Real EState

Leave Julia Roberts’s New House in Malibu Alone

Her $3.9 million bungalow by the sea is fine!
Image may contain Human Person Paparazzi Julia Roberts Photographer Electronics Camera Sunglasses and Accessories
Julia in Cannes, 2016.By Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty Images.

Julia Robert bought a new place—a three-bedroom, one-bath home on Malibu’s Point Dume. It’s her third consecutive property purchase in the neighborhood, a Hollywood enclave full of glitz and glam and Matthew McConaughey.

She and her husband Danny Moder started their collection in 2003 with a sprawling compound on the top of a bluff than spans more than two acres. They reportedly paid $9.5 million for it. Then they added a three-bedroom, two-bath for a reported $6.84 million in 2016 (it’s right across the street from the Roberts HQ). Now there’s this little ranch-style oasis by the sea about twenty minutes away from the others. The bill was just shy of $3.9 million.

There are many, however, that are not impressed. Variety, which originally reported Roberts’s portfolio expansion, called it “downright dumpy.” The Daily Mail called it “shabby” and “not-so-glamorous,” with “barren grounds” and a “mucky backyard.” Another caption sniffed that it will likely be a home the nannies could call their own.

To be clear: this house is fine. Expensive, but fine! Cute even! There are no interior shots available on the Internet, so maybe the load-bearing walls are made of lead dipped in asbestos and the wallpaper is just shellacked CD inserts from unsold copies of “Now That’s What I Call Music!” circa 2002. But from the outside, it appears to be just a non-offensive home away from home. Julia Roberts has two other ones in the area. There’s a cliff-side yurt on one of them. She’s fine and this house is fine!

Sure, maybe the actress is buying up Point Dume house-by-house and turning it into her own personal family-and-friends Robertsland. But that also seems fine! There’s only a small percentage of people who could even begin to think about wanting to purchase this little place. She gave us My Best Friends Wedding and Erin Brockovich; she can have this (perfectly fine!) house to match her others.