King of Pop Rents in Bel Air
Michael Jackson, "The King of Pop," has rented a gated Bel-Air home for a regal $100,000 a month.
This is the second time in several years that Jackson has rented on the Westside. The first time, he rented a Beverly Hills-area home where he could stay while appearing in court to clear his name of child molestation charges. The second time was when he rented in Bel Air.
Jackson, 50, left the state after he was acquitted of the charges in 2005. Now he wants to be closer to the city for his three children.
The Bel-Air house he rented recently was described as "an elaborate French chateau on more than an acre with lots of marble." The house, built in 2002, has seven bedrooms and 13 bathrooms plus a theater.
High-end home sales were brisk when Jackson rented the first house. Now even the top end of the market, starting at $5 million, is showing a downturn, although a mansion that sold for $38 million was the highest home sale on the Westside in 2008.
The Bel-Air home Jackson leased was one of the most expensive houses listed for sale last year in the Los Angeles area, but it was withdrawn from the market after Jackson signed a year's lease.
Speaking of high rents, Cole Porter's former apartment in the Waldorf Astoria is available at $140,000 a month, making it one of Manhattan's highest asking prices for a rental.
The six-bedroom apartment in the New York hotel's residential section was home to the composer-lyricist from 1934 to 1964. Frank Sinatra later paid $1 million a year for the suite. A tenant who had lived there for 10 years died last year.
Porter wrote such Broadway songs as "Delovely," "Night and Day" and "Anything Goes." His grand piano still stands in the hotel lobby.
Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez has dropped the asking price on his Coral Gables, Fla., home to $12.3 million. He and his estranged wife, Cynthia, paid just above $12 million for the home in 2004.
"A-Rod," 33, is also trying to sell his Manhattan apartment for $10 million, which is $4 million less than what he originally asked.
He is selling the properties, because his wife filed for divorce last year.
The 8,300-square-foot house, on Biscayne Bay, has a dock and views of downtown Miami. The Rodriguez family bought the 1952 house from art-world philanthropist Ella Fontanals-Cisneros and then spent a "significant amount of money on renovations," according to listing agent Polly Schiff of Coldwell Banker in Coral Gables, Fla.
Among the renovations was conversion of a tennis court into a camouflaged batting cage.
Actress Beverly D'Angelo, who has recurring roles as "Babs" Miller in the HBO series "Entourage" and defense attorney Rebecca Balthus in "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," has put her Beverly Hills home on the market at close to $2.2 million.
The 1920s Spanish-style home has five bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms in slightly more than 4,000 square feet. It also has a two-story entry, a step-down living room with garden views and a detached studio with a porch, courtyard and pool.
D'Angelo, 57, also appeared in several "National Lampoon" movies.
Ginger Glass and Jessica Juyent share the listing at Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills.
A former home of actor Alan Ladd, who starred in the movie "Shane" (1953), has been sold for $2.55 million. It had been listed for 79 days at just under $3.5 million.
The new owner is songwriter-composer Scott Cutler, who wrote "Sanctuary" with Madonna and "No Man's Woman" with Sinead O'Connor. Ladd died in 1964.
The four-bedroom, 4,100-square-foot house, in Los Feliz, is known for its pub, where Ladd and his talent agent wife, Carol, entertained such celebrities as Bette Davis, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and Ginger Rogers during Hollywood's Golden Era.
The house was designed in the late '20s by Marshall P. Wilkinson, and it has high ceilings, four fireplaces, park-like grounds, a reading nook and a foyer with hand-painted wallpaper.
Lynne Beavers of Lynne Beavers & Associates, Los Angeles, had the listing; Eric Lowry of Coldwell Banker, Sunset Blvd. office, and Dawn Young of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills East, represented the buyer.
