Leonardo DiCaprio's New York City Rental

RENTER: Leonardo DiCaprio
LOCATION: Walker Street, New York, NY
PRICE: $35,000 / month
SIZE: 3,200 square feet (approx.), 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Three bedrooms, ech with their own ensuite baths and Poliform closets & Tre-Piu doors, rest on the first floor accented by Wenge wood floors, while the living room, dining area, and the Varenna kitchen are below. Also featured on this level finished with limestone floors throughout is a 1,500 square foot private garden complete with a full size private swimming pool and built-in Jacuzzi, private sauna with adjacent steam shower. With a Crestron sound system installed and 5 flat-screen plasma TVs, this is perfect for the discerning eye with a flair for the utmost level of finishing touches.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Yes children, we know that all this was reported back in June of 2007 by Braden Keil in the New York Post and subsequently on Gawker, but rare is the apartment in New York City that has a private swimming pool, so we thought we'd give it another toss through the blog cycle.

Located on newly swanky Walker Street in TriBeCa, this ground floor duplex apartment is the very place a-list actor Leonardo DiCaprio leased over the summer while in New York filming "Revolutionary Road," which is a far better book written by the amazing Richard Yates than a movie could ever be, even in the sublime hands of a director like Sam Mendes. Sorry, but that's just Your Mama's opinion...some books are just too good as books to turn into films, and children, this is one of them.

Your Mama is going to make another confession here that very well may not be popular with many of the children: We don't get Leo DiCaprio. We find him frightfully uninteresting, not nearly as good looking as we're always reading he is, and we're a little concerned that as he gets older, his model gurlfriends just get younger. He seems to be modeling his career and dating life on that of the legendary Jack Nicholson, and if you ask Your Mama, that's just stoopid.

Anyhoo, let's move on to the real estate. While it certainly sounds impressive, and it is indeed remarkably unusual for a Manhattan apartment to have a private swimming pool, Your Mama is not so sure that this particular swimming pool is very practical. First of all, it's not large enough to swim laps, which means as an exercise apparatus you are relegated to water aerobics only.

Secondly, the photographs are a wee bit deceptive in that, like with most ground floor outdoor space in New York City, there is really very little privacy. The backyard and swimming pool is completely surrounded by apartment buildings that all have visual access right down on to the pool deck. So be assured there was no nude sunbathing or frolicking happening here by Mister DiCaprio and his moe-dell gurlfriend Bar Rafaeli.

Sketches of the pool area (like that shown on the Gawker site) indicate there is supposed to be some sort of covering over the swimming pool, but none of the photos we located show this covering has actually been built. Obviously that would help with at least some of the privacy issues.

But it's not all about the swimming pool here. The building also offers residents a "cyber doorman," whatever that is. The interior of the apartment has been fitted with all sorts of high grade materials like Wenge wood, a Varenna kitchen and Poliform closets. All very nice and very expensive, but honestly, it's all been put together in a very standard and not very inspiring manner. Your Mama would love to see what a nice gay decorator could do with a couple of assistants and a couple hundred thousand dollars in paint, artwork and furniture.

Your Mama also notes a couple of issues with the layout. We appreciate the that apartment was given a proper and large entrance hall on the upper floor, but we do not like one bit that after descending the stair case, you wind up in the dining room. We would have chosen to put the kitchen at the back of what is currently the living room. This would make the current dining room and kitchen area the living room and the current living room an open plan dining room and kitchen, a much more sensible flow in our play book of space planning.

We're also a little perplexed by the sauna room. Your Mama loves nothing better than to sit around in a wooden room and sweat out the gin and toxins, but it concerns and bothers us that in order to access this sauna, one must exit the apartment and dash through what we assume is common building space. For $9,000,000 clams Your Mama does not care to have the neighbors to see us dashing around wrapped in nothing but an itty bitty towel.

Apparently Mister DiCaprio and his moe-dell friend have vacated the premises, because the 3,200 square foot duplex with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathroom has come back on the market. Mister Keil at the NY Post reported Mister DiCaprio was paying $35,000 per month to lease the unit which Gawker reported had also been for sale at $7,500,000. Apparently a temporary celebrity tenant drives up the price, because the place is currently available for lease at $40,000 per month and for sale at $8,995,000. Any takers?