Jacko's new home fit for king of pop
The King of Pop’s new home is fit, well, for a king.
Michael Jackson has moved into a $20m (€15.7m) hillside estate described as the magnificent “crown jewel of Beverly Hills” with sweeping panoramic city light views, according to broker Elaine Young.
News media helicopters have been hovering over the mammoth three-storey cliffside mansion, bringing an end to the solitude in the Coldwater Canyon neighbourhood.
The neighbours are not too happy, said Young, who recently opened her own Elaine Young Real Estate agency.
Jackson signed a one-year lease with a one-year option to buy, she said. The lease price was $100,000 (€78,000), but it was not known what Jackson was paying.
The 37,000 square foot, built in 1991 on 2.25 acres, is owned by a Japanese artist and has been on the market for $20m (€15.7m).
It has nine bedroom suites, 16 bathrooms, a north/south tennis court, a 3,600 square-foot ballroom/theatre, indoor swimming pool, exercise room with sauna and steam room, a spa and a gourmet kitchen.
There is sculpted marble throughout the mansion, and it has a sweeping staircase and cathedral ceilings.
The estate is secluded behind two gates: One on the street for three hilltop mansions and a separate entrance gate to the Jackson compound. Nothing can been seen from the street, but reporters and camera crews have been able to get a glimpse of the property from a park below.
Jackson, 45, is charged with seven counts of performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent. He is free on bail pending appearance in court on January 16.
The self-described King of Pop said during a CBS-TV 60 Minutes interview last month that Santa Barbara County sheriff’s investigators searching his Neverland Ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley so violated his privacy that it would never be the same for him.
“I won’t live there ever again,” he said. “It’s a house now. It’s not a home anymore. I’ll only visit.”
Neverland is about 90 miles north-west of Beverly Hills.
