Gossip Queen Janet Charlton Has Mid-Century Mania

SELLER: Janet Charlton
LOCATION: S. Rossmore Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $2,995,000
SIZE: 4,361 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Ready for restoration, this 5BR/5BA 1961 mid-century residence is by David Hyun (AIA), who worked w/ Neutra and Alexander. Concrete blocks, walls of glass, and terrazzo floors comprise the property's classic elements. The floor plan is as hip today as in its heyday: kitchen opens to family w/FP, office w/separate entrance, masster w/views of massive pool, room guest suites, 2-room pool cabana; all w/ ultimate rivacy. Used in films and TV, the swinging Hancock Park home brings Palms Springs to LA.

YOUR MAMAS UPDATE: Your Mama was honored to be contacted this morning by Miz Charlton herself who tells us her house has indeed seen the likes of all sorts of big name celebrities who have entered Miz Charlton's mid-century modern time warp. The long list includes Gwen Stefani, Ricky Martin, Drew Barrymore, Cloe Sevigny, Kathy Griffin, Jessica Alba, Nic Cage and on and on. We were also told that Brad Pitt used the terlit, Annette Bening slept in her bed, and Alec Baldwin fell down drunk on the kitchen floor. Well sort of. All that happened during the making of Running With Scissors, which was filmed in the house.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: One almost expects to see Sammy Davis Jr. mixing martinis and Shirley MacLaine doing the watusi on the dining room table as you step through the door of gossip maven Janet Charlton's thoroughly mid-century modern home in Los Angeles' Hancock Park.

In case y'all do not know, Miz Janet Charlton is an LA-based high priestess of the celebrity gossip scene who was slinging dirt and floating blind items about the Hollywood hoi polloi long before Miss Casablanca even knew what gossip was.

Back in the mid 1990s, mid-century modern fanatic Miz Charlton went a-house hunting and in April 1997 fell in love with and purchased a somewhat pedigreed but neglected house that occupies a very bizzy corner in posh Hancock Park. According to property records, the combat boot wearing queen of scuttlebutt paid just $540,000 for the 4,361 square foot house that features 3 proper bedrooms, a den, study, an eat in in kitchen with attached family room, and huge swimming pool out back.

We already know a whole slew of you are going to comment and write to Your Mama about the perceived crime problem in Hancock Park and the amount of time it takes the LAPD to respond to calls over the amount of time it takes the Beverly Hills po-po to knock on your door after dialing 911. Whatever. Crime problem or not, Hancock Park is chock full of celebrities living in expensive and dee-luxe estates that surround the swank Wilshire Country Club. With prices in the Platinum Triangle of Bev Hills, Bel Air, and the Holmby Hills skyrocketing to unfathomable heights, Hancock Park is attracting increasing numbers of celebrities and other high profile individuals with it's central location, large lots, street after tree-lined street of gor-gee-us housing stock, and much more modest price tags.

Just like Miz Charlton and all the other urban design snobs across the good ol' U.S. of A, Your Mama is fond of the mid-century modern era. We have a nice Noguchi coffee table and a couple of Eames loungers for the Dr. Cooter, not to mention a Florence Knoll two seater with the original tweed fabric. We've even got a gorgeous Jens Risom credenza, but it's all mixed in with less pedigreed and more current furniture and artworks. But if Your Mama is being honest, and we always are, we think the lovely and talented Miz Charlton has done flooded the car with too much of a good thing. Yes, it's all fun and we'd LOVE to go to a party at Miz Charlton's house of mid-century madness, but as a place to live, it's just too much of a one note time capsule for our personal taste.

We do love the George Nelson sofas in the living room that double as side tables, and we swoon over Miz Charlton's little collection of Eero Saarinen Tulip chairs with the cute orange pads. We can even appreciate those cock-a-mamie ottomans that look like a pair of dice and we totally respect her decision to keep and maintain the original kitchen appliances when possible. But Janet hunny, this place looks more like a mid-century modern furniture store than it does a modern home. Your Mama recommends that when Miz Charlton gets this place sold, she auction off some of her considerable collection and replace it with some more contemporary pieces, say a few things from the Bouroullec brothers and maybe even a thing or two from Crate and Barrel or some other generic big name retail emporium.

Given the $2,995,000 asking price, it appears that lucky Miz Charlton is going to wind up with a wad of cash once her house sells to another mid-century modern aficionado who will likely renovate and restore this place to within an inch of acceptability. Either that or someone will knock the sucker down and built yet another too big Mediterranean-ish monstrosity.

The house is listed by a gentleman named Jeff Yarbrough, and Miz Charlton asks that any of the children that might be interested in purchasing the house give her man at Keller Williams in Beverly Hills a ringy dingy.

Source: Larchmont Chronicle