Dido Moving From Her Really Good Bird Street Block

SELLER: Dido
LOCATION: Oriole Way, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $4,600,000
SIZE: 3,739 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Star-studded Bird Street beauty w/ breathtaking views facing Downtown, & the Westside/ocean. Walled & gated, lge motor court, expansive grounds. Ample upside for a buyer interested in making this an even more major property. Dramatic LR in Hollywood Regency style w/ fireplace & views to pool/grounds. Media room w/ gorgeous views, lge DR w/ French doors. Kitchen beautifully remodeled. Enormous master suite w/ fireplace, sitting areas, adj. gym, huge closets, & marble bathroom. 2 add'l bedroom suites.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We confess. Your Mama really does not know much about British born singer/songwriter Dido other than that a few years ago she had a huge hit called Thank You that made her mountains of money. A quick search across the internets and we find a few tidbits such as she was raised without television, plays at least three instruments (the recorder, piano and violin), credits white rapper Eminem for launching her into the world of singing super stardom, and back in 2004 she made it on to somebody's list of the music world's biggest earners. We also discover that her real name is Florian Cloud De Bounevialle Armstrong, a lovely combination of syllables, but it's no wonder the ladee goes by the much easier to remember and pronounce Dido.

We don't know whose list it was that claimed she was a big earner in 2004, but it must be accurate because it was shortly thereafter than the money train pulled into Miss Dido's station and she dumped an undisclosed amount of money on a big Bird Street aerie. Property records indicate that Miss Dido bought the somewhat non-descript 3,739 square foot house in September of 2005.

Listing information reveals that in addition to the three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, the single story sprawler features a library/study, media room, a remodeled kitchen, a "dramatic" living room, and a huge master bedroom with big closets, big marble bathroom, fireplace and an adjacent home gym set up. Perhaps the best feature of this house is that it possesses long views in two directions...both towards the downtown skyline and also across Bev Hills towards the Pacific Ocean.

The big name listing agent for the property dropped a telling bomb in the listing description when he said, "Ample upside for a buyer interested in making this an even more major property." Now babies, this does not mean there is anything wrong with Miss Dido's day-core per se, but rather that the house itself is wonky enough to merit a redo to take if from well located ho-hum to bring it home to Jeezis fabulous.

In the main, Your Mama feels just fine about Miss Dido's house. No, it does not look like a nice gay decorator spent too much time in there (as evidenced by the sofa mashed uncomfortably into the corner of the master bedroom), but the media room looks rather dee-luxe with it's sensual wood walls paired with a pair of deelishus white sofas (y'all know how much Your Mama loves a white sofa) and the view from the tub is classic Hollywood Hills iffin you like to sit in your own dirt.

Normally we don't much care for grand pianos taking up too much precious square footage in living rooms, but given that Miss Dido actually plays this big black thing, it's more than acceptable. In fact, it's fantastic. We don't however care for the fireplace awkwardly pushed off center of the back wall. This off center thing seem an unintended and not recommended motif. Hmm.

There appear to be several areas for outdoor entertainment. The swimming pool is good for all those health conscious sporty sorts who actually enjoy swimming laps, and we can imagine comfortably whittling away warm afternoons with a pitcher of gin and tonics and a pile of gossip glossies on the terrace overlooking the flats of West Hollywood and beyond. And who does not like a fiercely competitive game of ping-pong? Who?

As the listing reveals, the immediate neighborhood is "star-studded" and area residents including comic book king Stan Lee next door and set designer/kooky entrepreneur Boyd Willat lives across the street. King of the Hollywood Hills Leo Dicaprio holes up with his various moe-dell paramours in his newly built fortress down the street, and Tobey Maguire and family are temporarily camping out close by in Leo's other house presumably while they plan and build a family manse on the Brentwood lot they recently purchased. And last, but certainly not least, Ricardo Montalbán's own private Fantasy Island is just around the corner.

So who knows what's what here? Is Dido headed back to the UK? Is she buying an even bigger and better house in LA? Or is she cashing in on a well located and high priced piece of real estate like so many other rich and famous folks in Hollywood?