Check out Bob’s weekly column in this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (available online now), in which he breaks the story of Chicago TV reporter Ben Bradley cutting the asking price of his five-bedroom, 2,898-square-foot house in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood from $1,350,000 to $1,299,000.

Also featured: Bob writes about former Oprah Winfrey attorney, agent and adviser Jeff Jacobs having his David Adler-designed, 13-room, duplex penthouse co-op unit in east Lincoln Park on the market for $5,750,000, and about one of the few mansions on Lake Shore Drive on Chicago’s Gold Coast being recently reduced from $4,900,000 to $4,400,000.

A 6,624-square-foot house in Los Angeles’ Bel-Air neighborhood that rocker Fred Durst once owned has come back on the market for $6.45 million.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on the listing of the house, which is at 461 Bellagio Terrace in Bel-Air. Durst owned the four-bedroom house from the time he purchased it in the summer of 2001 through his Dally Boy Trust for $3,475,000 until selling it in 2002 for $3,700,000. (doesn’t everyone miss those days of making fat one-year profits?)

Built in 1971, the onetime Durst house (which is being listed by the fellow who bought it from Fred) has four and a half baths, a cook’s kitchen, state-of-the-art lighting and stereo systems, an outdoor bar, and pocket doors leading from most rooms to the interior courtyard pool/spa, according to public records and listing information. The architectural styles are a blend of John Lautner and Frank Lloyd Wright, according to listing information. The gated property is a flag lot, and totals more than an acre on a knoll, with views from the Getty Museum to the Pacific Ocean, according to public records and listing information.

The house came on the market on Mar. 8.

Check out an online listing sheet for the house — complete with photos — here . Also, take a look at a property website for the house here .

Weeks after Conan O’Brien was reported to have been quietly listing his duplex penthouse in The Majestic building in Manhattan, the wan will o’ the wisp (as we once read him described) has officially listed the unit for $29,500,000.

Props to Chloe Malle over at the New York Observer for reporting last week on O’Brien’s new “formal” price tag for the 17th and 18-floor penthouse, which is in the Art Deco-style building at 115 Central Park West. He is listing the unit through Brown Harris Stevens’ “private directory,” and using power agent John Burger (loyal readers know how seldom we ever mention agents by name). Features in the seven-bedroom unit include eight baths, three terraces, two libraries and park views.

In 2002, Conan purchased the first portion of his spread — namely, two 17th-floor units (#17B and #17C) — for an undisclosed price. Then, in early 2007, through a variation of his name (”C. Christopher O’Brien”), the funnyman purchased the penthouse unit (#18C) above his 17th-floor unit for around $10 million. We first wrote about that purchase back in December 2006.

The question remains: is Conan done in L.A.? We don’t think anyone knows the answer to that question yet. Obviously, his six-bedroom mansion on Tigertail Road in Los Angeles’ Brentwood area, which he purchased in 2008 for $10,750,000, would have to go if he were to do a future show from NYC. However, we’re betting that a show for FOX ends up being based in L.A. Stay tuned.

Screenwriter, director and sometime-actor Mike Binder — known for so many things, including writing and appearing in the movie The Upside of Anger and for co-writing and co-directing his own HBO series The Mind of the Married Man — has placed his five-bedroom mansion in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood on the market for $7,595,000.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Binder’s listing of the 8,078-square-foot, Cape Cod-style mansion. The listing quietly came on the market on Feb. 10.

Built in 2007, Binder’s house has: seven and a half baths; a dramatic floor-to-ceiling wainscot entry with black and white checkered marble floors; a wood-paneled library; a formal dining room; a gourmet kitchen with top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances; a large family room with coffered ceilings; a fireplace and three double French doors; a master suite with trey ceilings, a fireplace, a separate sitting area, a balcony and dual spa-like baths; three additional en-suite bedrooms; a bonus room; a red ocean glass bathroom with a steam shower; a gym with a separate side entrance; a 23-person movie theater with a concession stand, reclining leather seats, and a 14-foot screen; ebonized oak floors; white copper shingles; Florance Broadhurst wallpaper; Michael S. Smith fixtures; and a three-car garage, according to public records and listing information. Outdoor features on the 0.397-acre (17,293-square-foot) property include a fireplace, a veranda and a pool and spa, according to listing information.

Binder’s Catherine Edward Trust paid $1,770,000 in 2001 for the land, and then built the house.

Check out a website for the house .

Check out Bob’s weekly column in this Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (already available online), where he breaks the news of actor Vince Vaughn cutting the rental price on a Chicago town home that Vince owns from $7,800 a month to $6,900 a month. Vaughn’s main residence in Chicago continues to be his duplex penthouse in Chicago’s Palmolive building, which he bought in 2006 for $12 million.

Also featured: Chicago radio personality Brian Paruch listing a house he owns in Arlington Heights, Ill. for $594,900, and a 22-room, 16,000-square-foot mansion in Oak Brook, Ill. that former Chicago Blackhawks star and current Atlanta Thrashers defenseman Chris Chelios built in 1999 and sold in 2005 for $4.5 million. It’s back on the market for $6.9 million.

Singer Josh Groban has listed his four-bedroom, Tuscan villa-style house in Malibu, Calif. for $6,100,000.

We can’t at all call this an exclusive, particularly when the listing of the house has been written about on several Josh Groban fan boards. And, it’s really not all *that* surprising of a listing, given his recent interest in buying a place in New York (which we’ll get to in a sec), although offsetting that of course is the fact that he has so much family in L.A.

