Summer's A Comin': Rent Stephen Dorff's Beach House

OWNER: Stephen Dorff
LOCATION: Malibu, CA
PRICE: $50,000/month
SIZE: 2,298 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Summer's a comin' children and it's time to get your beach rentals lined up and paid for or else you'll be stuck with some shackety-shack in downmarket Hamptons Bays or, even worse, spending weekends next door to a party house in Malibu sponsored by some dorky company who names the house something even more dorky like the Silver Cup House of Sand and Sunshine.

Those with an architectural bent–and a left coast location–might consider this little Buff & Hensman designed number on Malee-boo's La Costa beach that happens to be owned by itty bitty hot bodied actor Stephen Dorff who recently put his contemporary crib out for lease at $50,000 per month fully furnished.

Mister Dorff, for those not familiar with his work and body parts, got his start on the boob toob way back when with small parts on programs such as Diff'rent Strokes and Married With Children. He went on to movie stardom with roles in I Shot Andy Warhol, Shadowboxer–in which he shamelessly bares his condom covered naughty bits, Cold Creek Manor–in which he was panned, World Trade Center, Deuces Wild, Cecil B. Demented, Backbeat and Blade. He will soon appear as a porn star in Adam Sandler's Born To Be A Star and Sofia Coppola's upcoming and anticipated Sunshine.

The actor, who often portrays hot head characters is perhaps as well known for his cockswordmanship as his acting. He's a notorious dater of moe-dells and his catwalker conquests include Shannan Click and Rhea Durham, now Mark Wahlberg's baby momma and new wife. Mister Dorff has also worked his way through a large number of famous actresses including Alicia Silverstone, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Pam Anderson, and Milla Jovovich. He is also widely rumored to have had some sort of thing with REM front man Michael Stipe although neither cop to anything more than a close friendship.

Property records show that Mister Dorff scooped up his beach house in December of 2001 paying $2,546,000 for the architecturally significant residence on La Costa beach, one of the sandier and more desirable beaches in the Boo. Listing information and property records both indicate the modern abode was built in 1969 and measures 2,298 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 3 poopers including an ocean side master suite with access to a private deck through a wide wall of floor to ceiling glass.

Listing information states the day-core was done up by noted Los Angeles decorator to the stars Brad Dunning who, in addition to Mister Dorff's beach house, has worked over interiors for folks like fashion queen turned filmmaker Tom Ford, fashion photographer Dewey Nicks, über agent Bryan Lourd, and Demi Moore and Asthon Kutcher. Your Mama is not generally a fan of earth tone interiors–Your Mama's Momma was way, way, way too into the earth tones and we have a penchant for bright and shiny things–but we none the less think that Mister Dunning has succeeded in that he's respected the original design and spirit of the house without making it look like a cheap decorative time capsule. This looks to Your Mama both modern–as in up to date–and sexy vintage 1978, the sort of place Ali MacGraw, Goldie Hawn, David Geffen, Dyan Cannon, Ryan O'Neal and Linda Ronstadt might have spent summer weekends smoking pot, doing lines, running lines and working on their tan lines.

A small, plant filled courtyard acts as a buffer between the bizzy Pacific Coast Highway and the house. A converging collection of horizontal and vertical lines and planes make up the signature architectural element of the house and a perfect harmony between inside and out is achieved through soaring walls of smoky glass that open and spill out onto the terrace that overlooks the sand and sea. A wide entrance hall–where Mister Dorff has a black baby grand piano–shuttles one into the main living space, an airy affair comprised of a double height dining area with brown tile flooring and a more intimate sunken living room with fireplace, chocolate milk colored shag carpeting, and built in cabinetry chock full of state of the art electronic equipment.

The shag carpeting continues right up the spiral staircase. With all due respect to Mister Dunning, carpeting on stairs is an inflexible no-no in Your Mama's big book of decorating dos and dont's. It just ends up looking matted and dirty, like the sort of carpeting found in a crack house and crack house carpeting just isn't a good look. Ever. The stairs spiral up and into the an office/library/lounge that is the hub from which all three bedrooms spoke. The upstairs lounge has a wall of book shelves–nice to know that Mister Dorff actually reads–and is simply furnished with pair of matching Eames loungers and a drum set. We're guessing Mister Dunning didn't include the drum set in his original plans for the room and we'd get them out of there because not only do they look like scary spider monsters, they make an atrocious clamor when played in a private home.

The children will note Misters Buff and Hensman's clever way of bring both light and the ocean view deep into the interior of the house with huge voids in the walls of the office/library/lounge and ocean side master bedroom that obliterate any visual obstruction between the rooms. Mister Dorff and whatever ladee-friend he may be entertaining nowadays can sit quietly in those Eames loungers reading something by Phillip Roth or maybe Isabel Allende and see the ocean through the void, over the air space above the dining room, through a second void, across the master bedroom and out the wall of windows that open from the master bedroom to its private terrace. Well done gentleman, well done.

Mister Dorff's nearby neighbors include David Spade, music mogul Lou Adler (and his big-balled son Cisco whose house perches on the bluff across the PCH and just above Daddy Adler's), and right next door is the beach house of Oscar winning actress Charlize Theron and her long time man friend, actor Stuart Townsend who, it has been widely reported, is camped out in the ocean front house in the aftermath of the high wattage couple's alleged bust up.

Back in October of 2008 Your Mama discussed Mister Dorff's 1 bedroom and 2 pooper penthouse pied a terre in Manhattan, which at the time he had listed for sale with an optimistic asking price of $3,000,000 and for lease fully furnished with an asking price of $15,000 per month. The Chelsea neighborhood penthouse was later taken off the market and then put back on in early 2009 with an asking price of $2,650,000. In November of 2009, the penthouse was taken off the market. Your Mama finds no record of a transaction indicating that Mister Dorff still owns the West 19th Street apartment that features a glorious and generously sized roof terrace.

photos: Sotheby's International Realty / Jonah Wilson