SELLER: Ellen DeGeneres (and Portia de Rossi)
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: somewhere under $49,000,000
SIZE: It's complicated
YOUR MAMAS NOTES. The big deals just keep rolling in like a tidal wave this week. First there was news Time Warner widow Courtney Sale Ross sold her duplex at 740 Park Avenue for $52,500,000.
Quickly on its heels came word that casino king Steve Wynn dropped $70,000,000 on a nearly 11,000 square foot duplex apartment at The Ritz Carlton on New York's Central Park South.
Now comes news from gossip juggernaut TMZ that chat show hostess Ellen DeGeneres and lady-wife Portia de Rossi have sold their Beverly Hills estate to well-manicured American Idol host and reality tee-vee power player Ryan Seacrest.
Believe it or not, Your Mama actually first heard this more than two weeks ago now when Our Fairy Godmother in Beverly Hills who sent a covert communique that said that was word on the Bev Hills real estate street. We were a little incredulous and sat on the scuttlebutt even though we knew through various Platinum Triangle real estate sources that Mister Seacrest was on a very serious Platinum Triangle house hunt in the $35-40,000,000 range.
We quickly queried a second contact who told us he'd heard whispers of the same rumor and a third little birdie told Your Mama "there's lots of chatter about that." We finally got in touch with a fourth informant—the almost frighteningly plugged in Knancy Knowsthedish—who told us yesterday that our trio of sources were "very knowledgeable."
Missus DeGeneres bought the heart of the multi-parcel estate in early 2007 from Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick for just under thirty million clams. The main house measures more than 9,000 square feet with seamless indoor/outdoor living spaces. There's also a detached guest house with two bedrooms and under—yes under—the negative-edge swimming pool and adjacent pavilion there are additional living quarters and garage space where Missus DeGeneres parks her Porsches.
Shortly after buying Mister Mutchnick's mansion Missus DeGeneres paid $8,500,000 for the house next door that she quickly razed and replaced with gardens that girdle a private pond. Missus DeGeneres, a real estate compound lover if there ever was one, quickly snatched up two adjacent residences as buffers against paps and looky loos at a combined cost of $10,500,000. By Your Mama's rudimentary (and unscientific) calculations Missus DeGeneres spent an astonishing combined (and approximate) $48,000,000 to cobble her Bev Hills compound together.
She and Portia de Rossi were legally married in the backyard in August 2008 and a couple years later de Rossi legally took Degeneres' last name.
The real estate mad comedienne was rumored to have shopped the multi-residence compound off-market before officially listing it in May 2011 with a rumored and reported asking price of $49,000,000.
TMZ's source told them the agreed upon sale price was within a few million less than the $49,000,000 asking price. We heard a bit lower than that and The Wall Street Journal's close-to-the-transaction source says it's $37,000,000.
Mister Seacrest owns a house near the top of Nichols Canyon in Los Angeles currently on the market for $11,985,000 and Miz DeGeneres still owns—as far as we know—an equestrian-oriented compound out near Thousand Oaks, CA briefly listed last year on the open market with a $16,500,000 asking price. Miz DeGeneres also owns a very-contemporary bluff-top house in Malibu she bought last year from Brad Pitt for $12,000,000.
Expect news shortly about the Beverly Hills house Your Mama hears through the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine the Missus DeGeneres are in the process of acquiring.
listing photos: Westside Estate Agency