Sean Penn's part-surfer-dude, part-psycho house for sale
Like the actor himself, Sean Penn's Malibu house is a clash of contrasts, equal parts endearing and disturbing. Think "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" meets "Dead Man Walking."
The exterior looks like the usual California faux-hacienda style. In the foyer, on a long carved-wood console table, the adorable Nipper the RCA Dog greets you in both statue and photographic form. On the walls, blue monochrome paintings introduce a note of unease: The children depicted don't look quite natural, and the face of the single adult, a man, is smudged out.
More of the blue paintings dominate the interior, including, on a living room wall behind the grand piano, a self-portrait of the screaming artist -- bandages wound round his head, curled dessert forks taped to his temples like claws about to gouge into his eye sockets. They're by the Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, a Marilyn Manson friend/collaborator and the patriarch of what a headline in the New York Times' T Magazine called "The Real-Life Addams Family."
On a wall in the dining area, a large piece of art pays tribute to Haiti, a charitable cause that has occupied Penn for five years. Nearby hangs a painting of a giant orange blossom. A poster of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara overlooks an exposed-brick wall with a fireplace; on the hearth is what looks like a small piece of cardboard scrawled in felt-tip marker with the word "gun" crossed out and the word "love" in its place.
And then there's the sweet but dated country-ish kitchen, with its seafoam-green ceramic tile countertops and beadboard-paneled cupboard doors.
The 1.4-acre property is on Malibu's Point Dume and has gated beach access. There's also a pool that Penn reportedly baby-proofed for girlfriend (or could it be fiancee?) Charlize Theron and her son, 3-year-old Jackson, whom he's adopting.
He bought the house in August 2009 for $3.8 million — the same month that he and his wife of 14 years, Robin Wright, filed for a divorce that became final a year later. They had two children during their 20 tumultous years together.
Now, evidently ready to open a new chapter with his life with Theron and perhaps even adopt another child, he has listed the home at $6,550,000.
Click here or on a photo for a slideshow of Sean Penn's Malibu home for sale.
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