Friday, December 16, 2011

UPDATE: Warren Beatty and Annette Bening

OWNERS: Warren Beatty and Annette Bening
LOCATION: Beverly Hills (Post Office), CA
PRICE: $25,000/month
SIZE: 10,594 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A month or so ago Your Mama revealed that Oscar-winning Tinseltown high priest Warren Beatty and his dee-voon, 4-time Oscar-nominated wife Annette Bening put their long-time mock-Mediterranean mansion in the 90210 on the rental market at $27,500 per month. At that time online listings only included one crappy aerial photograph of the mansion, which Mister Beatty and Miz Bening have owned since May 1996.

Since our discussion the Beatty-Benings have dropped to rent price to $25,000 and online listing(s) now include a mostly monochromatic cache of images that show both the inside and outside of the partially vine-encrusted (mc)mansion privately sited at the tail end of a long, gated drive and tucked into a thick thicket of mature trees with limb- and leaf-obstructed vistas over the pancake-flat San Fernando Valley. Listing information indicates the ready to be rented residence measures in at a considerable 10,594 square feet with a total of 6 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms.

Listing information describes the Beatty-Bening family's bulky abode as "Very light, bright and open" with "Grandly scaled rooms throughout, high ceilings, and a great flow for large scale entertaining." Certainly the entrance to this house asks for oohs and aahs from party pals and over-night guests: A tall, bougainvillea-draped arch and shallow portico frames the front door that opens into a notably spacious and even glitzy white-marble foyer with a swooping marble and wrought iron staircase that looks to Your Mama like a not unappealing but not entirely successful homage to one of the wickedly grand and extra-wide staircases a body might see in an 18th century Parisian hotel particular.

Listing photographs show the interior spaces completely empty and devoid of anything that might be taken or mistaken for actual day core. On the main floor wide arched doorways and scads of French doors open to the outdoors and connect adjoining rooms where the floors are covered in either sand-colored wall-to-wall carpeting or gleaming, high-gloss, honey-colored parquet de Versailles-style hardwood floors.

The walls, baseboards and trim work around windows and doors–but not crown moldings, since there does not appear to be a single inch of ceiling moldings in the entire house–are bathed in a buttery beige hue that somehow seems to both gobble up and reflect light. Listen kiddos, no one loves a stripped down piece of architecture more than Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter but some houses, regardless of architectural authenticity and/or integrity, just work better with a little crown molding. This house, the Beatty-Bening's old crib up off Mulholland Drive, most certainly would benefit from moldings. Unless, we dare say, the day-core was all done up in the old-school earthy-glamour of Michael Taylor with boulder-shaped poufs and pillows, a plethora of planted foliage, and a odd but balanced amount of organically shaped sofas and Louis the Something bergere chairs that together generate the correct amount of design tension (and wrongness) that shouldn't really work together but does, and perfectly. Then you could go without the moldings in a house like this.

Anyhoo, we're not sure which of the many empty rooms in the listing photos shows the master bedroom but the images do clearly reveal the master suite encompasses a bi-winged, clothes horse-friendly custom-fitted walk-in closet and a luxurious, hotel-style bathroom sheathed in ecru-colored marble with two sinks, separate shower, giant jetted soaking tub, and a private cubicle for the terlit and bee-day.

Many rooms on the second floor open to Juliet balconies with scrolled wrought iron railings and most rooms on the main floor open out to deep covered porches or other outdoor entertaining areas that include tree-shaded lawns, a sunbathing terrace, circular spa with tree-framed valley views, and a negative edge swimming pool with azure tile detailing. A glass-roofed green house tucked into the wooded hillside below the back of the house opens through a series of sliding glass doors to a broad deck that extends into the canopies of the surrounding old-growth trees.

Although we don't have any specific intel on the matter, Your Mama assumes the Beatty-Benings have relocated down the road a mile or two to a compound with multiple residences including a massive main mansion they recently completed that replaces the old house that was significantly rattled and damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

listing photos: Westside Estate Agency

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate how you can see the garage door from the front steps.

Big and bland.

Anonymous said...

He is one of the cheapest people alive, and the house shows it. Ugly box.

Anonymous said...

What a dismal property sans the grounds. I can only hope they hired a nice gay architect and designer on their rebuild with their insurance settlement.

Anonymous said...

I can not believe that these two legendary movie stars lived in this place. Indeed, given the time frame of their residency it would seem they basically raised their kids here (if they moved here shortly after the Northridge quake in '94).
We get that it's most likely been stripped of all their decoration and painted beige, but that's not the fundamental problem.
What exactly would be their reasoning in leasing it as opposed to attempting to unload it? I mean it's not like they bought at the top of the market. Whatever they get, and I have no idea what this place would go for, it has to be much, much more than they paid.

Anonymous said...

I think we can assume from no picture of the kitchen that it probably needs some serious updating. House isn't very attractice at all. No wonder they moved. Wonder why they just don't sell it outright? Beatty probably thinks it's worth a lot more than it is.

midTN said...

***

The interiors of these Mockmansions all look like Las Vegas hotel lobbies...and hotel bathrooms...and hotel bedrooms...and...
***

A bunch of beige on beige with a bit of black iron thrown in...boooring.

Desert Donna said...

Perhaps they are keeping this one should he go back to his womanizing past i.e. splitsville? They supposedly have a great marriage though. Yeah, you can assume the kitchen is thrashed when they include a cramped closet photo and no Kitchen pic.

Anonymous said...

Yep, you do have to assume that the kitchen is not top notch since there are no pictures, but to lease a place at this not inconsequential number don't you need to have a decent kitchen?

shell said...

Warren is a little OLD to be womanizing. Christ he's got to be 70-right-? This home is appallingly boring and blah..yuk..

Anonymous said...

This home is very common and what is wrong with the Beverly Hills and Westside Landscape in Los Angeles. So many McMansions void of character and class are now aging 80's 90's eye sores that just get rented over and over and are not done up to be oh la fabulous as one would expect.

What this house needs.

1. Aged/Distressed Wood Garage Doors... Similar front doors.... more ivy and a schema making it more mediterranean.

2. Gravel Driveway.

3. Interior: Umm Gut Job

4. New Windows/Doors.. umm did you see the half windows and HALF curtains in a bedroom oh my

Kisses that is all.

Psychic Mildred said...

Oh my God, I see bloodstains everywhere!- something terrible happened in this house! Don't!

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing if you can shell out 25k per mo for rent, you probably have a cook and don't really give a hoot about the kitchen yourself.