Kelly Rutherford Moves On

SELLER: Kelly Rutherford
LOCATION: West Hollywood, CA
PRICE: $1,399,000
SIZE: 2 bedrooms, 1.75 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Believe it or not kittens, not every celebrity who makes a mint working their stuff on a successful and long running tee-vee program lives like a damn pasha. One of those people, it would seem, is eco-active actress Kelly Rutherford who recently put her updated and well-maintained but modest West Hollywood, CA bacherlorette pad on the market with an asking price of $1,399,000.

Miss Rutherford, a blond beauty with classic old-school good looks, started up her ladder of fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s when she starred on the short-lived Generations, a soap story that, oddly, became such a huge hit in Turkey that even today Miss Rutherford is still a huge star that most unlikely of places. Generations was followed by several boob-toob false starts in the 1990s (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The Great Defender, Kindred: The Embraced) that eventually led her to the cult hit Melrose Place on which she starred from 1996 to 2000. The early to mid-naughts brought several more projects that never quite got off the ground and that Your Mama has never heard of (E-Ring, Threat Matrix, The District). Then, in 2007, the fame and fortune dam burst wide open for Miss Rutherford when she landed the plum role of wild child turned uptight Upper East Side socialite Lily van der Woodsen on the ridiculous and ridiculously popular Gossip Girls.

Property records show that Kentucky born and California bred Miss Rutherford bought her West Hollywood bachelorette pad in July 2005 for $1,250,000. This would have been about a year before she married German venture capitalist Daniel Giersch with whom had a very public parting of ways in late 2008 when she was all kinds of preggers with the erstwhile couple's second baby. The split and the subsequent battle over custody arrangements and other assorted nonsense became so ugly that Miss Rutherford actually filed a restraining order against her now ex-huzband claiming he had been following her, her mother, and the nanny causing her undue stress that kept her from lactating. 'Tis true puppies, or at least that is what was reported in the tabs and on the blogs.

Anyhoo, the warring couple's bitter, bitter, bitter dee-vorce was finally finalized just days ago and, while it ain't none of our beeswax, Your Mama hopes for the sake of the children that the two of them can move on with their lives without continuing to wrap their children up in their dirty laundry or dragging them through the muck and mud of their spectacularly failed relationship. Miss Rutherford, for her part, seems to have landed herself a new man-friend so things are looking up already.

Miss Rutherford–who drives a Prius y'all–briefly listed her wee Spanish style West Hollywood casa in February of 2007 but just a month later had a real estate change of heart and opted to hang on to her small spread where she had lived as a single lady. The modest if not exactly inexpensive property is centrally located on a leafy, tree-lined street and is walking distance to Robertson Boulevard where people like Paris Hilton shop for baubles, beads and other expensive crap at places like Kitson and Lisa Kline and where (in)famous folks Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian, and Jason 'Gummi Bear' Davis go when they're feeling like they want to have their pictures snapped by the paps. Robertson Boulevard, a sad victim of its own trendy success as far as Your Mama is concerned, is also home to the legendary, celebrity choked restaurant The Ivy as well as the Kabbalah Centre where people like Madonna–the undisputed Kween of Kabbalah–go to do whatever it is they do at a Kabbalah Centre.

Miss Rutherford's pretty and admirably unpretentious house–which was once featured in the unfortunately defunct Domino magazine–measures just 1,040 square feet according to the tax man and has 2 bedrooms each with their own updated pooper according to listing information.

The front door, tucked into a puny tile roofed porch, is approached through a lushly planted tropical garden and opens directly into the small living room that features a wood burning fireplace flanked by windows and honey colored hardwood floors laid on the diagonal. It's unclear if the pared down day-core that consists of little more than a couple of matching white slip covered sofas facing off over a spindle legged ottoman covered with a complex print is a reflection of the fact that Miss Rutherford spends much of her time in New York City where Gossip Girl films, if she's done moved on to other digs, or if she just has a simple aesthetic and an aversion to unnecessary clutter and over-done day-core.

