Heidi Klum (Sort Of) Downsizes

BUYER: Heidi Klum
SELLER: Ed. Weinberger
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $9,875,000
SIZE: 11,600 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Shortly before German-born supermodel turned Emmy-winning Project Runway super-mogul and fecund sartorial entrepreneur Heidi Klum split with her musician ex-husband, Seal, the once-happy couple shelled out $14.2 million for an approximately 12,300 square foot mock-Med villa with 8 bedrooms and 9.5 bathrooms on just over 12 acres in the Brentwood Country Estates, a super exclusive guard-gated enclave in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles where some of the other multi-acre estates and massive mansions are owned by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, sitcom super-producer Kevin Bright, and—directly across the road from Miz Klum—fellow supermodel Gisele Bündchen and her professional pig skinner hubby Tom Brady.

As far as Your Mama knows, after the erstwhile couple parted ways Miz Klum remained in residence in the Brentwood family manse, presumably along with her beefy and rugged new bodyguard/boyfriend Martin Kristin. Howevuh, hunties, according to the ever-bounteous real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak, the Klum clan is on the move and, as rich and/or famous people so often do after a marriage slides down the garbage disposal of lost love, the super-rich 40-year old mother of four bought a new house, a (slightly) smaller mansion on a whole lot less land in a smaller and less glorified guard-gated enclave in the Bel Air area of Los Angeles for which she paid $9,875,000.*

Property records (and other online resources) show the ridge-top estate was sold by nine-time Emmy winning writer/producer Ed. Weinberger (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, The Cosby Show) and his wife, former actress Carline Watkins, who custom built the three-story red brick neo-Georgian mansion in 2000 and had the property on and off the market for more than three years at a variety of prices as high as $15 million.

The 11,600 square foot mansion sits on a 4.82 acre parcel with long and wide views down the steep canyons and over Sherman Oaks and the San Fernando Valley, a view that many who can afford to pay $10 million for a house would not want, according to the sometimes snobbish Yolanda, because "it faces the wrong way." A long private driveway cuts between a couple of mansions and forks awkwardly as it nears the symmetrical front of Miz Klum's new and stiff-shirted abode. To the right there's a featureless parking lot-like motor court and to the left a secondary motor court on the side of the house where there's also a detached two-car garage with self-contained one bedroom apartment above.

The center hall foyer will impress traditional architecture loving guests with lustrous chevron-pattern wood floors, the exact sort of sweeping floating staircase for which trail-blazing architect Paul Revere Williams is known and adored,* and glass doors at the back that open to a small veranda that overlooks the backyard. In addition to the graciously scaled formal living and dining rooms—both with wood floors, fireplace and elaborate moldings—lower level living spaces include a pair of offices and a library with yet another fireplace, French doors with semi-circular transoms, and a bunch of bookcases that may or may not be built in, we can't tell.

Family-oriented spaces include a generous family room that opens to the back yard and a spacious, eat-in kitchen that's expensively decked out with white cabinetry, marble counter tops and the customary suite of commercial-style stainless steel appliances that include side-by-side fridge/freezers, a 48-inch range plus wall ovens, and an under-counter wine cooler.

Listing information goes on to indicate there's a (less-than-ideally shaped) media room with angled ceiling and built-in wet bar/candy counter and, somewhere in the house, a temperature-controlled (and sorta dank-looking) wine cellar with stone-tiled walls and floor. Up on the (at least partially) finished third floor there's a home gym/dance studio and the basement, as per listing details, allows for further expansion.

Four guest/family bedrooms with en suite facilities occupy the mansion's second floor along with a roomy master suite that's complete with fireplace, a private deck with view across the entirety of the San Fernando Valley, dual dressing rooms, and two bathrooms—"his" with a vaguely vintage barbershop-y vibe and steam shower and "hers" with lots of mis-matched marble and a super-size soaking tub in front of a Palladian window. (Let's all cross our fingers that Miz Klum or her team of lady and/or nice-gay decorators has the good sense to do away with the cotton candy pink walls in the "her" master bath.)

The landscaping around the mansion is fairly simple with some clipped hedges and, besides total privacy from neighbors, outdoor amenities include an over-sized heated swimming pool sunk into a pancake flat swathe of lawn, several covered and shaded terraces, and an outdoor kitchen off the family room/kitchen. Listing details suggest there's room for a tennis court but we really have no idea if Miz Klum will undertake the installation of such.

We expect Miz Klum with sell her giant house in the Brentwood County Estates but, at this point, Your Mama has no inside intel on her plans. Until mid-2008, when she sold it for $5.35 million, Miz Klum maintained a two bedroom and two bathroom penthouse pad on Bank Street in New York City's Far West Village. We're not sure where the statuesque Miz Klum and family bunks when in New York City but our research suggests—but does not prove—it's a series of high-priced downtown rentals.

*While the property is, address-wise, located in Bel Air's prestigious 90077 zip code, some might say that the north of Mulholland Drive property ought to be in the relatively affluent (and star-soaked) but far less celebrated 91423 zip code of Sherman Oaks.

**We don't know who is responsible for the architecture of this home but it was most assuredly not Paul Revere Williams who met his great drafts(wo)man in the sky in 1980.

listing photos: The Agency