Tinseltown tabloids when hog wild last summer when paparazzi images popped up of two-time Oscar-winning movie star Renée Zellweger and reality TV staple Ant Anstead smooching and hanging out on the balcony of his newly acquired bungalow in Orange County’s once low-key and artsy now less low key and still artsy if insanely expensive Laguna Beach. In August, the “Wheeler Dealers” star confirmed he and the “Judy” star are dating — they met on the set of Anstead’s Discovery+ series “Celebrity IOU: Joyride” — and in September he posted to Instagram a series of photos of the two of them looking romantically cozy in New Orleans, where she was working on the upcoming limited series “The Thing About Pam.”
Reports soon began to surface that Zellweger was spending most of her free time in Laguna Beach and, sure enough, right about the same time last October that she sold her secluded hacienda-style home in Topanga, in the mountains above Malibu, for $6.4 million, well above the $6 million asking price and almost twice what she paid in 2015, she rented a clifftop compound in Laguna Beach.
Owned by a corporate entity tied to a venerable Orange County family who made a fortune in wholesale groceries and spirits, the quarter-acre property is conveniently directly across the street from Anstead’s bungalow. So the story goes, Anstead will shack up with Zellweger while he gives his bungalow across the street, which he refers to as Temple Home on social media, a soup-to-nuts overhaul.
Online resources suggest Zellweger is paying about $25,000 per month for the blufftop spread, which includes a 4,100-square-foot main house with three bedrooms and three and a half baths, plus a 750-square-foot guesthouse with another two bedrooms and a bath. The property was available through Re/Max agent Danielle Purcell and Laura Baptista.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Once inside the security gates, brick pathways wind through lush tropical gardens, past the guesthouse and swimming pool, to the well maintained if somewhat dated three-story, grey-shingled main house.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com -
Image Credit: Realtor.com -
Image Credit: Realtor.com With peg-and-groove hardwood floors, huge picture windows, and numerous decks from which there are panoramic ocean and coastline views, the main residence includes a massive open-plan living and dining room with fireplace and walk-in wet bar.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com -
Image Credit: Realtor.com -
Image Credit: Realtor.com The kitchen is up to date with high-end appliances and a large butcher block island.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The primary bedroom is up on the top floor, where its high perch provides stunning views, while a ground-level entertainment area with another fireplace also offers a pub complete with a wine cellar and a wet bar that sports unusual tartan plaid tile work.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Besides the swimming pool area between the main and guest houses, the property also has small, grassy backyard with a gazebo and a private stairway that leads down the ragged bluff to the rocky coastline.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Though she no longer owns a home in California, at least not that anyone knows about, the “Cold Mountain” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary” star, a native Texan, quietly went back to her roots in 2020 with an under-the-radar purchase of a home on the sinuous shore of Austin’s Lake Travis.
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Image Credit: Zillow Listed at almost $3 million, the 3,500-square-foot luxury cabin (above and below) sits on just over an acre, with two and potentially three bedrooms, four bathrooms, five fireplaces, and 150 feet of lake frontage with a private dock. The property was listed with Cathy Romano at Compass; Zellweger was repped by Brandi McDaniel, also with Compass.
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Image Credit: Zillow