A confidently idiosyncratic and vividly colorful, celeb-pedigreed home cleaved to a steep hillside in the celeb-favored Outpost Estates area of Los Angeles has come to market at $3.249 million. Novelist and screenwriter Roger L. Simon, nominated with Paul Mazursky for a Best Screenplay Oscar for the 1989 film “Enemies: A Love Story,” based on an Isaac Bachevis Singer novel of the same name, and screenwriter Sheryl Longin, co-writer of the 1999 comedy “Dick” starring Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams, purchased the property in 1989 for $685,000 from actor Bronson Pinchot, best known for his late 1980s and early 1990s role as Balki Bartokomous on the sitcom “Perfect Strangers.” Built in the late 1930s and rented in the early 1950s by Marilyn Monroe when she was dating then still-married Joe DiMaggio, the three-story multi-colored residence, which listing agent Paul Czako at Gussman Czako Estates noted bears a striking architectural resemblance to hillside homes in the ritzy Sardinian seaside resort Porto Cervo, is tucked behind a high privacy wall and measures in at 3,620-square-feet with four well-separated bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms.
Rustic wood gates swing open to a narrow, landscaped courtyard and front door that, in turn, opens to a slender entrance vestibule that steps up to a picayune reception lounge. A much more amply proportioned living room, with an intricately filigreed antique wrought iron chandelier hung from a vaulted exposed wood ceiling, features terra-cotta floor tiles laid at a 45-degree angle, a reclaimed brick fireplace and arched French doors that open to a roomy, awning-shaded terrace with serene canyon view. Inky hexagonal floor tiles in the dining room, also with a vaulted exposed wood ceiling and French doors to the terrace, continue into the eclectically tiled kitchen that sports custom distressed cabinetry, solid surface counter tops and a center island with two-stool raised snack bar. Main floor living spaces are completed by a powder room, a guest bedroom with two closets, a den or potential bedroom with glass sliders to the slim walled courtyard at the front of the house and an over-sized hall bathroom with claw-footed soaking tub and separate tile-lined shower.
A discreet stairway just off the entrance hall climbs up to a penthouse aerie used by Simon and Longin as an office and another stairway in the kitchen winds down to a secluded guest bedroom with an en suite bathroom lined in lustrous coral colored ceramic tiles. Yet another stairway just inside the front door leads down to an en suite guest bedroom and a master suite replete with reclaimed brick fireplace and French doors to a slender covered terrace with verdant canyon overlook. The vibrantly tiled master bathroom has a circular jetted tub and suite’s extensive closets include but are not limited to a large walk-in and an even larger separate dressing room. An interconnected series of stone terraces, wood decks and pebbled patios are nestled into the sloped yard below the house along with a circular spa and free-form swimming pool beautifully and privately sited amid the swaying canopies of mature trees.
Tucked up into the foothills above Hollywood, the historic Outpost Estates neighborhood has always attracted Hollywood types — silent film star Dolores Del Rio was an early resident — and some of the homes in the ‘hood are currently owned by entertainment industry luminaries Charlize Theron, Charlie Humman, David Lynch, Felicity Huffman and William. H. Macy, Miranda Cosgrove, Laurence Fishburne, Penny Marshall and Johnny Galecki whose home was previously owned by both Jason Statham and Ben Stiller.
listing photos: Adrian Anz
