PRICE: $11,400,000
SIZE: 6,877 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Brace yourselves, butter beans, because Meg Ryan's Los Angeles, CA mansion has popped back up on the open market for the 5th time since 1997 with a new, improved and much lower asking price of $11,400,000.
After first shopping it around off-market to folks like Mister and Missus Ben Affleck and British quasi-expats Mister and Missus Victoria Beckham, Miz Ryan had the drop-dead gorgeous Spanish-style casa on the open market from late-October 2008 until early January 2009 with an optimistic asking price of $19,500,000.
In the fall of the same year (2009) Miz Ryan briefly re-listed the residence at $14,200,000 and the following fall (2010) put it out for lease at a mouth-drying $40,000 per month. Eventually, we first learned from from well-connected Tinseltowner Kenny Kissintell, Oscar winner and historic architecture buff Diane Keaton came along and rented Miz Ryan's meticulously updated, upgraded and maintained Bel Air mansion at an unknown amount of monthly remuneration.
The trout-pouted (former) rom-com queen—she's barely worked in The Big Bizness of Show since 2009 and, hence, ripe for a come back—seems to spend a great deal of time in New York City where she's often spotted around town with middle-aged rock star John Mellencamp. In fall 2010 Miz Ryan was reported to have signed a one-year lease for an approximately $25,000 per month rental in the Jean Nouvel-designed tower at 40 Mercer Street but we can't confirm or deny that tidbit nor do we know if she's moved on or signed an extension on the (alleged) lease. She owns a secluded residence near the quaint community of Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard she picked up in early 2004 for $2,270,000 and had photographed for the glossy pages of Elle Decor's June 2010 issue.
Back in Bel Air, Miz Ryan's privately situated estate, tucked into a hair pin curve in one of Bel Air's most posh pockets, sits surrounded by mansions and estates owned by a plethora of high-profile peeps who include Academy Award-winning legend Clint Eastwood, television super-producer Darren Star (who had his newly remodeled residence photographed for the March 2012 issue of Architectural Digest), Showbiz icon Robert Redford and, right next door to Miz Ryan's place, the Richard Neutra-designed Brown-Sidney House now owed and extensively restored/renovated by fashion world superstar turned film producer Tom Ford, he-rah of the squinty-eyed smolder.
Property records show Miz Ryan procured her Bel Air mansion in October 2000 when she paid $8,500,000 for the multi-winged, two-story mansion that current listing information indicates was built in 1931 andmeasures 6,877 square feet with 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms plus additional living/sleeping quarters in a detached guest house near the swimming pool.
Interior spaces includes a step-down formal living room with fireplace, formal dining room, two family rooms, separate bar room, second floor screening room, and eat-in kitchen with commercial-style appliances and a massive center work island.
The museum quality renovation features dark hardwood floors, hand-stenciled and painted ceilings, vintage tiles, wrought iron details, dozens of archways, and French doors that spill out to various patios and loggias that give way to flat lawns, shaded terraces, a dining ramada with antique wood ceiling, and a small free-form swimming pool nestled into a lower terrace with stacked stone retaining wall.
Your Mama has discussed Miz Ryan's no-longer-wanted Bel Air pad on several previous occasions so if you're interested in more prattling and pontificating head over here and here.
exterior aerial photo: Pacific Coast News
listing photos: Prudential California / Brentwood