Tasteful friends: Amy Pascal's Brentwood bungalow

9000 sq ft is huge

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Mid-century post and beam is my absolute favorite. I found every picture soothing and relaxing. I once had a similar house in the hills of north Atlanta, but the lack of central heat/AC would be a deal breaker ☹️

[quote] When the radiant floor heating broke a few years ago, the couple discovered that the only way to fix it was to tear up the original terra-cotta tiles, which they couldn’t bring themselves to do. Instead, Weinraub says, “we bundle up.” Pascal, who seems used to defending this choice, adds, “You can’t make new things look old in the way that old things look old.” Because there’s no air-conditioning — portable units would have been eyesores, central air an intervention too far — Weinraub drags electric fans out of storage every summer. “Amy,” he says, “gets very upset” and hides them. “She’d rather sweat.” And even though Pascal concedes that lighting the home almost entirely with lanterns has made reading at night next to impossible, “it’s really good for beauty.”

No heat, no A/C, and they can’t read at night. But it’s 9000 square feet. These people are idiots.

Its a good example of what it is and I admire their commitment to preserving it. Not my cup of tea though and the lack of AC would be a dealbreaker. A few heat pumps with floorstanding indoor units would deal to that without unduly compromising the look

The lighting is incredibly easy to fix too, if they just used a few modern LED's behind some of the existing shades they could read at night. And they may not need to take up all the tiles to fix the radiant floor heating, if it's an electrical element under the tiles its just a matter up taking up a few tiles here and there to access the wiring and determine where the break is. Access it in the middle of the cct, test either way to find out which direction the break is, then do the same in the direction of the break, splitting it in half each time until you've pinned down where the problem is

They could also replace the terra cotta floors and fix the heat. The house is 70 years old, not 700 years. They probably wouldn’t even have to get the tile custom made (which isn’t that big of a deal anyway for a 9000 sq ft house in a super expensive area).

I bet these people are next level annoying.

The house is gorgeous but no heating/cooling is a deal breaker.

Wow. I’d live there in a second. It is beautiful.

Besides, they built some additions (office, gym). I’m sure those are heated/air conditioned so you just hang out there during the day.

I am sure Amy doesn't spend too much time sweating there in the dog days of summer... that's what the Hampton's are for darling! The rest of the year you can live just fine without air conditioning in the hills on the West Side of LA!

The hills of North Atlanta? That’s a new one.

California must not have mosquitoes.

I like Brown

@r10 Yeah, I think you all call it Sandy Springs now. Anything else I can help to understand?

The above posters who whine about no AC nor heating are morons. Its Brentwood. You dont need either. They could also buy portable AC and heat if they think they need it. The energy savings are huge.

I'd like to know how many other houses they own? I love the pictures. It looks so relaxing and spa like....until you read about the lack of climate control. Her husband is 85. I cannot imagine that he is sweating or shivering there. They probably live there when the weather is most cooperative and live in other home(s) when it's 110.

r11 You are correct sir, at least in coastal SoCal.

Sorry, R13, I lived in the mud flats of West Atlanta.

^ People live there now? 😬

Those who survived the inundation of Six Flags, yes.

It’s gorgeous and so airy — I wonder if the heat is as bad as we think with all that open space. But yeah, sadly I couldn’t live there, because I start sweating when someone whispers the word “warm” within earshot.

Imagine how hot it’s going to be in Brentwood in five years.

Maybe they can add a few of those freestanding ACs and camouflage them.

Isn’t she one of the people who got impersonated by the Hollywood con queen? (That exhausting Indian sadist/narcissist who I’d love to gut.)

[Quote] I like Brown

Thank you!

Six Flags?

I hear that name and the Venga Boys start playing in my head.

Places that haven’t need a/c in the past will very likely need it in the future.

@r19, Before it was Sandy Springs it was just north Atlanta. It's long since been torn down, but it was pretty cool when I owned it

Really nice r24

Amy got racked over the coals from the Sony hack a decade ago including a racist email, but landed on her feet.

The house should be bearable in the summer with all the shade from trees and vegetation and the cool tile floors.

