6 - Rebecca about her new Home
"This used to be a whorehouse!" Rebecca tells me. It's very cozy, like a ski lodge in the middle of the desert. A loft balcony overlooks the high-ceilinged living room with an enormous fireplace in the corner. "When I found it, two old hippies were living here, and they were like" - she whispers in a backwoods accent - "There's a lotta sexual energy here."
Rebbecca continues: Old-time cowboy actor Randolph Scott also lived here, in the 50's. "Cary Grant was supposedly here a lot. We found pictures of the two of them cooking in a kitchen, and we think it was here. It was a little gay love nest!" she says, laughing
joyfully.
Rebecca came across this house at just the right moment. In 2000 she and John were ready to move out of John's "bachelor pad" in Calabasas. They'd decided to have a house built in Beverly Hills, and construction was scheduled to begin while they were away on location for five months. But the morning of their 1 p.m. flight out of town, Rebecca took her bear-like dog, Landor, for a sad farewell hike. Then she noticed an old "for sale" sign. "I ran up the road, and when I saw the house, I thought, Jesus, this is like the cover of a Steinbeck novel."
She rushed home. "Meanwhile, John's packing up the kitchen sink, because he's a terrible traveler. Now I've got to break it to him. So I'm like, "I saw this piece of property, and I'm in love with it. We have to go look at it on the way to the airport." He's like, "What the f**k are you talking about? We're about to start building a house." I'm like, "Um, please, before we do that, will you look at it?" He's like, "No, You're insane right now." And I was. I was starting to shake and, like, rock." She sways back and forth as if she's in an asylum. "So I'm like, "Just get out of the car at 12:30." And he's going "You're f**king insane! I'm moving to Beverly Hills! You live wherever you want.""
He ultimately looked at the house, asked some questions and got back in the car. "We were both silent for a few minutes. Finally, John goes, "Could I plant a vegetable garden there?" And I'm like, "Yes, you big queer!""
Original article: Jane 11/02
|
|