In the Hollywood Hills, restaurateur Michael Chow scooped up a Spanish-style house from pop star Katy Perry. Chow bought the 7,400-square-foot property for $9.4 million. It has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a guest house, pool and fitness building, and sits near the entrance to the Runyon Canyon trail. Perry, the Grammy-nominated singer, picked up the 2.3-acre property and a smaller one next door to it from oil heiress Aileen Getty in 2013 for $11.2 million. She owns a $19 million estate in the Beverly Hills Post office enclave. Chow, the founder of the Mr. Chow restaurant chain, also has a mansion in Holmby Hills that listed in October for $78 million.
Also in the Hollywood Hills, Melanie Brown, a.k.a. Mel B, took the edge off off her four-story home, dropping the list price to $5.9 million, a $3 million discount from its original listing, the Los Angeles Times reported. The former Spice Girl put the home on the market after her divorce in 2017 from producer Stephen Belafonte. They bought the 5,200-square-foot home together in 2014 for $4.3 million and renovated it extensively in 2016. It has four bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms. The couple added a recording studio, home theater, and gym. The backyard includes a pool, spa, and patio with a large outdoor grilling area with a built in beer tap and ice cream maker.
Out by the beach, actor-director Mel Gibson also took down the price of his Malibu estate. The Academy Award-winner sliced another 9 percent off the five-acre property, bringing it to $15 million, and hired new agents to market it, the Los Angeles Times reported. The 6,600-square-foot home has five bedrooms and four bathrooms, large fireplaces, and is reportedly filled with religious artwork. A buyer would receive rights to a membership at the La Costa Beach and Tennis Club, which costs $100,000 in addition to annual dues. Gibson first listed the home in 2017 for $17.5 million, and then trimmed the price to $16.5 million last February. The Agency’s Sandro Dazzan and Hilton & Hyland’s Branden Williams now have the listing.
In the heart of the Westside, actor Bruce Willis made a return to California by buying a mansion in Brentwood, where more established entertainment figures seem to congregate, according to Variety. The action hero star and his former fashion model wife, Emma Heming, picked up a 13,000-square-foot home for $9.8 million atop Sunset Boulevard. The gated property sits on a half-acre of land and features a full indoor spa, movie theater, elevator, gym, and yoga studio. Willis has been unloading his New York properties the past few years, and recently said he was planning a move back to the West Coast. He listed an apartment at 271 Central Park West last year for $17.75 million, and the couple also listed a home in Bedford, New York, in January for just under $13 million.
Adult film production company owner Bill Asher bought an estate in Montecito, his second home in the area. Asher, who owns Vivid Entertainment, paid $14.5 million for the Hot Springs Road estate, according to Yolanda’s Little Black Book. The Spanish Colonial was designed in 1920, and the main home includes 9,800 square feet of space, with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms. Asher’s other Montecito home was damaged in the January 2018 mudslides.