Open Post: Hosted By The Spelling Manor, Which Is Back On The Market For $165 Million
If you have a spare $165 million burning a hole in your untraceable overseas bank account, I can think of no better use for it than buying a one-of-a-kind piece of Hollywood history. Dirt reports that Spelling Manor, Aaron and Candy Spellings’ shrine to 90s opulence, is on the market for the 3rd time since it was completed in 1990. Picture Tony and Carmella’s house from The Sopranos and double it exponentially until you get to 14 bedrooms, 21.5 baths, a 5,000 sq ft master suite, a bowling alley, a beauty salon, a screening room plus rooms dedicated to gift wrapping and flower-cutting. It’s one of the largest private homes in the entire world and was last purchased “sight unseen” by an anonymous Saudi Arabian buyer in 2019 for a record-breaking $120 million. My guess is that the buyer tacked on the extra $45 million to compensate for the pain and suffering they endured having spent the last 2 years roaming the halls looking for the front door.
Prior to the current owner, Spelling Manor was owned by British Formula One racing heiress Petra Ecclestone who bought the property from Candy for a mere $85 million in 2011 (it was listed at $150 M). Petra, who was clearly not a fan of Candy’s pastel and beige Golden Girls aesthetic or her haunted doll museum, spent a reported $20 million in renovations transforming it into something more “Euro-chic and newly contemporary, with acres of black and white marble, plus lots of moody dark grays and shimmery silvers.” This is probably why Aaron Spelling’s ghost keeps getting disoriented and flying into windows.
Look, there’s no tasteful way to decorate a 56,000 sq ft single-family home. It’s an oxymoronic endeavor. Dirt reports:
It’s not entirely clear what upgrades have been completed since 2019 to justify the $45 million price increase, but there’s no question that today’s ultra-rich are substantially richer than they were 2.5 years ago. And even in the unlikely event of a full-price offer, the house won’t be breaking the California record again, as that figure currently stands at $177 million.
Here’s what Spelling Manor looks like in the listing photos.
This house takes me back. When I moved to LA as a starry-eyed youth in 1999, the very first thing my roommate and I did was hop in her busted Pontiac with the tinted windows and no AC and drive up and down Sunset Boulevard hoping to get a glance of Spelling Manor, whose sophistication and grandeur had taken on mythical proportions in our imaginations. We wanted a glimpse of the champagne wishes and caviar dreams Robin Leach told us all about. We wanted to see, with our very own eyes, the place where Tori Spelling woke up every morning to a brand new pony and never once thought about what happened to those ponies afterward. But I had a bad feeling about what might be buried underneath all those tennis courts. And given the manor’s size, you really could see it from the street! Well, you could see the walled perimeter. And that was enough proof for us that we’d made it in Hollywood! Honestly, I don’t even know why I’m here, I’ve got a private jet to catch. Later losers!
Pic: Hilton & Hyland/The MLS