A celebrity engagement as big and bold as Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s requires a marital home that perfectly reflects the combined star power of its owners.
This is why it comes as no surprise that the newly engaged couple have been spotted touring The Manor, the 123-roomed Los Angeles mega-mansion built by TV mogul Aaron Spelling.
The Daily Mail reports that Lopez, 52, and Affleck, 49, toured the 56,500-square-foot property, which is said to be on the market for $165 million, after their previous choice, a $55m home in Bel Air, fell through.
Built on the site of the home previously owned by the late White Christmas actor, Bing Crosby, The Manor was the childhood home of actress Tori Spelling.
Bought and sold by the super-rich over the past few years, including Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone, it is currently owned by Daryl Katz, the Canadian billionaire and owner of NHL team the Edmonton Oilers.
We delve into the history of the expansive property and reveal the famous people who have lived in and visited the house which was once the most expensive home in California…
The history of The Manor
The house on Mapleton Drive in the Holmby Hills area of LA was built by television producer Aaron Spelling, the man behind Charlie’s Angels, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, Beverly Hills, 90210 and more. Once referred to as Spelling Manor or Candyland, after Spelling’s wife, Candy, it is known locally as The Manor.
The 2.4-hectare plot it stands on was once the location of the home owned by US actor Bing Crosby. Spelling had the previous 1932 property knocked down after paying $10.25m for the land. He then spent an additional $12m to build The Manor, which was completed in 1988.
Holmby Hills has long attracted the super-rich and famous, with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Jeremy Renner, Barbra Streisand and Walt Disney all calling the neighbourhood home. Among The Manor’s more infamous neighbours is the Playboy Mansion.
“All the stars came through, Prince Rainier, Prince Charles, Jackie Kennedy,” Candy said of the famous visitors to The Manor. “Every star from every one of Aaron’s shows.”
Inside Candyland
The French chateau-style mansion, which is bigger than the White House, is the largest house in Los Angeles County, boasting 123 rooms, including 27 bathrooms and 14 bedrooms.
Calling it the "greatest entertainment house ever", Candy famously had an entire room dedicated to gift-wrapping.
"There were times where I would wrap, at Christmas alone, 900, 1,100 gifts," she said.
She also had a room in which she stored her extensive collection of dolls, a room for cutting flowers and a humidity-controlled room for storing silver.
The Manor boasts a 20-seat cinema and two-lane bowling alley, while the butterfly staircase in the foyer was an homage to the one in the film Gone with the Wind. The basement parking has space for more than 100 cars, and the columns at the entryway are Moorish in origin, dating back more than 400 years.
Billionaire buyers
Aaron bought an entire limestone quarry to ensure the material used to build the house would all look the same. After his death in 2006 at the age of 83, his wife Candy continued living in it until 2011.
She sold the house to British F1 heiress, Petra Ecclestone, who bought it for $85m in 2011 at the age of 23.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Ecclestone bought it after one viewing, before embarking on a 12-week renovation with a team of 500 workers.
Among her many changes were the addition of a beauty salon and a nightclub in the basement.
Ecclestone put the mega-mansion up for sale in 2016 with an asking price of $200m, later dropping it to $175m, then to $160m.
When it eventually sold in 2019, it was snapped up by Canadian billionaire Daryl Katz for $119.7m, becoming the most expensive home sale on record in the state of California until Amazon’s Jeff Bezos paid $165m for the Jack Warner Estate in February 2020.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
THE SPECS
Engine: AMG-enhanced 3.0L inline-6 turbo with EQ Boost and electric auxiliary compressor
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 429hp
Torque: 520Nm
Price: Dh360,200 (starting)
THE BIO
Age: 33
Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill
Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.
Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?
Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in
More on animal trafficking
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Company Profile
Company name: NutriCal
Started: 2019
Founder: Soniya Ashar
Based: Dubai
Industry: Food Technology
Initial investment: Self-funded undisclosed amount
Future plan: Looking to raise fresh capital and expand in Saudi Arabia
Total Clients: Over 50
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The Disaster Artist
Director: James Franco
Starring: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogan
Four stars
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
GRAN%20TURISMO
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
Saturday 15 January: v Canada
Thursday 20 January: v England
Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly, Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya Shetty, Kai Smith
RIDE%20ON
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