Meg Ryan Moving On from her Bel Air Beauty

SELLER: Meg Ryan
LOCATION: Stradella Road, Bel Air, CA
PRICE: $19,500,000
SIZE: 6,877 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: A gated and private drive is the approach to this 1931 restored Spanish compound. Features include: double story stenciled beamed LR, a bar "a la" 1930s Los Angeles, Frml DR and superb Cook's kitchen; All rooms open to and overlook the 180° vu of the city. Incredibly pvt knoll setting with Pool and full GH. Family/guest BRs have en suite baths & Mstr is separate and Exquisite. A screening room w/ separate entrance.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Okay children, we know we are so late to the rodeo on this one that the cowboys have all packed up their chaps and spurs and gone home, but we don't care. We feel like discussing the Los Angeles homestead of well paid actress Meg Ryan who recently hoisted her big Bel Air house on to the open market with an asking price of $19,500,000.

Miz Ryan scooped up her Spanish style Stradella Road residence in September of 2000 when all the gossip glossies were going nuts over her scandalous dee-vorce from clean and sober actor Dennis Quaid who publicly accused the fish faced romantic comedy queen of having an on set tryst with her moody Proof of Life costar Russell Crowe. Remember that children? Good times. Good times. Turns out Mister Quaid was correct about Miz Ryan doin' the naughty with Mister Crowe, but apparently Miz Ryan never forgave Mister Quaid for airing their dirty dee-vorce laundry in public because while out promoting her new film The Women, Miz Ryan decided to beat a dead horse by yakking to all the press people about how her ex-huzband was unfaithful to the marriage long before she ever was. Nothing like a little celebrity tit for tat to keep the tabloids inneresting, right?

Anyhoo, property records show that Miz Ryan paid $8,500,000 for her 6,788 square foot Spanish style stunner that listing information indicates includes 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. Apparently each bedroom features its own private pooper which all Miz Ryan's over night house guests surely have appreciated over the years.

Other features, according to listing information, include a double height living room with a stenciled beamed ceiling, a bar done up in a 1930s Los Angeles style (whatever that is), a formal dining room for hosting Thanksgiving dinners, and a cook's kitchen where the chef for hire can prepare said Thanksgiving dinner. Other features include four fireplaces, an office, a study/library, family room, a three car garage and a serious security system.

The multi-winged beauty was built in 1931 and sits on a small knoll that offers the sort of 180° view that only the very rich can afford in Los Angeles. The backyard features a modest expanse of lawn and a smallish but adequately sized swimming pool surrounded by what appears to be a flagstone patio.

For the last few years, Miz Ryan has not very quietly been showing her house to well-qualified rich people such as David and Vicktoria Beckham and more recently to, natch, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner who will, so the rumor goes, have a look-see at any mansion on the market with an asking price over fifteen million clams. Miz Ryan's residence was also shown to someone Your Mama fraternizes with and whom we'll call Vlad the Impaler. Vlad whispered in our big ear that although the house is "flawless, refined and uber-tasteful," and that Miz Ryan's "furniture and art are A+++," he thinks the property has a few unfortunate and important drawbacks. After his much anticipated viewing, Vlad felt that the master bedroom lacked a real dressing room, the detached guest house seemed a little small, and the screening room, located above the garage and accessed across a catwalk from the main house, "is not a selling point" in his opinion. However, the nail in the real estate coffin for Vlad was the motor court which he found highly problematic and a bit of "a nightmare" if you're entertaining or have a lot of staff people who need to have their cars at the house and, of course, Vlad the Impaler has a rather large staff so this property, much as it was appreciated, was rejected.

Miz Ryan's Bel Air neighborhood is chock full of all sorts of rich and famous folks, but interestingly none of the previous reports we've read mention a word about Miz Ryan's next door neighbors, the sexily squinty eyed sartorial superstar Tom Ford and his fashion journalist man-friend Richard Buckley who occupy a meticulously restored and renovated house designed by the high priest of modernist architecture Richard Neutra.

top photo: Pacific Coast News