Manly Actor Jason Statham Lists Mid-Century Modern

SELLER: Jason Staham
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $2,749,000
SIZE: 2,281 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama first discussed butch British actor Jason Statham (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, The Italian Job, 13, Blitz) and his Tinseltown real estate doings during the summer of 2009 when he listed a 2,140 square foot condo at the Broadway Hollywood building with an asking price of $1,395,000. The hunky and humpy movie star has only purchased the 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom condo two years earlier for, according to property records, $1,543,500. A few quick flicks of the well-worn beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus reveals that Mister Statham was looking at a real estate bang to his bank accounts of almost $150,000, not counting real estate fees. However, as far as Your Mama can tell, Mister Statham continues to own the condo–which had a disco ball hanging from the ceiling in the living room–and it is no longer listed on the open market.

At about the same time Mister Statham first listed his unwanted condo at the Broadway Hollywood, he went trés Hollywood real estate-wise and splashed out a celebrity-style $10,950,000 for a contemporary wood and glass ocean front residence inside the guarded gates of the illustrious and star-choked Malibu Colony.

As mentioned in previous our discussions, in addition to the condo in Hollywood and the new beach house in the Bu, Mister Statham has long owned a risqué mid-century modern in the hills just above the bustling Sunset Plaza area on the Sunset Strip. Property records reveal that Mister Statham acquired the glassy 1957 single-story contemporary in June of 2004 when he coughed up $2,400,000 for the modestly sized but gigantically sultry 2,281 square foot residence.

Just prior to moving on up to the hills above West Hollywood, the accomplished springboard diver turned black market salesman turned fashion model turned well-compensated actor sold a small Spanish-style casa near Runyon Canyon in Hollywood for $1,310,000. He had purchased the house for $650,000 back in May 2002 with former model/actress lady-friend Kelly Brook (née Parsons).

Listing information for Mister Statham's restored and upgraded post and beam shows it contains 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and an open plan main living area with full walls of floor-to-ceiling glass panels that confuse the distinction between inside and outside and create a flirtatious and exhilarating structure that is perhaps a peeping tom's most satisfying real estate fantasy.

The living room has a fireplace, a white and clean-lined sectional sofa and a full wall of glass panels with a view of the walled and high-hedged front garden where the swimming pool is located. Yes, puppies, the swimming pool at Mister Statham's house in the hills, wee as it is, is in the front yard.

Entire walls of glass throughout the house create a startling and edgy transparency and allow a person to see all the way from the master bedroom, across an exterior courtyard, through the living room and beyond the back wall of the front garden where, as aforementioned, the swimming pool is located. This level of translucence is certainly fearless and spine-tingling but it also pushes the borders of personal privacy to its absolute limits of comfort in a way that many people might find off-putting and perhaps even frightening.

Interior spaces include a bedroom converted to a library/office with two full walls of built-in–and mostly empty–bookcases and a formal dining area with concrete block pony wall accent that lends the ethereal space a much-needed architectural grounding. The sleek galley-style kitchen has rich black counter tops—that Your Mama hopes and prays is soap stone rather than granite–and shiny flat-fronted cabinets that look to Your Mama like cherry wood but may very well be mahogany or some other material altogether. The kitchen is open to a family room area that Mister Statham has furnished with very masculine black leather sofas and a glass and chrome coffee table that altogether project the vibe of the waiting room of an expensive dentist, the sort of chomper fixer that does not under any circumstances accept insurance.

Concrete walls and towering hedges surround the property, which is a good damn thing when you spend a moment to consider the master pooper. Floor to ceiling and wall to wall glazing on the back wall of the shower obliterates any visual distinction between inside and outside. The thin sheet of clear glass that separates the shower space from the terliting and toothbrushing area adds another pulse-quickening layer of transparency to the smallish but nicely-equipped and clean-lined bathroom. This multi-layered transparency feels very "modern" and deliciously racy until the day you're doing your thing in the shower with Florence + The Machine working their musical magic on the iPod and Gabriel the Gardener unexpectedly works his weed whacker around the side of the house and right alongside the humongous window in the shower.

Anyhoo, outdoor space at Mister Statham's crib appear to be somewhat limited due to it being slammed up against a steep hillside at the back of house. A contemplative if not exactly private glass-wrapped courtyard is sandwiched between the living, dining and master bed rooms and the front garden, the largest outdoor area, has a trellis-like structural element that arcs over the plunge-size swimming pool. A petite poolside terrace provides a sun-dappled spot to lounge poolside with a stack of gossip glossies, a bag of penny candy and a pitcher of ice cold gin & tonics.

Since Your Mama knows not Mister Statham nor anyone who knows Mister Statham we can't say whether the hairy-chested British beau-hunk will purchase another Los Angeles home base or if he plans to decamp full-time to his ten-plus million dollar house in Malibu and use his condo at the Broadway Hollywood as an in-town pied a terre. That said, iffin Your Mama were the betting type–and we most certainly are not–we'd wager everything we own that if Mister Statham were to snag another house in Lala Land he would gravitate towards and pay big bucks for a modestly sized if horrifically expensive and architecturally sophisticated abode.

UPDATE: We now hear from The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial that the British tab The Daily Mail reported in mid-February 2011 that Mister Statham is in the process of custom building a house in the hills above Beverly Hills, next door to the magnificent John Lautner-designed Goldstein House and, reportedly, just a few hundred yards as the crow flies from a house his ex-lady-friend Kelly Brook recently leased.

Interestingly the article in The Daily Mail shows Mister Statham and his current gal pal–Victoria Secret brar-and-panty model Rosie Huntington-Whitely–touring the construction site with none other that James Goldstein, the Goldstein of the Goldstein House next door. Also inneresting, property records we peeped still show the parcel where Mister Statham is (allegedly) erecting his dream house to still be in the name of said Mister Goldstein. So, puppies, make of that what you will because there seems to be some confusion amongst real estate gossips as to what Mister Statham's real estate story as it pertains to this house in Bev Hills really is.

listing information: Keller Williams