The Hills

Leonardo DiCaprio loves it. So do Ben Affleck, Ben Stiller and Renee Zellweger.

They love Hollywood Hills, a big residential draw for Young Hollywood.

Old Hollywood loved the hills too. Charlie Chaplin lived there. So did W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx and Jean Harlow.

Young celebrities have moved in and out of the hills since the beginning of

the movie industry about 1915. But now the area, north of Sunset from Beverly Hills on the west through Los Feliz east of the 101 Freeway, is hotter than ever with Young Hollywood.

“A generational shift is taking place in homeownership in Hollywood Hills,” said Garrison Key of Key Properties in West Hollywood.

Stars younger than 35, as well as scores of other young actors, musicians and behind-the-scenes entertainment types, are moving into the hills in greater numbers than ever, because the area makes them feel safe and comfortable at a comparably reasonable price.

Realtors call it “The Great Migration East,” because the farther east one goes, the more house one gets for the buck, although the 20,000 homes in Hollywood Hills are starting to catch up with the Beverly Hills area in terms of price, according to Deborah Moore of Coldwell Banker Previews in Beverly Hills.

“You can still get more property with architectural integrity for a better price in Hollywood Hills,” said Barry Peele of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills.

During the last few months, Affleck, Stiller and Zellweger paid about $1.8 million each for their houses in Hollywood Hills. In the fall, DiCaprio bought a house there, once owned by Madonna, for $3 million.

Though the community is not inexpensive, it’s a far cry from more ostentatious neighborhoods where rising stars flocked in the past.

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Although the asking prices of homes in Hollywood Hills range from about $500,000 to $7 million, houses in the million-dollar range “fall in line with what many [young buyers in entertainment] are willing to spend,” said Nick Segal of DBL Realtors, Sunset.

“Business managers are more prudent now,” he explained. “They were burned in the ‘80s. Now everyone is more sensitive to the dollar, although the stock market has been out of whack.”

Segal described the houses purchased by Young Hollywood as being “generally unassuming, not gauche or mansion-like.”

He recently sold a Spanish-style 2,500-square-foot house built in 1925 to Matchbox Twenty drummer Paul Doucette, 26. “What he wanted was the character and the views,” Segal said.

Young Hollywood wants a view “of something, whether it’s greenery or city lights,” said Judy Ross of Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills.

Even the bathtub has a view in what Sharona Alperin of DBL Realtors’ Sunset office terms “the ultimate Hollywood Hills home.”

“But we’re not talking monstrous houses. That’s almost the anti-cool,” said Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency in Beverly Hills. “And the more understated, the better.”

One reason for this is security. Young Hollywood doesn’t want to stick out or draw attention to the home front.

“Stars like Lucille Ball and Gary Cooper could live in the open and not be so [worried about safety] because that was in a day and an age when fans were not so invasive,” Peele said.

Young Hollywood also likes understated homes simply because the houses are trendy, Realtors say.

“Marble and mirror are out. Original beams and tiles are in,” Rappaport said. “Younger stars like older architecture, and they like houses with a history.”

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That type of home was purchased about a year ago by independent film director Dieter Trattmann. The 7,000-square-foot Craftsman-style house was formerly owned by the late director Preston Sturges. Charlie Chaplin was married there, and Mae West danced on its ballroom bar. Her heel marks remain.

Beth Styne of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, describes this kind of house as having “quality, with soul,” as does the Spanish-style 1930s house she sold to former Monty Python member and actor Eric Idle.

“It appealed to the old soul of the Brit in him,” she said.

Part of the appeal of the area is that Young Hollywood loves Old Hollywood.

Johnny Depp owns Dracula star Bela Lugosi’s former home. Madonna, who has lived in the Hollywood Hills for years, formerly owned a house there in which gangster Bugsy Siegel ran a gambling den. Brad Pitt owns a Craftsman-style house that he bought from Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira.

Houses with celebrity pedigrees are in demand, but Barry Sloane, who specializes in architectural and historical properties at Sotheby’s in Beverly Hills, says that the most desirable houses are Spanish-style, built in the ‘20s or ‘30s.

