Shane Gritzinger/Getty ImagesRecession be damned, there's apparently no time like the present to drop $150 million on a new home.
Candy Spelling, wife of the late TV-producing dynamo Aaron Spelling and, for the past few years, the sole occupant of one of the largest single-family homes in the country, has put her staggering Los Angeles estate up for sale for the not so low, low nine-figure sum.
As befits a property of its considerable size (it sits on 4.6 acres) and grandeur (neighbors in the swanky Holmby Hills area include the Los Angeles Country Club and the Playboy Mansion), the price tag makes the three-story home, built in 1991, by far the most expensive estate on the market in the whole of the U.S.
Much has been made over the years of the storied 56,500-square-foot French château-style mansion, which includes somewhere in the vicinity of 123 rooms. Eleven seems to be the general consensus on the bedroom quarters count, but Spelling has admitted on several occasions that she is unsure how many bathrooms she has, though anywhere from 16 to 26 have been reported.
In addition to Spelling's infamous gift-wrapping room, the home also includes a bowling alley, wine cellar and tasting room, humidity-controlled silver storage room, China room, library, gym and screening room, and 17,000-square-foot attic that has absolutely nothing in common with your grandmother's—unless, of course, she too boasts a barber shop and beauty salon in the space.
Pools, tennis courts, a rooftop rose garden and citrus orchard are also part and parcel with the mansion, as are 16 car ports and room enough in their motor court for 100 additional vehicles.
As for Spelling herself, she already has designs on her new digs, having plunked down $47 million last year for a new two-story condo in Century City. While the 16,500-square-foot property will be less than a third the size of her old one, it does boast 360-degree views of the city and is expected to be completed by late 2009.