Property records suggest Mister Murdoch and his fierce third missus purchased the multi-acre estate in July 2004 for $13,000,000 but given that Mister Murdoch has been associated with the property since the 1990s Your Mama makes the (possibly foolish and inaccurate) assumption that the 2004 purchase was arranged so that Mister and third Missus Murdoch could buy second Missus Murdoch, Anna, out of whatever ownership she retained in the property after their 1999 divorce.**
The main house, a sensational semi-circular affair approached by a long gated driveway, was designed by West Coast starchitect Wallace Neff and built in 1926 for silent film director Fred Niblo and silver screen actress Enid Bennett. The Los Angeles County Tax Man indicates the house has a total of 11 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms in 8,651 square feet of space.
Both the step-down formal living room (with fireplace) and an adjoining library opened to a walled courtyard that appears in aerial imagery to have been enclosed, perhaps as some sort of sun porch or—as rich people like to call them—a solarium. A sinuous hall snaked around the library to what was originally designed as a deliciously secluded guest bedroom and bathroom that would also make for a fab home office or art studio.
On the opposite side of the house there's a pill-shaped stair hall that connects the reception hall to the service wing and a commodious formal dining room that leads out to a loggia that overlooks a plaza-sized terrace and swimming pool.
The extensive service wing was designed with a kitchen-sized butler's pantry, a slightly larger actual kitchen with walk-in pantry, a bedroom-sized mud room, and a staff wing with two bedrooms and a shared hall bathroom. A narrow carriage way between the central motor court and the rear motor court divides the main house from a two car garage and additional staff/guest quarters with at least two more bedrooms, a shared bathroom, and a compact kitchen.
Mister DiCaprio, in case y'all don't know, needs another high-maintenance residence in Los Angeles like he needs a raging case of the crabs. The popular and talented actor's primary residence is a custom-designed contemporary house behind secure gates high above the Sunset Strip. The children may recall this is the house where he ran afoul of his neighbors to the rear who made a legal stink about how the construction of Mister DiCaprio's at-home half-court basketball court destabilized or encroached on or otherwise compromised their property. The suit was dismissed. Anyways, Mister DiCap also owns the much more traditional house immediately next door that some years ago was leased by Spiderman actor Tobey Maguire and is now home, we've been told but can't confirm, to his mother, Irmelin.
In addition to his two Sunset Strip homes, Mister DiCap also owns a hillside house in the hip and trendy Silver Lake area bought in 1999 for $769,000 and two beach front properties in Malibu including a three house compound in the famed Colony community that's currently up for sale with an $18.9 million price tag, reduced from it's original $23 million asking price.
As one would presume a multi-billionaire might, Mister Murdoch has traditionally maintained a fat property portfolio. He reportedly added to his real estate pile a few months ago when he plunked down an as yet undisclosed amount for a functional vineyard/winery property in the western reaches of L.A.'s tony Bel Air area that was last listed for $29.5 million but he otherwise seems to be more inclined over the last few years to lighten his considerable real estate load.
Property records indicate that few years ago Mister Murdoch sold a pair of adjacent (and probably adjoining) penthouse apartments in Washington, D.C. for $1.3 million, in 2010 he sold three large parcels of ranch land up in the Carmel Valley in California's scenic Monterey County for an unknown amount, and in the fall of 2011 he sold Rosehearty—an historic 4.46 acre estate on New York's Long Island—for $9.5 million. (Fun fact #1: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie reportedly leased Rosehearty for $100,000 for one month in 2010 when filming Miz Jolie's action-flick Salt.)
Presumably Mister (and soon-to-be third ex-Missus Murdoch) kept—or keep—residences in London and Australia—about which Your Mama knows zilch—and, although we can't vouch for their veracity, back in the mid-Aughts it was reported by a slew of international property gossips that the globe-trotting couple snagged a courtyard style residence in Beijing.
The large livin' media mogul's real estate crown jewel is a 20-room, mansion-sized triplex penthouse in New York City atop one of Fifth Avenue's most prestigious buildings that he and soon-to-be third ex-Missus Murdoch acquired in 2004 for a staggering and then record breaking $44,000,000. The 8,000-ish square foot trophy penthouse, formerly owned by philanthropist and American "royal" Laurance Rockefeller, underwent extensive renovations said to include the installation of a $400,000 home gym set up.
(Fun Fact #2: Mister and third Missus Murdoch once owned a 9,300+ square foot Christian Liaigre designed triplex penthouse at 141 Prince Streeet that, the children may recall was recently bought and quickly sold at a multi-million dollar loss by philanthropic tech tycoon Ted Waitt, the same fella who just shelled out a giant sum of money for one of Megan Ellison's very contemporary houses in L.A.'s Bird Streets area.)
*The lady property gossip at the New York Post has repeatedly discussed some of the penthouses and townhouses that Mister DiCaprio has toured including a $30 million Renaissance style townhouse mansion on East 74th Street and a $14.9 million dollar Gramercy Park duplex penthouse (in the same building where Karl Lagerfeld once owned a swank spread he never actually occupied) as well as some swanky spaces in Nolita and SoHo.
**Second ex-Missus Murdoch was frequently reported to have received as much as $1.7 billion as her settlement but that figure is now in some dispute. At least one Murdoch family chronicler and unauthorized biographer says, as reported in the Hollywood Reporter, that number is wildly exaggerated and that second-Missus Murdoch actually negotiated a deal that gave her "$100 million, with the added stipulation that her three children, plus one she raised from Rupert's previous marriage, would inherit News Corp upon his death." The agreement was re-negotiated after Mister Murdoch, then in his early 70s, produced a couple of girl children with his third wife, Wendi Deng. Oh what a tangled web these multi-billionaires weave, right?
aerial photo: Bing
floor plan: Moule & Polyzoides (via Eye on Design)