“People also like Country English,” he said, “but the grand Spanish house with a flat pad, pool and view--I could sell five a day if I had them.”

Ben Stiller’s home is typical of what Young Hollywood seeks. The 34-year-old actor bought a 5,000-square-foot Spanish-style house, built in 1929.

“All the rock ‘n’ rollers want old Spanish houses,” said Andrew Manning of Fred Sands Realtors, Studio City. Manning has handled many musicians buying homes at Lake Hollywood and in east Hollywood Hills.

“They can be tattooed from head to toe but want authentic Spanish houses,” he said.

“If it’s on the market, a Tudor will sit longer than a Spanish hacienda, because a Tudor is so un-California,” said Rick Chimienti of DBL, Beverly Hills.

Nicolas Cage’s former Hollywood Hills home has been on the market, in the $2-million range, for almost a year “maybe because it’s too Gothic and customized to his taste,” Chimienti suggested.

“A cool contemporary also rocks. It sells,” Alperin of DBL-Sunset said.

So-called “mid-century homes,” built in the ‘50s or ‘60s, are among the popular styles. Both DiCaprio, 24, and Zellweger, 30, bought houses built in the ‘60s.

“There’s a huge resurgence in mid-century homes, and I have a lot of clients buying in the hills who really like the retro look, like booths in the kitchen,” said Monty Iceman of Gibson & Associates in Studio City.

A view, a pool and some privacy are what sell in Hollywood Hills, said Victor Kaminoff, director of architecture and unique properties for Coldwell Banker’s Sunset office.

“Whether the house is traditional, modern or Spanish, this is true, especially in the Doheny [Sunset Strip] area,” he added.

The typical Young Hollywood buyer seldom has children, likes pools and doesn’t mind stairs, Realtors say.

With few sidewalks and lots of narrow winding streets, it isn’t easy to walk with a baby stroller or to ride a bike.

Except in a few pockets, including the new Astral Estates development near the homes of Tim Allen and Kevin Costner, it’s even difficult to have more than one or two cars and live in the hills.

“Hollywood Hills is not about room for parking or sprawling lawns,” said Alperin. “Hollywood Hills is about valet parking for dinner parties. And you’re lucky if you have a flat yard.”

“Hollywood Hills is not family-oriented,” said Chimienti of DBL.

Of course, there are families in the hills, just as there are homes with lots of parking and homeowners who are older than 35.

Mark Brazill, executive producer and creator of the hit Fox sitcom “That ‘70s Show,” and his wife, Wendy, like Hollywood Hills so much that they are buying up and staying in the community, even though they have two children.

“It’s not really suburbia,” he said, “but that’s not what we want. My wife and I love the architecture.”

They also appreciate the many trees. “And there’s a lot to be said for the weather in the hills,” he said. “It’s a little cooler.”

As their families have grown, however, many people in entertainment have moved to the Westside, the San Fernando Valley or Hancock Park.

“The DINKS [dual income, no kids] are back,” said Manning of Fred Sands, Studio City, “and there are also a lot of single people in the hills.”

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Alexandra Wentworth, who has done many comedy skits on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and appears in the upcoming movie “Live Virgin” with Bob Hoskins, bought a 1950s house in the hills this year for $1.4 million.

“I found that the desirable places to live here are the hills or the beach,” she said. “Since the studios are mostly over the hill in the Valley, the hills are good, because the studios are so accessible.”

But the actress, who is in her early 30s and went from improv comedy to being a regular in the TV series “In Living Color,” also was attracted to Hollywood Hills “because it has such a funky European feel.”

“It’s not like Beverly Hills, where there are lots of families and golden retrievers,” she said.

Hollywood Hills is more diverse. “It has a huge gay community [including Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche], and it also has the Hollywood jet set,” Chimienti said.

Rory Barish of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills, draws this contrast: “Hollywood Hills is to Beverly Hills as Soho is to Park Avenue, Barcelona is to Madrid and Knightsbridge is to Chelsea.”

