Mom blames Tori for Aaron Spelling's death

[DaytimeFan]

I always thought Spelling Manor looked like a Sheraton hotel. And that's not a compliment.

Allegedly, the house is so large that it requires industrial "EXIT" signs in some parts of the house. I'm so conflicted about the Spellings. I think Aaron Spelling was a popular culture pioneer, one of a kind, a legend. Tori is self aware, funny and generally likeable. Randy is a bloated life coach. Candy is this odd Hollywood Wife: all of the trappings but none of the charisma.

Their lives are so bland in comparison to what Aaron envisioned. Considering his motto was that the public loved to watch rich people suffer (he was right!), his family is like this low rent version of Dynasty...like what the show would have been like without Alexis!

[Sylph]

In one of the videos she says that the house ended up being this big because she didn't understand the blueprints so all the rooms looked small to her. In the end, Aaron had to cap the budget and one wing had to be 'cut off'. Weirdly, as much as I think that a French château-style mansion needs a French château-style surroundings, large, spacious, this one does not have that, but it works. It's not horribly out of place.

I've also read somewhere that the Manor got categorized the wrong way, if the right one were to be applied, the house would be breaking the Holmby Hills zoning rules.

Sheraton hotel... Hm... None of the Sheratons I know looks Châteauesque. Do you find the interior as hideous as the outside? Actually, which is worse – the outside or the inside?

Didn't she receive an offer from some Arab sheikhs for the mansion, but declined it?

[DaytimeFan]

The Sheraton hotel reference was to the interiors...specifically the Sheraton in Anaheim. The interiors are far, far worse than the exterior. The exterior could be fixed up with a hefty landscaping budget and plenty of tropical flowers. The grounds aren't bad and it does have space surrounding it...but DAMN, those interiors, so bland and already dated looking. There's nothing classic about the house. It just SCREAMS early 90s.

You know whose got a beautiful house in the Spelling universe? Jaclyn Smith. It's tasteful and serene.

[Sylph]

I just hate how serene and sedate it looks inside. It's all these tame, beige colours, nothing of substance, personality. You are right: there is nothing classic about it. Though, I do like the general design of the stairway, but not the details. For example, the choice of the marble pattern (especially for the riser), those metal bars where the tread meets the riser. I love grand stairways and this one was apparently inspired by the Gone With the Wind stairway.

By the way... Is Candy Spelling... Well... Evil? Or deep, deep inside not a bad person, but just somehow ends up looking like and being a total witch? How are she and Tori doing financially? Aaron's fund was $500 million and she still manages?

The exterior needs a new façade colour.

[Sylph]

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[Sylph]

The stairway, however, ends up being ruined by the walls and ceilings that surround it. So it's a fail.

[DaytimeFan]

I don't find the Spelling interiors serene or sedate...I just find them so clinical and tacky and dated. You nailed it, there's no personality. I don't mind a room that's based in white (ie: Lisa Vanderpump or Linda Dano's style) so long as there are punches of colour and accessories. There's nothing in the Spelling home. It's so vacant. Hate it.

I don't think Candy is evil. I think Candy and Tori have a very screwed up relationship based in Candy's jealousy over Aaron's adoration of Tori. I think the fact that Aaron adored his daughter, probably more than his wife, is the reason for all the crap that's ensued for decades. Candy has punished Tori for something she never had any control over. It's very Another World a la Iris/Mac/Rachel. Not good, not good at all.

Tori should be doing well financially, she's got her books, her children's clothing line, her HSN jewellery line, her reality show. As well, each of Tori's children got trust funds worth $12 million from the Spelling estate.

Candy is filthy rich. Aaron's estate was never actually revealed because it's all held in the Spelling family trust. The $500 million estimation is, in my opinion, conservative. The Spellings own real estate, residential and commercial and lots of it, all over the country. Then, you have to consider that the estate also has income thanks to all of Aaron's producing royalties.

[Sylph]

May I correct myself? It looks serene and sedate to the point of being horribly out-of-date clinical and sterile. Those chairs are all horrible! The wood too!

I'm glad you confirmed she isn't evil deep down inside. She just seems unhappy, insecure, which makes her say and do all these terrible things. Too bad, they really ended up being some vanilla, depressing, "melted" family. Completely uninteresting, far away from the apex Aaron brought them to.

Given that she is even richer than reported, and I'd like to see that real estimate of the net worth, why is she selling this house? Especially since we know she loves it so much? I wonder how many people are employed in the domestic service of the house and how much the annual maintenance cost is. Those kitchens can cook for up to 800 people, apparently, LOL.

[Sylph]

As one commentator said on Huffington:

What does Tori think of the house?! Why doesn't she want it?

And another:

[DaytimeFan]

Tori hates the house, describing it as too big, too impersonal and too cavernous. The house that she loved and grew up in was also in Holmby Hills, next door to Farrah Fawcett's old house. Tori only lived in the Manor for a few years as it was only completed in the early/mid 90s...she moved out to a leased place once she had some money from 90210...I always thought it strange that she never actually purchased a home, seeing as her father was the EP of the show and ensured her employment. What she could have gotten in the 90s for a million dollars, yikes it would have been a steal.

[Sylph]

Where's that old house? Are you sure it's the Holmby Hills?

[SFK]

Jumping in with my $0.02... I'm not so sure that "dated" even has a place in the list of adjectives describing that interior as much as "uninspired". ITA DaytimeFan, it looks like she flipped through a hotel furniture supply catalogue. Looks less like she was trying to create a home but "get it right".

[alphanguy74]

Thanks for the youtube tour vids, Sylph. I have to say, after vieweing them, the mansion and grounds are not as dire as I once felt.... but theyr'e still very bad. The koi pond area seemed lovely, but other than that... nothing really impressed me. The inside is worse, for all the reasons stated, and Tori's assertion that the house ic cavernous and impersonal is right on the money. I'm still stunned at how little of Aaron's estate Tori recieved. I don't think Candy is evil, either... but pretty darn close.

[Sylph]

It also has an orangerie & antique roses around those premises and the pool house has a kitchen and a bar on its own.

BTW, what would be a realistic price for this mansion? $70 million? Is she ever going to sell it?

[Sylph]

I bumped onto an exact copy of that stairway! LOL.

http://www.exoticexcess.com/estates/estate-of-the-day-19-8-million-mediterranean-mansion-in-bradbury-california/