Records show that Groban’s DJT Trust paid $4,125,000 to buy the house in the summer of 2005. Built in 1976, the 3,294-square-foot house sits on 1.8 acres on Point Dume. Features in the house include four and a half baths, and beautiful stone floors with inlaid stone tiles, and a wood-paneled media room (with a Homer Simpson print on the wall!), according to public records, listing information and past press accounts. Outdoor features include a separate one-bedroom guest house with a recording studio, a pool and spa with a waterfall, a lighted tennis court, prviate patios and lawn areas, and a poolside cooking and entertainment area with seating around a stone fireplace, according to listing information. The property also has private beach rights.

Groban once told InStyle.com that “When I first saw this place, my reaction was, ‘It’s like being on an instant vacation — I’ll take it!” He also told InStyle.com that “I bought this house with the idea that I’d grow into it.”

Groban continues to own his 1,845-square-foot condo unit in the Oakhurst condo building in Beverly Hills, which he purchased for $900,000 in 2003, according to public records.

So has Josh purchased anything in New York City yet? We have no idea (although we’re open to anything readers may know). Back in December 2008, he was reported by our old friend Braden Keil of the New York Post to have been spotted checking out a two-bedroom, duplex penthouse in the building at 155 Perry Street in Manhattan — a unit that at that time was on the market for $3.85 million. We have no idea if Groban ever pulled the trigger or not.

In any case, check out an online listing sheet for Groban’s Malibu digs here and a property website and virtual tour here .

Designer Rachel Ashwell, who created the “Shabby Chic” style, has placed her 1,783-square-foot house in the Malibu Colony area of Malibu, Calif. on the market for $4,425,000.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Ashwell’s listing of the four-bedroom retreat, which she purchased in 2003 for $1,950,000. Ashwell remodeled the cottage-style house, which is at 23511 Malibu Colony Road.

Built in 1955, the main house has four baths, limestone flooring throughout, a master suite with an office area, and two other bedrooms and a bath, according to public records and listing information. Outdoor features on the property include a separate one-bedroom and one-bath guest house, gorgeous gardens, a brick patio area with a spa, mountain views and a deeded beach access lot with a deck across the street, according to listing information.

Our friends over at the Real Estalker wrote a nice post on this house back in 2007, when it was up for rental.

Ashwell has owned other L.A.-area property. We wrote a post in October 2008 about Ashwell having listed her four-bedroom, 3,119-square-foot house in Los Angeles’ Brentwood area for $4,395,000. She later sold that property, which was known as “Casa Westgate” after its street address of 341 S. Westgate Avenue. She also owns a 3,276-square-foot house in Brentwood that she purchased in 2007 for $4,150,000.

Check out Bob’s weekly column in this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (available online now), where Bob breaks the news about former Chicago Blackhawk (and current Minnesota Wild) hockey player Martin Havlat cutting the asking price of his condominium unit in Chicago from $775,000 to $725,000 (he first had had it on the market for $800,000). Havlat had purchased the unit in 2006 for $760,000, and at the same time paid another $75,000 for a parking space.

Also featured: Bob reports on a mansion on Lake Michigan in Lake Bluff, Ill. that was listed a few weeks ago for $20,620,000 and then reduced this past week to $15,465,000. Bob also breaks the story of a mansion on Lake Shore Drive on Chicago’s Gold Cost — one of just seven such mansions — hitting the market this past week for $5,850,000; its owners have owned it since 1988.

Check out Bob’s weekly column in this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (available online now), where Bob breaks the news about former Chicago TV reporter Andy Shaw having his mansion in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood — which also doubles as a bed-and-breakfast inn — on the market for $3,000,000.

Also featured: Bob breaks the news of rocker Billy Corgan reduces his asking price for his luxury condo unit on Chicago’s Gold Coast from $3,875,000 to $3,550,000. And, Bob exclusively reports on former Chicago Blackhawks left wing Kyle Calder rents out his house in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood for $6,000 a month.

Today’s installment of our “Which celebrity’s house is this?” feature involves the 4,178-square-foot house at 3120 Oakdell Lane in Los Angeles’ Studio City neighborhood, which parody-movie king Aaron Seltzer sold in October for $2,397,500.

There are two reasons we believe that this five-bedroom house was purchased by a celebrity: 1) the house’s new owner is identified in public records as the whimsically named “Growing Oak Trust” (as loyal readers know, celebs often used whimsically named trusts to purchase their real estate); and 2) the money manager whose name appears on the deed as representing the Growing Oak Trust is none other than Mr. Howard Altman. Loyal readers of this blog also know that Altman historically has represented many celebrities in their home purchases, including Jennifer Garner, Jessica Alba, Dan Castellaneta, Simon Baker and Naomi Watts.

Built in 1951 and set at the end of a private lane on a flag lot that extends south from the end of Oakdell Lane, the house has five and a half baths and had been listed for $2,949,000, according to public records and listing information. Features include a large sunroom with walls of French doors, five bedroom suites (some of which open to “romantic gardens” — as opposed to unromantic gardens?), an eat-in kitchen, and an open floor plan, according to listing information. Outdoor features on the property include lush greenery, a saltwater pool and cabana, and grassy yards. Our friends over at the Real Estalker wrote a nice post about the house when Seltzer had it on the market that’s worth checking out.

Seltzer sold the property on October 28, with the deal being recorded on December 8.

So, dear readers, we ask you as we always do: which celebrity purchased the house at 3120 Oakdell Lane? Which bold-faced name lives behind the curtain of the Growing Oak Trust?