Actress/megabrand Ashley Olsen is expecting to take a loss on her 2,332-square-foot house in Los Angeles’ Hancock Park neighborhood, having just placed it on the market for $1,399,000.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Olsen’s listing of the three-bedroom house, which hit the market on Wednesday.

Built in 1926, the house has been part of Olsen’s empire since her Isabella Missoni Revocable Trust in November 2007 paid $1,575,000 for it. Features in the house include three baths, new central air and heat, new tiled bathrooms, a new driveway, and a living room with a wood-beamed ceiling, a large picture window, a fireplace and French doors, according to listing information. Other features include a large arched doorway between the living room and the formal dining room, a kitchen with stainless steel appliances, a second-floor balcony with wooden balustrades, and an authentic period tiled staircase.

The house sits on a 0.18-acre lot.

We wrote back on December 23, 2007 about Ashley purchasing this house. Our question (to you, dear readers): did Ashley ever actually move in? We believe that…she did. If that’s the case, then our question is: why sell now? We haven’t a clue.

Entertainment mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly has paid $35,000,000 for an 8,704-square-foot mansion on 6.329 acres in Beverly Hills, Calif. that was not on the market.

We write “reportedly,” because while something called the Loma Vista Trust is shown in public records as having been the one that purchased the mansion from 96-year-old physicist (and ICBM creator) Simon Ramo. The Wall Street Journal’s “Private Properties” column on Friday reported that Katzenberg was behind the purchase, and we have no reason to disagree.

Regardless, the purchase is a spectacular one, even by Los Angeles standards. Built in 1965, the mansion — which was not on the market — was in the hands of Ramo for several decades, as best as we can tell. Ramo appears to have decided to sell the mansion shortly after his wife, Virginia, died in August 2009 at age 93.

This is one of our more spartan items out there, given that 1) a detailed description of the property is not available; 2) photos of the mansion are not available; and 3) there aren’t even any other celebs in the mansion’s immediate surroundings! (by “immediate surroundings,” we mean the block itself)

Our friends over at the Real Estalker did a nice job providing a rundown of other properties that Katzenberg owns. We’ll refer you to that item for more on Katzenberg (shown here with another celebrity who also paid $35 million not long ago for a mansion in Beverly Hills that’s not *too* far away; just a 0.8-mile drive to the other side of Greystone Park).

In the meantime, if we find out more details on this purchase, we will let you know. Stay tuned!

Check out Bob’s weekly column from this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (but already available online), where Bob exclusively reports on Chicago TV anchor Judy Hsu selling her house in Hinsdale, Ill. for $590,000.

Also featured: Chicago sports anchor Mark Giangreco paying $1,225,000 for a condo unit in Chicago’s South Loop, and Internet entrepreneur Marc Ewing buying a house in Wilmette, Ill. for $1,506,000 just weeks after he sold a mansion on Lake Michigan in Glencoe, Ill. for $5,200,000.

Retired tennis star Pete Sampras has paid $5,600,000 for a six-bedroom, newly built house in Los Angeles’ Brentwood neighborhood.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Sampras’ purchase of the brand-new house, which sits on a gated, 0.55-acre flag-shaped lot at the end of a street. Records show that Sampras’ Golden Gate Trust purchased the house on December 16, with the deal being recorded on December 23.

Features in the house include two master suites with room-size closets, five and a half baths, bathrooms with heated floors, a library, a media room, floor-to-ceiling windows, a large gourmet kitchen, a family room and a wine cellar, according to listing information. Outdoor features include sunny lawns and streams, a large grassy back yard, and an outdoor entertaining area with an outdoor kitchen, a theater, a spa and a rain forest (actually, a natural redwood forest that can sprinkle at the push of a button!).

The house had been listed for $6,995,000.

Sampras (shown here with wife Bridgette Wilson), of course, is famous for having had a 10,376-square-foot, Tudor-style mansion on a 1.04-acre parcel in nearby Beverly Hills, which he had listed early in 2008 for $25,000,000, then later for $23,000,000 and finally that he sold for $16,980,000 that same year to “Will & Grace” creator Max Mutchnick. We wrote about that house many times, including breaking the news of the (much) lower sale price than anyone had expected. He had bought that mansion for $8,300,000 in 2001.

