25 million - now down to $12 million. Purchased in 2016 for $15.6 million, taking a loss on the property might not faze one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood. Though Lawrence got her big break in New York, she now spends her time in Los Angeles close to the studios.
Friends superstar Matthew Perry is no stranger to real estate deals and over the last ten years, in addition to acting, writing and producing, has been buying, restyling and reselling some fabulous California homes. The most recent that has come to market is this glamorous 40th-floor penthouse in the celebrity-approved, paparazzi-proof 42-story Century condominium. Perry purchased the penthouse, which covers the entire 40th floor of the building, right after selling another stunning home in L.A.’s Hollywood Hills Bird Streets in 2017. After bringing in his team of architect Scott Joyce and interior designer LM Paganoe, Matthew has recently put it on the market at $35 million.
The palatial 1940’s Malibu Hills equestrian estate once owned by Kelsey Grammer and ex-wife Camille Grammer, star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, has hit the market priced at $19.95 million. In addition to its celebrity owners’ history, the home was often seen in Camille’s Real Housewives television episodes.
Five-time Emmy winner and with three Golden Globes for his pompous but charming roles in Frasier and Cheers, the multi-talented actor, musician and vocalist Grammer met Camille in 1996 while she was working for his production company. Married in 1997, they purchased the private, guard-gated French Country home in star-studded Serra Retreat a year later and Camille continued to live there after their divorce in 2011. The Grammers put it up for sale in 2012 and it sold in 2015.