The dining room, which looks large for such a picayune pad, has more honey colored hardwood floors laid on the diagonal, a wall of built in cabinets and shelves and a massive sky light that pierces the roof directly above the farmhouse style wood dining room table. Your Mama thinks the sky light is kind of genius but only because Miss Rutherford or her nice, gay decorator thought to cover the opening with a white fabric that mutes and softens the harsh and almost always shining southern California sunshine. Without that fabric covering Your Mama would worry that daytime diners would sizzle and burst into flames the way that bugs do when naughty children hold a magnifying glass over them.

The doorway to the kitchen was wisely widened to pull light and view into the dining room through the pane-free French doors that swing open onto the deck that extend off the back of the house. The small but functional and well-equipped kitchen has limestone counter tops, a huge stainless steel farmhouse sink, and high-grade stainless steel appliances including a 24-inch wide Sub-Zero fridge/freezer combo and a 4-burner baby Viking range. Your Mama loves us some open shelving for displaying dishware and well packaged comestibles, however iffin this were out house–and we wouldn't mind if it were because we are decidedly not a real estate size queen–we would opt to enclose the floor to ceiling shelving that faces out into what was probably originally designed as a bantam breakfast room and we'd immediately remove the sinister looking pot rack looming right above the spot where one much stand to use the stove or oven. Looming pot racks can not, we're quite certain, be good for the feng shui.

Not surprisingly, the pared down but not exactly minimal day-core continues into the bedrooms. The master bedroom–which is only about as a big as a maid's room in many mansions–contains little more than a bed covered in white linens, a couple of tall bamboo nightstands, a small settee, and an elegant Fortuny chandelier that works in lovely opposition to the utter simplicity of the rest of the room. The itty bitty master bathroom was made to appear and feel larger by using crisp white tile and paint, clear glass and strategically placed mirrors. It's a cute little pooper–remember this house is smaller than most 2-bedroom condos–but we're deeply concerned about the proximity of the terlit to the pedestal sink not to mention the danger of bonking one's tender head on the window that opens into the room directly above the terlit.

The large deck, accessible through the kitchen and one of the bedrooms, has a built-in barbecue center with an under-counter fridge for keeping cool drinks and offers plenty of room for summertime grillin' and chillin'. Although it may not adhere to building codes, ideally we'd remove the clunky railing from the deck that steps down into a gravel and flagstone courtyard area surrounded by thick tropical foliage that provides privacy for Miss Rutherford, her children, and guests. The small garage, according to listing information, has been converted to a flexible use space, perhaps as an office, home fitness center, or yoga room.

Even though she spends a great deal of time in New York City, it seems unlikely that Miss Rutherford will pull up her real estate roots entirely in Los Angeles. She is, after all, from Southern California and, as far as we know, her ex-husband and baby-daddy Daniel Giersch still resides in Los Angeles and he has court ordered visitation with the kids.

Speaking of the ex-husband and baby daddy Daniel Giersch, he too has a house on the market. Before the couple went splitsville, they embarked on a massive, multi-million dollar eco-friendly renovation of a home in Bel Air that according to listing information contains 3 bedroom and 4 pooper and "sustainable, non toxic, eco-friendly timeless elements including but not limited to custom floor to ceiling aluminum doors, Turkish limestone, onyx, elephant leather flooring, silk curtains & furniture, slate roof & copper gutters. The lush greenscape is supplied by a gray water system." Well, the gray water system certainly sounds "green" but we're not sure that elephant leather flooring is a particularly environmentally friendly material.

Mister Giersch first listed the very privately situated Bel Air property in May of 2010 with an asking price of $4,850,000. A million dollar chop in early June brought the asking price down to $3,850,000. That seemed to do the trick because just weeks later the property went into contract and is fixin' to close any day now.

Now that Miss Rutherford and Mister Giersch will soon be decamping to new digs not infused with the (bad) energy of the other, perhaps their family feud will come to an end and they'll each find a peaceful, quiet and pap free space to make their own.