NBA star Chris Paul just bought Avril Lavigne’s mansion for $8.5 million. See which stars’ old homes are now owned by Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, and Salma Hayek.
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Proving yet another rock and jock connection, NBA star Chris Paul and singer Avril Lavigne apparently have the same taste in real estate. The Los Angeles Clippers point guard, who was just traded from the New Orleans Hornets, is laying down roots in his new city by purchasing Lavigne’s Bel Air mansion. The 12,184-square-foot Mediterranean-style home (which was previously owned by Travis Barker of Blink-182 fame) went on the market at $9.5 million last May, but Paul got it for a modest $8.5 million. Paul’s new estate has eight bedrooms, 10 1/2 bathrooms, a 10-car garage, a wine cellar, and a gym. And, presumably, it will soon have a basketball court.
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A month after Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi showed off their Beverly Hills home in Architectural Digest, the couple decided they wanted to downsize. So they listed their 15,000-square-foot estate on the market for $49 million and bought Brad Pitt’s cozy 4,000-square-foot house in Malibu for $12 million. Their new property has four bedrooms, four baths, a pool, a tennis court, and, of course, private beach access.
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Jennifer Lopez may still be “Jenny From the Block,” but Gwen Stefani liked the Beverly Hills neighborhood where J. Lo lived so much that she bought her old home. In 2006 Stefani and husband, Gavin Rossdale, purchased the Mulholland Drive estate for nearly $15.5 million. The 10,000-square-foot home has four bedrooms, four baths, a swimming pool, and tennis and basketball courts. No doubt it’s beautiful.
In 2000 a couple of Long Island celebrities made an expensive real estate deal in the Hamptons. Jerry Seinfeld (who grew up in Massapequa) liked the 12-acre Amagansett home of Billy Joel (raised in Hicksville) so much that he paid an astonishing $32 million for it. Then he tore down the main house, which the comedian once compared to Versailles, and built a new beachfront mansion, complete with a baseball diamond. In 2007, OK! magazine named “Ver-Seinfeld” the best celebrity party house in the Hamptons.
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In 2007 Christina Aguilera and her then husband, Jordan Bratman, purchased the Beverly Hills mansion of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne—the setting of their famous MTV show—for $11.5 million. Alas, after ending her marriage, the singer put the 11,571-square-foot estate back on the market with an asking price of $13.5 million. And certainly Kelly Osbourne will be happy to see her move out. In August 2011, Osbourne took a few nasty jabs at Aguilera’s weight on E!’s Fashion Police and even brought real estate into it. "She called me fat for so many f---ing years, so you know what? F--- you! You're fat, too," Osbourne said. “Maybe she is just becoming the fat bitch she was born to be. I don't know. She was a c--- to me. And she bought my house!"
This celebrity real estate deal was so inside that the house in question didn’t even go on the market. While attending a New Year’s Eve party at the home of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell a few years ago, Adam Sandler’s wife became so enamored of the place that the comedian bought it. “I was sitting in the kitchen having a nice time, and we were looking for a house, and my wife was like, 'I want this house,'” Sandler explained.
"Goldie was selling it, and I don't like to look around too much, and so I was like, 'All right, you want it. Let's get this one.'” And Sandler wasn’t exactly thorough in his inspection. "I liked the feel of the kitchen,” he said. “I didn't even look at the rest of the house."
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Does all that Glee money buy happiness? It sure has bought show creator Ryan Murphy some nice celebrity homes. In 2010 Murphy, who also created Nip/Tuck and American Horror Story, purchased Diane Keaton’s Spanish colonial in Beverly Hills for an undisclosed amount, and last year he added Charlize Theron’s Malibu house to his collection for a reported $6.5 million. The 2,100-square-foot beachfront home, which was once owned by Wings star Steven Weber, was built in 1930 and has a Jacuzzi in the master bathroom.
If Salma Hayek ever wants to become one of the "real housewives" of Beverly Hills, she already lives in a home with perfect pedigree. In 2007, Hayek and her then fiancé, François-Henri Pinault, bought the Bel Air mansion that Kelsey Grammer shared with his then wife, Camille, for more than $20 million. The seven-bedroom, seven-bath house sits on three quarters of an acre and was built in the 1930s. "We absolutely loved the home," Grammer told the New York Post after the sale. "We are thrilled Salma bought the house."
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Call it the House of Rock. In 2011, actor Jack Black paid nearly $6 million for the mansion owned by Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea. The seven-bedroom, three-bath house in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles was built in 1915 and has a swimming pool and solar panels on the roof. It’s also 6,500 square feet, which should give Black a lot of room to practice his Tenacious D guitar licks.
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