If you have 150-degree oscillating pedestal fans around the house, then you should be quite comfortable.

r27 Its West LA...close to the beach and gets constant breeze. It does not get hot 51 of 52 weeks a year.

It gets warm enough that Amy sweats... 😓

" Weinraub drags electric fans out of storage every summer. “Amy,” he says, “gets very upset” and hides them. “She’d rather sweat.”

And in the winter... 🥶

"Weinraub says, “we bundle up.”

Very substandard HVAC systems in a cute bungalow in a temperate climate? Acceptable. In a 9000 square foot house? No. It’s just weird.

bungalow? 🥴

That place (to me) is impeccable. Stunning, cozy, and livable.

[quote]" Weinraub drags electric fans out of storage every summer. “Amy,” he says, “gets very upset” and hides them. “She’d rather sweat.”

Typical ball-busting JAP. Jewish men are such cucks.

^ 😂

I like it… but… it also reminds me of a Disney ride.

It's gorgeous. Reminds me of a villa I stayed at in Ubud but the villa had accordian doors all around. How hot does it get in LA? The A/C issue is not good. At least Ubud was in the mountains and stayed pleasant.

Is it possible that they just can't afford the renovations?

No, R37.

[Quote] Her Sony exit package, worth as much as $40 million over four years ....Sony also pays Pascal Pictures an additional $9 million annually

They seem insufferable.

She certainly does. He seems like he walks on eggshells around her.

She who holds the dough holds the power.

Dull and dreary.

Unpopular opinion, i’m sure, but i dislike THAT much foliage.

R11 R16 Mosquitos used to not be a problem, but over the last several years, Southern California has been invaded by those horrible Aedes aegypti. They're sometimes referred to as ankle biters or no-see-ums. They've become a real nuisance. There have been several local news reports on what each County vector control is trying to do about the problem. I believe they came in from the Southwest. They're apparently adapting to the coastal climate, and last year I read that they're moving into Northern California and have been found in Oregon.

I think the bath area didn't need that bamboo around it...maybe another plant choice though.

However, it seems really stupid to think that if they pull up the tile to fix the radiant floor heat, it will ruin the look. Also, no AC for a house of that size and that value seems quite ridiculous. She sounds like an insufferable idiot ("she'd rather sweat") and he's a simpering idiot (lighting the home almost entirely with lanterns has made reading at night next to impossible, “it’s really good for beauty.”).

They must be a joy at dinner parties.

get those bar wall units in the shade of the walls.

Amy Pascal is a fucking nightmare.

Waxed terra cotta tiles. Yikes.

They added 3000 sq ft, but couldn't figure out how to put in central air and heat? Did they at least put it in the new addition?

none of the pics are of the new addition, correct? i didn't see an office, movie theater or gym pictured at all.

I can't imagine being in my kitchen and not having central air. Doesn't it turn into a hotbox with the ovens on?

Air conditioning is nice, but I would guess there's typically only about 15 days spread out between June and September when you might think you need AC in this area. Per Weather Underground the main station in Brentwood show's it's only reached 80 degrees once this summer (early August). Usually, the high is mid-70s. Brentwood is typically only about a degree or two warmer than Santa Monica, and we never had it there. As long as you have adequate ventilation, the area doesn't get so damn hot that you become desperate for it. I would be more concerned about heating in the winter, especially with all that glass.

The LA area can get hot. And it's more than 15 days per year. They said they get sweaty in that house, so it gets hot there.

R51 I don’t have AC at my house and where I live is hotter during the summer than Brentwood, I keep the windows open to keep a breeze moving through the house and in summer I don’t use the oven much, usually do a piece of meat or fish on the pan and make salads. Air conditioning is so wasteful and really not as necessary in a home environment as long as you have good ventilation.

[quote]Air conditioning is so wasteful and really not as necessary in a home environment as long as you have good ventilation.

Bullshit. Here in the Northeast it gets so humid you can have all the windows open and it's still hot and uncomfortable with out a/c.

R53 Inland it gets hot. The Valleys get hot.

Brentwood isn't even east of the 405.

