DebbieMatenopoulos

What's not to love about a castle that sits under the Hollywood sign? Especially if the price has been chopped from $7.5 million (the price the house was listed for in June 2008) to $4.7 million?

TV personality Debbie Matenopoulos and her soon-to-be-ex-husband Lionsgate Entertainment music executive Jay Faires have re-listed their Norman-style castle, once known as Wolf's Lair. The couple reportedly bought in 2002 for $2.9 million. Because of the association with Hitler's bunker of the same name, plans are to change the name to something, well, more castle-y.

The turreted 5,485-square-foot castle that sits on 3.3 acres was built in the 1920s and includes a two-bedroom guest house designed by architect John Lautner. The main house was built by and named after L. Milton Wolf, the developer of Hollywoodland. In fact, the Hollywood sign that sits behind the home was put there by Wolf to advertise Hollywoodland. ( The original sign bore that name and was covered with 4,000 flashing electric light bulbs.) There is a heart-shaped black-bottom pool and eight bedrooms total on the property, which sits high above Los Angeles' Beachwood Canyon.

Lure about this property is legendary. Wolf, something of a ladies' man, reportedly installed a secret apartment under the gatehouse where he entertained, ahem, privately.

Bugsy Siegal's former castle -- the one Madonna owned subsequently -- is right up the road a piece. Castillo del Lago is listed at $9.95 million, making the former Wolf's Lair a relative bargain.

Ernie Carswell of Teles Properties, Beverly Hills, has the listing.

From the Real Estalker:
--Pete Sampras and his wife Bridgette cut the price on their Beverly Hills mansion from $25 million to $23 million. It seems to have worked. The home is now listed as "looking for backup."
----Actor Willem Dafoe has put his house in Accord, New York on the market for $850,000. It was our estate of the day on Saturday.
--Kimora Lee Simmons has put her Beverly Hills home on the market for $7.75 million. It is our estate of the day later today.
--Technology guru Halsey Minor, ho bought a Bel Air home for $20 million in 2006 now has put the home on the market for just $12.9 million. Why? Rumor has it that the much of the home as been stripped down and is empty and dirty. The listing is here.
--TV personality Debbie Matenopoulos and music executive Jay Faires have put their home, Wolf's Lair, shown at right, on the market. The Norman-style castle was built in the 1920s and includes a guest house with interiors by architect John Lautner, a heart-shaped pool and eight bedrooms total on the property. The couple reportedly bought in 2002 for $2.9 million and have now listed it at $7.5 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
-- Baseball pitcher Jaret Wright has sold his Dover Shores home in Newport Beach home for $1.67 million.
--Novelist Jackie Collins has eased out a Bel-Air area property she owns for $20,000 a month.
----Looks like Avril Lavigne has finally unloaded her home in the Mulhollland Estates area of Beverly Hills. the home which was first listed in March 2007 for $6.9 million has reportedly received a $5.2 million cash offer.
--Carla J. Christofferson, co-owner of the L.A. Sparks and a partner with the O'Melveny & Myers law firm, has listed her 5,300-square-foot Hollywood Hills home for $5.5 million. The restored 1928 California Spanish-style five-bedroom home includes a THX theater with a 96-inch projection screen. The virtual tour is here.

From Big Time Listings:
--Mr. Big Time takes a look at the real estate doings of Robert Downey Jr. and Hilary Duff.
--Actor and comedian Brad Sherwood has placed his four-bedroom house in Los Angeles' Encino area on the market for $4 million. The listing is here.
--Actor and movie director Michael Apted and his wife, writer Dana Stevens, have paid $1,784,000 for a three-bedroom house in Del Mar, Calif., in San Diego County.
--It's time to play "Which celebrity's house is this?" checking out a six-bedroom house in Brentwood which recently sold after having been on the market for $8,499,000.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Katie Holmes, who is set to appear in a Broadway show in the fall, is on the hunt for a rental on the Upper East Side, she's been spotted cruising apartments with monthly rates over $60,000.
--Entertainment lawyer Paul Schindler has sold his four-story co-op apartment on the Upper East Side for $16.5 million. He and his wife closed on a $13.4 million apartment at the Plaza.
--Ted Koppel has dropped the price of his Potomac, Maryland home. He first listed it in 2005 for $4.1 million and is now asking $1.94 million for the six-bedroom home which as an indoor pool, a gym with a sauna, maid's quarters and a horse barn.
--The Park Avenue apartment of the late socialite and philanthropist Frances Todman has sold for $22 million.
--From Page Six, Philip Seymour Hoffman and his girlfriend Mimi O'Donnell are buying a three-bedroom co-op loft n Manhattan's West Village that had been listed for $4.4 million. Big Time Listings unearthed the listing here.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The New York State Court of Appeals has said that a shipping heir named Alistair Economakis and his wife, Catherine can proceed with their plans to take over 47 East Third Street, a a 15-unit, 60-room, 11,600-square-foot rent-stabilized tenement building and turn it into a luxury mansion without getting approval from the state's low-income housing agency. They bought the building and have taken over six apartments, which leaves nine units with tenants who've refused to get bought out.
--Nightlife king Simon Hammerstein has bought his first New York apartment, paying $1.27 million for a loft at 265 Water Street.
--Chinese pianist Lang Lang and his parents have picked up a duplex opposite Carnegie Hall, paying $1.895 million last month for a duplex at City Spire on West 56th Street.
--The brother of Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, the only president in Kazakhstan's 17-year post-U.S.S.R. history, Bolat Nazarbayev and his wife have paid around $20 million for a corner unit facing Central Park at the Plaza.
--Joy and Leonard Toboroff, the 74-year-old vice chairman of a Houston-based oil/gas-drilling outfit named Allis-Chalmers Energy are selling their duplex apartment that stretches across two Tribeca buildings, 39 and 41 North Moore Street with a list price of $17.9 million. The listing is here.