Reese Witherspoon is banking on her own brand. The Oscar-winning actress listed her Libbey Ranch in Ojai, northwest of Los Angeles, for sale this week at $10 million and lent her name to the marketing materials.
Designed by architect Wallace Neff, Witherspoon's ranch was originally built in 1923 as stables for glassware titan Edward Libbey. Details include original hardware, turrets, wrought-iron railings, original stonework, original plank floors, arched windows and alcoves and colourful Spanish tiles.
The two-storey main house features beamed ceilings, an oversized fireplace in the two-storey living room, a library loft with a fireplace, four bedrooms and 3 1 bathrooms. Three guest /2 cottages, a carriage house, a swimming pool, a barn, stables, pasture land and mature oaks complete the seven-acre grounds. There are nine bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two halfbaths.
Witherspoon, 36, appeared in Legally Blonde (2001), Sweet Home Alabama (2002) and Walk the Line (2003), for which she won an Oscar for best actress. More recently she starred in Water for Elephants (2011) and How Do You Know (2010). She will star in the upcoming movies Mud and Devil's Knot.
The film star married talent agent Jim Toth at the estate last year and is expecting a baby. They use the ranch as a second home. Witherspoon also owns homes in Los Angeles and Tennessee.
She bought the ranch in 2008 for $5.8 million, according to the Multiple Listing Service.
ROCKER SELLS TWO CONDOS IN THE WIND
Pop legend Elton John and his civil partner, Canadian David Furnish, have sold their two Sierra Towers condos in West Hollywood for $4.65 million.
The smaller unit features one bedroom, 1 1 bathrooms /2 and 1,151 square feet of living space. The larger has a den convertible to a bedroom, another bedroom and 1 1 bathrooms in 1,831 square /2 feet.
The condos, which have city and ocean views, can be combined. The building has 24-hour security, a doorman, an outdoor pool and a gym.
John, 65, has won multiple Grammy Awards. He shares an Oscar for the Lion King song Can You Feel the Love Tonight and won a Grammy for singing it. Among the singer-songwriter-composer's hits are Candle in the Wind, Your Song and Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting.
Furnish, 49, directed Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras (1997). He was an announcer and executive producer of the television series Spectacle: Elvis Costello With ... (2008-11).
EXPANDING HIS PLAYING FIELD
311 frontman Nick Hexum kept busy this summer selling one Los Angelesarea home and buying a larger one.
The 42-year-old vocalist and guitarist sold a house in the Hollywood Hills West area for $1.5 million. Built in 1990, it has four bedrooms, four bathrooms and 3,608 square feet of living space. It was built in 1990 and sits on a quarter of an acre.
He bought the property in 1996 for $647,000.
The singer-songwriter bought a contemporary Mediterranean in Topanga for $1.975 million. The fivebedroom, five-bathroom house, built in 2004, has 5,000 square feet of living space and sits on 10 acres. The two-storey, with mountain views, features a den, a breakfast area, a family room and a three-car garage.
Hexum has played with 311 since its inception in 1988.
R&B SINGER DROPS THE CONTEMPORARY
Joining the ranks of 2012 home sellers is R&B and soul singer Freda Payne, who sold a contemporary in L.A.'s Bird Streets area this year for $2.25 million. That should buy more than a few bands of gold.
Set on a corner lot, the city-view house has a courtyard entrance with a pool leading to double doors. Features include high ceilings, a step-down living room with a gas-and wood-burning fireplace, an updated kitchen and a den with a wet bar. There are three bedrooms, three bathrooms and 2,692 square feet of living space.
Payne, who turned 70 on Wednesday, gained recogni-tion in 1970 for the hit single Band of Gold and has continued to sing and record throughout the decades. Last year she toured Britain as part of the Soulicious tour.
A WALK-IN FILM VAULT AND A TIKI BAR
The former retreat of silent and talking movie star Lewis Stone, cast with film giant Greta Garbo in a series of films, is on the market in the Valley Glen area of Los Angeles at $1.75 million.
Constructed in 1930 as the main house at his 500-acre ranch in the San Fernando Valley, the 6,500-square-foot residence features a walk-in film vault, six fireplaces, cast-iron chandeliers, six bedrooms and 3 1 bathrooms. /2 The half-acre-plus lot includes a tiki bar, a saltwater swimming pool, a brick courtyard and fruit trees.
Stone, who died at 73 in 1953, is often associated with his recurring role as a judge in the Andy Hardy movies in the late '30s and '40s. Among his films with Garbo were Grand Hotel (1932) and Queen Christina (1933).