Look at the July 2024 highs for Brentwood (first column in chart at link). Usually mid-70s - sometimes even in the 60s. If they're too warm in this environment, then they have a ventilation issue and/or need to figure out how to open a window or perhaps install a tasteful ceiling fan to move some air.

Maybe Pascal thinks windows with screens and sliding glass doors paired with companion screen doors are "eyesores" as well. That's all we ever used at our Westside home to keep it Mediterranean climate.

[quote] [R53] Inland it gets hot. The Valleys get hot.

What can I say? My brother lived in South Bay, near Redondo Beach. That's not inland. And it was hot. And: I grew up in a hot climate, so I know what "hot" is.

I love how they talk about her being “humbled” in the same paragraph where they talk about her buying and renovating Gloria Vanderbilt’s apartment in Manhattan — JFC

[quote]Air conditioning is so wasteful and really not as necessary in a home environment as long as you have good ventilation.

Bull.fucking.shit....come to Houston or anywhere else in the South.

^ Can you imagine life in the south a 100 years ago? 🤮

I know southern people who set their thermostat at 80 to save the planet, but think nothing of international air travel. Forgoing the HVAC is madness.

It's always surprising to people who've never lived in coastal California that there are many homes without heat or AC up and down the coast. Yes there are a few days in winter and summer when you wished you had it - but 95% of the time, you really don't.

It's hard for people to imagine - but I know of 2 people whose homes don't have AC or heat. You just open the windows or put on a sweater. I rarely turn on my AC - probably about 6x a month during the summer and usually for about 2-3 hours in the late afternoon. By 7pm, everything cools down again and you just open up your doors and windows.

But - it's really only for those that live within a few miles of the coast. Past that going inland, you definitely need AC - but even then, it's not like in other parts of the country.

R60 I think it was cooler back then. They had more open grassland to absorb heat. One of the reasons it's so hot now is concrete, or so I've read. They still wore ridiculous clothing for the still warm weather though.

Isn’t the deal that California is a Mediterranean climate, not humid? Yes, Texas is humid. The northeast is humid. The Midwest, etc etc. So

R64 - it's not like Southern humidity or even the humidity of DC or NYC. It does get humid but it feels different somehow. It usually a comfortable humidity - so where I am now in SoCal, it's 11:30am, it's 73 degrees and 67% humidity.

We tend to get higher humidity from monsoon season in Aug/Sept and you can feel the difference but it doesn't stay around very long.

Do you need A/C in the Palm Springs area?

[quote]Do you need A/C in the Palm Springs area?

Does the Pope shit in the woods?

R66 - LOL - absolutely, but you can actually live well with a swamp cooler for 80% of the summer. We had both a swamp cooler and AC - but it was usually the swamp cooler alone. Can't really use a swam cooler though when it gets above 115 or when the monsoon humidity comes in August. Then you have to use your AC.

R68, How much was your monthly electric bill during the summer in Palm Springs?

R69 - when I had a 2BR apt there, it was around $250 and I only used AC.

But for our house, we also have solar so elec bill was maybe $150 a year?

For those without solar or without a swamp cooler (like our neighbors), their AC bills are easily $600-700 a month during the summer. The percentage of homes with solar panels in PS is really high though.

I find it beautiful but is there a stick of furniture or a fixture or an appliance that isn't a named piece? The Joe Blow rugs, the Daisy Mae coffee table, the Jane Doe stove, etc. Rather overwhelming for such simplicity.

The IKEA stuff was unmentioned.

I don't think fans cool anything off. (Unless there's a cool breeze.) Blowing hot air around doesn't help much.

R59 I meant in Los Angeles chill out :)

AC is non-negotiable. I have central AC AND a portable unit for my room when the rest of the household doesn't want it on.

The article mentioned they didnt fix the radiant heat system (which is HIGHLY effective btw) because they didn't want to rip up the original terra cotta tiles. I was picturing some unique, mid-century flooring but those are just your standard run-of-the-mill square terra cotta tiles you can get at Home Depot for $5 a piece! Who cares if they aren't original, they'd look EXACTLY the same!

Idiots.