Monday, August 6, 2012

SELLER: Kevin Williamson
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $3,715,000
SIZE: 5,140 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: After just four months and a starting asking price of $3,950,000, film and television writer/producer Kevin Williamson has unloaded his boxy, glass and white stucco contemporary crib in L.A.'s Hollywood Hills for $3,715,000.

Mister Williamson, best known as the screenwriter and (executive) producer of the wildly successful Scream film franchise as well as a number of money-minting television programs that include the long-ago canceled Dawson's Creek and currently on the air The Vampire Diaries, acquired the Hollywood Hills residence in December 2003 for $3,100,000

Property records indicated Mister Williamson sold his house to a single man with the exact same name as a professional basketball player who dribbles and shoots (and whatever) for the Indiana Pacers but we're not sure if that's really who bought the house or if it's just someone with an identical name. Stranger things have happened.

Listing information shows the two-story residence, situated on a quiet hillside road near the top of Runyon Canyon and composed of a series of interconnected planes and volumes, sits on a thickly treed .65 hillside acre lot, was originally built in 1990, measures 5,140 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms.

Wide slabs of concrete descend gently down a narrow strip of unnaturally green grass from the (un-gated) motor court with three-car garage and two-car carport to a locked and gated courtyard entrance. A sky lit entry steps down to the open-plan and bi-winged "formal" living areas with high-gloss wood floors (that look like but may or may not be mahogany), minimal architectural detailing, and wide expanses of windows and sliders that open to a terrace that floats over the canyon with sky-high city, canyon and mountain views.

The sky lit and expensive-looking center island kitchen comes off a little Arts and Crafts-y compared to the lacquered sheen of most of the rest of the residence but is well-equipped with some sort of solid surface counter top, cabinetry custom-fashioned from what appears to be some sort of nearly exotic wood, a walk-in pantry, and the full complement of high-grade stainless steel appliances including side-by-side fridge and freezer that all by themselves, we guesstimate, cost far more than the Yolanda the cleaning lady's Kia Rio.

A few steps down from the kitchen the family room has vast windows, a high ceiling, and an inset wide-screen tee-vee mounted above the massive, beveled fireplace. There's also a state-of-the-art screening room with an adjoining wet bar, a cozy library with fireplace flanked by open display shelves, built-in book cases with glass doors, and lofty ceilings.

The master suite offers a separate, private office with a wall of built-in bookshelves, a good-sized bedroom ringed on two sides with floor-to-ceiling windows and glass sliders that connect to a narrow terrace, a gigantic custom-fitted walk-in closet with center island dresser, and a large and luxurious yet perfectly ordinary-looking bathroom with double vanity, separate shower and jetted soaking tub, dressing area, and private cubby for the crapper.

Recreational amenities include a stone-floored and mirror-walled fitness room with sauna—if torturing one's body into physical submission can be considered a recreation—and a trapezoidal concrete sunbathing and dining terrace with sweeping mountain view over the canyon that falls away below the house. A swimming pool and spa bisects the terrace, a chunky ramada nestled into the tree line provides a respite from the relentless SoCal sunshine, and an interior poolside kitchenette with dishwasher is perfect for mixing up summertime pitchers of gin & tonic.

Other Showbiz types living up in the same twisted neck of the Hollywood Hills near the tippy-top of dog- and celeb-friendly Runyon Canyon include über-artist David Hockney, actress (and soon-to-be UCLA student) Justine Batemen (Desperate Housewives, Family Ties), Jay Leno's bandleader Rickey Minor (who bought Katey Sagal's house in late 2010), Oscar winning movie maker Quentin Tarantino, and Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain and the way better Donny Darko) who, as far as Your Mama knows, remains privately ensconced in the gated and  mini-estate around the corner he's leased for years.

Of course, Your Mama don't know a donut from a doughnut, so we can't be sure to where Mister Williamson decamped but we do find evidence in the property records he coughed up $2,400,000 in July 2011 for a walled and gated, 4,660 square foot mock-Med mini-mansion just off Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, CA.

listing photos: Val Riolo for Coldwell Banker / Sunset Boulevard

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