Rumor-Beset Hollywood Mansion Files for Bankruptcy

Rumors of a pool-table-top murder within an uninhabited Hollywood Hills mansion’s billiards room: false.

The one about aliens landing on the 22-acre property, giving them a clear view of the Los Angeles skyline and the whitewashed Hollywood sign: false.

Speculation about the soft pink Mediterranean home’s owner filing bankruptcy papers, desperate to avoid a foreclosure auction: true.

The California hillside mansion that’s captured much attention—both through casual chatter and the media spotlight—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week after the property lingered on the market with a $15.2 million price tag. The home’s speculation picked up earlier this year when the New York Times penned its history, a profile that laid the storyline for a recent “Law & Order: LA” episode.

“I don’t have a favorite rumor. I’m just trying to get it sold,” owner Tim Devine told Bankruptcy Beat.

The hype is bound to happen, he said, when Runyon Canyon Park hikers empty mindless chatter onto nearby trails and a bored newspaper reporter moves down the street.

No, the property isn’t situated on an Indian burial ground, he said. Nor did aliens land there, though Devine offered logic that might not satisfy Third Kind theorists: “How can it be an alien landing pad when there are no aliens?” But something undoubtedly true is that the 16-year-old mansion, which has never been legally inhabited, has fallen into disrepair over the years. Devine said the property is “97% close” to getting the proper certifications that would enable someone to live there.

A former Columbia Records executive now pushing online enterprises, Devine has the property’s sales pitch down, describing it as the “largest contiguous buildable parcel left in the Hollywood Hills/Beverly Hills corridor” all in one breath.

Until its sale, the property will remain patrolled by a security guard with a gun, meant to ward off gangs and other mischief makers who dare to raise doubts about his authority.