By ALEX VEIGA, AP Real Estate Writer Alex Veiga, Ap Real Estate Writer Fri
Mar 27, 12:34 am ET
LOS ANGELES The widow of producer Aaron Spelling is placing "The Manor" in
the exclusive Holmby Hills neighborhood on the market for a jaw-dropping $150
million, making it by far the most expensive home for sale in the U.S.
The French chateau-style mansion has 56,500 square feet of space on more than
4.6 acres and is the largest home in Los Angeles County. Among the neighbors
are the Los Angeles Country Club and, not too far away, the Playboy Mansion.
Spelling's late husband produced hit shows such as "Charlie's Angels,"
"Dynasty" and "Beverly Hills 90210." He died in 2006.
"Everything there is glamorous, and is luxurious and it's really great scale,"
said Sally Forster Jones, an agent with Coldwell Banker Previews International
in Los Angeles, which is co-listing the property. "There really is nothing to
compare it to."
Spelling told The Associated Press that she let her dog Madison, a soft-coated
Wheaten Terrier, help pick out the best real estate agent for the task. She had
her security bring the dog into the room every time she met one of the
candidate agents and watched how the dog reacted. If Madison didn't like them,
Spelling crossed them off the list.
Prospective buyers won't have to worry about passing such scrutiny, Spelling
jokes.
"Not at all," she says.
The three-story mansion, built in 1991, is gated and features a winding
driveway that leads up to the three-story house, which includes ceilings that
reach up to 30 feet high, Jones said.
While some published reports put the tally of rooms in the mansion at well past
100, Jones couldn't provide an exact count.
Spelling says she doesn't know either.
"You're really asking the wrong person," Spelling jokes. "There's a lot. (The
house) has evolved and I actually haven't gone around and counted."
The Spellings found no shortage of uses for the many rooms in the mansion,
however.
There's a bowling alley, wine cellar, wine tasting room, gift-wrapping room, a
humidity-controlled silver storage room, China room, library, gym and media
room, among many others.
The screening room is one of Spelling's favorites.
"I had some really wonderful times entertaining in that room," she said. "We
showed movies and I still do."
The room features a movie projection system that automatically comes up from
the floor at the same time that shades extend over the windows. It's an idea
that came to Candy Spelling in dream as she sought to avoid having a projection
screen open all the time.
"I wanted Aaron to have the best projection room anyone had ever seen, and the
biggest, so I came with this solution, not realizing that we had to excavate a
lot of dirt to get down that low, to have a special room that housed the screen
that was totally dust free," said Spelling, 63.
The Spellings also finished the 17,000 square-foot attic that includes a barber
shop and beauty salon.
The home also includes a wing for service staff, including a kitchen and seven
bedrooms, and five fireplaces and four wet bars.
Lavish features also can be found outside the house, including a tennis court,
fountains, a waterfall, a pool and spa, a reflection pool and a pool house with
a kitchen, and 16 car ports.
The estate also boasts an 18th Century-style garden, a rooftop rose garden and
a citrus orchard.
Prospective buyers won't have to worry much about parking when they host big
parties. The property includes a winding motor court with space for more than
100 cars.
Spelling plans to trade her mansion lifestyle for a luxurious, two-story condo
atop a residential tower in Los Angeles that she bought last year for $47
million.
"I have a lot of wonderful, wonderful, wonderful feelings about this house and
special things that I went through in building it, with a love that you can't
even imagine," she gushed. "Yet I feel like I'm moving on to a new chapter in
my life."