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Having bought the Hollywood historic Bella Vista estate in Beverly Hills last year, “Charlie’s Angels” director Joseph McGinty Nichol, more succinctly and better known professionally as McG, has unsurprisingly hoisted his longtime home above L.A.’s always jumping Sunset Strip on the market at $9 million.
Once owned by high-end boutique hotelier Brad Korzen, who sold it in 2002 for $3.9 million, right about the time he and innovative decorator Kelly Wearstler married, the 1933 Spanish compound was acquired by the film and television director and producer in 2008 for $5.75 million. Indeed, listings held by Billy Rose of The Agency indicate the home still includes “signature Kelly Wearstler design elements.”
Set behind a high brick wall and secured gates, with unobstructed views that stretch from the downtown skyline to the Pacific Ocean, the modestly proportioned hacienda-style home surrounds a flat and spacious courtyard with grassy gardens and a sparkling swimming pool. With a total of three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms in about 3,200 square feet, the main house contains two ensuite bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, while a guest apartment offers an additional bedroom and bath, along with a private entrance and its own kitchen.
The antique brick walls and aged terra-cotta roof tiles that define the home’s exterior provide vintage counterpoints to the more contemporary interior spaces. A massive smooth concrete fireplace dominates the living room, lustrous espresso-colored wood floors extend throughout most of the main living areas, and the stainless-steel cabinets in the kitchen are topped by thick slabs of concrete. Huge floor-to-ceiling grids of wood-trimmed windows frame cinematic city vistas, and French doors open the house to the numerous brick and tile terraces that hover above the glittery city lights.
Perched on a high promontory above Benedict Canyon, McG’s new home in Beverly Hills has a long and fascinating history of Tinseltown ownership. Originally built for director King Vidor, the village-like multi-structure compound was later owned by stage and screen legend John Barrymore, Drew Barrymore’s paternal grandfather, who once kept hundreds of birds in an aviary that was later converted to a residence and rented at various times to a slew of industry icons said to include Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, and Candice Bergen. In the 1990s the storied estate was acquired by director Tony Scott and former beauty queen turned actress Donna Scott. Tony took his own life in 2012; Donna had the property for sale on and off for about six years, with steadily declining prices that started at more than $42 million and dropped to $15.5 million before McG came along with his $14.7 million and, at long last, took the place off her hands.
McG, who also directed “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” “Terminator Salvation” and the “The Babysitter,” as well as its sequel “The Babysitter: Killer Queen,” also boasts a long list of credits as a producer, including the TV shows “Supernatural,” “Chuck,” and “The O.C.,” as well as the recently reprised and quickly canceled “Turner & Hooch.”
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