In late summer 2011, a few years after she was launched into the white-hot international superstardom and not too long before she and her “Twilight Saga” co-star Robert Pattinson broke up for good in 2013, Kristen Stewart dropped $4.8 million on a glassy, Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects-designed contemporary tucked into a discreet Malibu enclave that’s come back up for sale at $9.5 million. Tax records show the home is technically owned through an opaquely named trust controlled by Stewart’s script supervisor mother, Jules Mann-Stewart, with whom the “Charlie’s Angels” and “Underwater” star appears to share the contemporary ocean-view hideaway.
Set atop a two-car garage full of surfboards and other accouterment to enhance a robustly active seaside lifestyle, the hillside architectural more than just a little resembles a classic southern California lifeguard tower. Listings held by Brian Parsons and Jayne Parsons of The Parsons Real Estate Team at Keller Williams Realty indicate there are a total of five bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms in about 5,800 square feet between the split-level main house and the uniquely oval-shaped two-story guesthouse. Casually, eclectically and at times somewhat haphazardly decorated interior spaces feature wonderfully high ceilings and soaring expanses of glass, some clear to take in sweeping over-the-rooftops view of the Pacific and others translucent to allow in lots of light but keep out the prying eyes of neighbors.
An elevated and gated courtyard entry deck leads to a spacious entrance hall that features a vintage wooden surfboard hung on the wall amid a diverse collection of paintings and posters. The semi-nautical theme continues in the combination living and dining room where a small anchor hangs over the fireplace. There are couple funky mermaid-depicting figureheads that float above the room and a tiny rowboat next to the sofa serves as a vessel for a handful of the hundreds of books that are stashed throughout the house. Semi-transparent panels slide open to expose the room to a small, ocean-facing balcony and the salty sea breeze. Nipped behind a curved wall off the dining area, the clean-lined kitchen features the customary array of up-to-date stainless steel appliances along with hardworking poured concrete counters on honey-hued wood cabinets.
Bedrooms sprinkled throughout the multi-level home include a roomy guest or staff suite just off the garage, two more that share a Jack ‘n Jill-style bathroom and a light-filled penthouse-like master suite that comprises a private lounge, an airy bedroom and a stone-tiled bathroom. Set into a wall of windows in the lounge area, an etched glass door that depicts a curling wave leads out to a huge terrace with sweeping, ship-like views of the horizon over the ocean.
There are exterior stairs carved into the hillside for access, but a much more novel and thrilling route from the main house to the guesthouse is up a staircase in the master bedroom and across a suspension bridge. The curvaceous, vine-encrusted guesthouse’s upper level holds a small lounge and kitchenette, as well as a bathroom, and a curved stairway leads down to a cozily cave-like bedroom. Just outside the guesthouse, amid lushly planted terraced gardens, a hot tub benefits from an over-the-rooftops sunset view.
Mann-Stewart owns another home in Studio City, purchased in 2017 for not quite $2.1 million, while her fame eschewing mega-celebrity daughter, set to star as Princess Diana in the upcoming film “Spencer,” a bio-drama about Diana’s decision to divorce Price Charles, has maintained a home in a gated and notoriously celeb-packed Los Feliz area of L.A. since 2012 when it was acquired for almost $2.2 million. And, since 2017, when she shelled out a bit above $5.6 million for it, she’s owned a more-than-3,100-square-foot fixer-upper loft in a converted, late 19th century cast iron manufacturing building in New York City’s fashionable Noho neighborhood.