SELLERS: Janice Dickinson and Robert Gerner
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $1.995 million
SIZE: 2,702 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Just days before Janice Dickinson revealed in the Daily Mail that she’s been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, the iconic 1970s and ’80s high fashion model-turned-ubiquitous reality television denizen’s tomato red residence in the Beverly Hills Post Office area popped up for sale with an asking price of $1.995 million. Property records show the gated Benedict Canyon property, described in listing descriptions as an “eclectic canyon retreat,” is technically owned by thrice-married Miz Dickinson’s longtime fiancé, psychiatrist Dr. Robert “Rocky” Gerner, who acquired the property for $1.43 million in late 2012, shortly before Miz Dickinson filed for bankruptcy with, according to reports from the time, “nearly $1 million in debt.”
Over the last 10 or 12 years, the fearlessly provocative and remarkably resilient Miz Dickinson, the self-proclaimed “world’s first supermodel” and candid memoirist, has made a career flaunting her infamously erratic and occasionally rather deranged behavior on a long and still growing list of tawdry reality programs. In the mid-aughts she cut a volatile streak through “The Surreal Life” before she starred in her own, short-lived unscripted series, “The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.” After combative stints on “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!” and “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! NOW!” she turned up in 2011 on “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew” and last year alone the unapologetic plastic surgery aficionado appeared on the U.K. series “Celebrity Big Brother” as well as, with her fiancé, on the Stateside domestic drama fest “Couples Therapy.” Not at all surprisingly, according to the Daily Mail, Miz Dickinson will be followed during her upcoming cancer treatments on the Phil McGraw-created syndicated talk show “The Doctors.”
The split-level residence, built in 1948 on more than a quarter of an acre, has three en suite bedrooms and a total of 3.5 bathrooms in 2,702 square feet with, per listing descriptions, “designer touches” that include “hand carved wooden doors, wrought iron chandeliers, french doors,” and a “custom buddha fountain.” A nicely spacious living room with chocolate hardwood floors has a vaulted and sky-lit ceiling and a flagstone fireplace flanked by several vigorously colorful and arguably not particularly good Pop Art portraits of — natch — Miz Dickinson. A half of a dozen or so steps down from the living room, the combination dining room and kitchen is outfitted with chatoyant snow-white lacquered cabinets, slate gray tile backsplashes that extend luxuriously all the way to the ceiling, and a complete array of high-grade stainless steel appliances. One of the guest bedrooms on the uppermost floor opens through French doors to a large terrace atop a two-car carport, and the master suite has a raised ceiling and gold-painted carved wood doors that lead to a dizzying marble and mirrored bathroom. A heavily engineered series of staircases, paths and teal-colored decks climb the steep and tropically planted hillside behind the house and incorporate a koi pond, fire pit, “yoga terrace,” and an itsy-bitsy octagonal teahouse with an over-the-rooftops canyon view.
Listing photos: Sotheby’s International Realty
