Friday, February 4, 2011

Tweeter Ashton Kutcher And His Altruistic Real Estate Moment

SELLER: Asthon Kutcher
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $2,600,000
SIZE: 3,235 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Yesterday while settin' on the sofa picking at our fingernails and minding our own beeswax we received a press release regarding a Los Angeles, CA property listed at $2,600,000 and owned by actor/producer/cougar lover Ashton Kutcher. Mister Kutcher has put an unusual spin on the marketing of the property by turning the rehabbed residence into a charity show house with proceeds to benefit his own DNA Foundation. More on that later.

Mister Kutcher, a college drop out and former male model, started up his ladder of fame and fortune in the late 1990s as the remarkably obtuse pretty boy Michael Kelso on the sitcom That '70s Show. In the mid-2000s Mister Kutcher created and produced the juvenile and wildly successful Punk'd program. Since then he's produced a whole mess of junky reality television shows that include Miss Guided, Beauty and the Geek and True Beauty. In 2009, the poor son-of-a-bitch signed on to executive produce the spectacular tee-vee turkey The Beautiful Life: TBL. That short-lived show, which "starred" troubled "actress" Mischa Barton, was unceremoniously axed after only two episodes aired. That's right, hunnies, two! It was that bad. Your Mama predicts the two aired episodes–and bootlegged copies of the never-aired episodes–will become cult favorites for the same genre of film and television folks who think Showgirls is so bad it's brilliant.

In addition to all his producing duties, Mister Kutcher has a quite lucrative career as a rom-com king. He currently stars in the silly No Strings Attached with newly preggers Natalie Portman and in the last few years he starred in a number of overly saccharine air-brained chick-flicks like What Happens in Vegas, Spread, Valentine's Day and Killers.

In May of 2001, flush with new money from That '70s Show, he splashed out for a Beverly Hills bachelor pad. Property records and previous reports reveal that Mister Kutcher coughed up $1,690,000 to purchase a mini-estate in the Bev Hills Post Office with a 4,860 square foot half-timber Tudor-style house with six bedrooms and 6.5 poopers. The gated property, located at the tail end of a small and quiet cul-de-sac, has a swimming pool, spa and tennis court. Mister Kutcher owned the property until February of 2009 when property records reveal he sold it with an enviable profit for $3,675,000.

Long before selling his batch-pad in the Bev Hills, Mister Kutcher purchased a second house in Los Angeles, this one tucked into the hills above Laurel Canyon. Records and reports show that in September of 2004 he shelled out an even-steven $1,000,000 for a secluded house in the Laurel Hills neighborhood that's walking distance to the Mulholland Tennis Club.

According to the initial report on Zillow Mister Kutcher worked cheek to jowl with his father on the customization, renovation and expansion of the house. Los Angeles-based architect Duncan McIntösh was engaged to spearhead the design of the project that turned what was a fairly ordinary 2,002 square foot house into a 3,235 square foot contemporary Craftsman-style residence with 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. Listing information shows the house, situated at the end of a long gated driveway, now includes a vaulted ceilings with exposed beams, hardwood floors throughout, scads of custom built-ins. The up-to-date eat-in kitchen has glass sliders that open to a dining terrace and a professional home theater has a booze bar and candy counter. All the winos out there will appreciate the temperature-controlled wine cooler and the custom 2-story wine tower that holds more than 200 bottles of booze.

Sliding glass doors open many of the rooms at the back of the house to the terraced back yard where an infinity-edge spa spills into an infinity-edge plunge pool that spills into a bubbling trough of water set into a stacked stone wall. Trails lead out into the rugged hillside and wind around the nearly 1-acre property.

As far as we know, Mister Kutcher never occupied the property because just a year after buying it he married actress Demi Moore. The May-December lovebirds now live in an all but flaw-less Marmol Radziner-renovated and Brad Dunning-decorated digs on a celebrity-lined canyon road in the Beverly Hills Post Office that they had photographed for the glossy pages of Architectural Digest in March of 2007.

Now then, getting back to Mister Kutcher's charity doohickey. Mister Kutcher and his a-list old-lady Demi Moore have a foundation called DNA–as in Demi and Ashton–that aims to bring awareness to the horrors of child sex slavery and provide funding for the rehabilitation of the hideously violated youngsters. A worthwhile cause to be sure.

According to the press release that landed unexpectedly in our inbox yesterday Mister Kutcher has turned the house in the Hollywood Hills into a decorator's show house with the staging assistance of a handful of Los Angeles architects and designers who include Giannetti Home, Erinn Valencich, Woodson & Rummerfield’s House of Design, William Hefner Architecture and Nickey Kehoe. Tours of the staged residence are offered at (a not inconsiderable) 250 bucks a pop with 100% of the proceeds of tour tickets being donated to Mister Kutcher and Miz Moore's DNA Foundation.

Mister Kutcher has also teamed up with interweb retailer Gilt City who will arrange an online flash sale of some of the items used in the staging day-core with ten percent of the proceeds of the sales going to DNA. The icing on this real estate meets charity cake is that big cheese listing agent Gary Gold of Hilton & Hyland has also offered to donate a percentage of his commission to DNA.

Tickets for tours can be purchased here.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I gladly paid $42 to tour the STAHL HOUSE recently but I'll be damned if I will ever pay $250 to tour a house that looks like it belongs in Culver City.

angie said...

lol, I feel a bit intimidated after the first comment, but I'll stick my neck out anyway.

I like this house - a lot. It's modern in a warm and inviting way. The woodwork is beautiful. That back yard is warm climate dweller's dream oasis. There's something about home made and hand crafted that's unmistakable and sets it apart from most other homes when it's well executed, and this places exudes it in spades. The price seem fair for all it offers too.

Jeannified said...

Beautiful home...too bad Mauricio Umansky isn't the listing agent. As Paris Hilton would say..."He's HOT!" ;-)

Anonymous said...

too expensive for neighborhood but with this much pub....

lil' gay boy said...

Best-of-show in the cookie-cutter house sweeps; not bad for its kind, but hardly a tour-de-force. Metal sashes, highly-lacquered wood juxtaposed against unrelievedly white walls, all wrapped in gray stucco ––– nope, never seen that before...

I was about to snark on the fact that I couldn't believe such a lower life form had any DNA until Mama took the wind out of my sails by pointing out the nature of their charity. Commendable to be sure, so I will have to content myself with the fact that perhaps Ms Moore is atoning for her own sex-enslavement of that "child"?

Whatever Ashton's supposed charm may be, it simply eludes me, much like a dog whistle; but I'll bet he comes a-runnin'.

Anonymous said...

I have nothing to say other than my word verification is "commit."

Lady J

Madam Pince said...

Don't like the house or its owner, but the cause is definitely worthwhile. I hope it sells for a fortune and saves some kids.

Tayloreqxw said...
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