However, as Key of Key Properties noticed, the hills have gone “from bohemian to trendy with the re-gentrification of Hollywood and the establishment there of some high-tech Internet companies.”

There is also a dichotomy in the hills.

Said Wentworth: “There is a feeling in the hills, at the end of a day, that you’re away from the city, and the entertainment industry is down there.”

She is not alone in her thinking. The occasional coyote and rattlesnake in the hills probably contribute to the rural image, but even one block north of Sunset, where actor Depp lives, there is a sense of being in the country, although life is bustling on the Strip.

The Strip itself has had its critics, even among Realtors, who say that it’s “terribly urban,” has “noisy night life” and “heavy traffic.”

But there is no question that the clubs and restaurants there contribute to the desire of Young Hollywood to live in the nearby hills.

“The rebirth of the Sunset Strip hotels has made for fashionable, unique bars and restaurants at the neighborhood’s west and south border,” Key of Key Properties said. “The hard-to-find Les Deux Cafe is the living room-salon for the hills after dark, where people meet and greet across the entertainment, high-tech and music industries.”

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Kaminoff of Coldwell Banker calls Sunset Strip “the most eclectic or diverse area of Hollywood Hills,” with Sunset Plaza “the hub, or epicenter, of the Strip.”

“I get two or three phone calls a day for pocket listings there because the inventory is so low,” he said. (A pocket listing is an unofficial listing in which the seller agrees to sell at a certain price but requests no general advertising or mention in the Multiple Listing Service.)

Bennett Carr of Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills, announced at a recent estates directors meeting that in the Doheny or Sunset area, homes are selling for more than their asking prices, and he cited a home listed at $710,000 that sold for $1 million with 15 offers, before the property had an open house.

Despite the frenzy in real estate, the redevelopment in Hollywood and the upsurge in late-night coffeehouses and jazz clubs in Los Feliz, Hollywood Hills is often called “peaceful” and “quiet.”

“Dan Aykroyd loves the total quietness,” said Sloane of Sotheby’s, who has the actor-comedian’s Hollywood Hills home listed at $2.45 million.

“He is a total noise freak. His test is to sit in a deck chair and listen intently to see if he can hear a car or anything.”

Like Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando and Quentin Tarantino, who also live in what is sometimes called the Mulholland Corridor, Aykroyd has enjoyed living on top of the hills “because he can easily shop in the Valley or the basin, and he still has a sense of seclusion when he’s at home,” Sloane said.

There are no rectangular lots in the hills, and property line fences are rarely alongside a home. “So you can live there without being conscious of your neighbors,” Sloane said.

This is true also because few floor plans “look like they came out of a computer or a cookie cutter,” said Ed Fitz of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills.

There are also about a dozen neighborhoods, each with unique characteristics, in the hills.

And there are no straight streets, said Sloane, “so people can’t see you coming and going.”

“It’s hip. It’s young. And there is a kind of privacy in the hills because of the lay of the land,” said Jeeb Naiman O’Reilly of Nelson-Shelton, Beverly Hills.

Topography adds to a sense of security. Homes in Hollywood Hills are generally harder to find than houses in Beverly Hills, Brentwood or Malibu.

“You can’t see most of the houses from the street,” said Fred Henry of Prudential-John Aaroe, Los Feliz.

Added Peele of Sotheby’s: “Hollywood Hills offers little cubbyholes and hideaways down private driveways.”

The bottom line is that the Hollywood Hills area offers stars a sense of normalcy, something Hollywood newcomers especially cherish.

“Younger stars want to live in a more normal atmosphere,” said Chimienti. “To them, paying $3 million to $5 million for a house in Beverly Hills or Brentwood is unreal. That’s more attractive to the older set.”

And price is not the only issue. Lifestyle, or the ability to act like regular folks, is also a priority.

Affleck often washes his old cars and motorcycles in the street outside his house, but it’s a sight few people see, because the actor’s house is hidden in the hills.