Check out Bob’s weekly column in this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (already available online!), in which Bob breaks the news of Charlotte Bobcats (and former Chicago Bulls) center placing his 10,000-square-foot mansion in Northfield, Ill. (north of Chicago) back on the market for $3,395,000. Chandler previously had listed the mansion for $4.9 million and later took it off the market.

Also featured: Bob’s report (previously broken online on the Chicago Tribune’s web site) of Houston Texans quarterback Rex Grossman selling his condo unit in Chicago’s Trump International Hotel & Tower for $2,000,000; and Chicago sportscaster Steve Kashul selling his house in downtown Naperville, Ill. — complete with a basement bowling alley — for $475,000.

Check out Bob’s weekly column in this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (available online now) in which Bob breaks the story of Northwestern University head football coach Pat Fitzgerald paying $2,300,000 to purchase a six-bedroom mansion in Northfield, Ill.

Also featured: Bob exclusively reports on Chicago Bears linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer renting out his town house in Vernon Hils, Ill. for $1,900 a month, and he breaks the story of former basketball star Antonio Davis selling a lakefront lot in Plainfield, Ill. for $315,000. Bob also exclusively reports on the recent price reduction of a house in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood that Abbott Laboratories founder Wallace Abbott built and owned for 30 years.

Check out Bob’s exclusive breaking-news report from Thursday’s Chicago Tribune (report is online only — it has not appeared in the print editions yet) about Houston Texans and former Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman finally unloading his 36th-floor condominium unit in Chicago’s Trump International Hotel & Tower for $2,000,000. Grossman, 29, took a major loss on the 3,437-square-foot unit, which he purchased in September 2008 for $2,681,000.

(By the way, pay no attention to other news reports also from Jan. 21 on the sale (particularly from the Chicago Sun-Times) — Bob broke the story fair and square, with the Tribune uploading the story at 8:05 a.m., CST on Thursday morning.)

Today’s installment of our “Which celebrity’s house is this?” feature involves the 1,485-square-foot house at 3374 Deronda Drive in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills area, which sold recently for $1,225,000.

There are two reasons we believe that this house was purchased by a celebrity: 1) the house’s new owner is identified in public records as the whimsically named “Open Your Eyes 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 Open Your Eyes 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 1953, the three-bedroom house has two baths and had been listed for $1,225,000 as well, according to public records and listing information. Features in the house include a meticulously appointed kitchen and baths, and access through French doors from most rooms to the luxurious pool, lush gardens and private seating areas, according to listing information. The 0.14-acre (5,976-square-foot) property has easy access to extensive walking trails and stunning views of the Hollywood sign, canyons and city lights, according to public records and listing information.

The property sold on Sept. 4, with the deal being recorded on Oct. 5. The seller, a “Saved by the Bell” producer, is not a celebrity.

So, dear readers, we ask you as we always do: which celebrity purchased the house at 3374 Deronda Drive? Which bold-faced name lives behind the curtain of the Open Your Eyes Trust?

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have increased the size of their compound in Los Angeles’ Los Feliz neighborhood, with Pitt quietly paying $1,100,000 to buy a missing link for his property in the form of a 3,232-square-foot house that his estate largely had surrounded.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Pitt’s latest purchase, which like some other property of his was made through his Mondo Bongo Trust (he also owns other properties in his Briarcliff Trust and his Blaircliff Trust). Records show that Pitt purchased the property on August 6 from the estate of the late Anne Tyler Sherman. The deal was recorded on August 11.

Built in 1920, the two-bedroom, former Sherman house — whose property is shaped like a key — sits on a 0.25-acre (10,759-square-foot) lot in the Oaks area of Los Feliz. It helps Pitt round out his compound and means that Brad now owns close to 2 full acres in the Oaks.

In fact, we had wondered out loud in a September 2008 post why Pitt had never purchased this critical keystone parcel.

However, when this property became available, it first was listed for a whopping $2,000,000 and later was reduced to $1,495,000, as Curbed LA’s guru Marissa Gluck had noticed in June 2009 (without realizing that Pitt’s compound surrounded it). Features in the house (we were unable to find listing photos) include two baths, a stone fireplace, a huge main room, a bonus room, and “a bar area and a secret cave,” according to the MLS. In addition, the house was advertised as being an estate sale and therefore in need of TLC. Clearly, Brad and Angelina drove some kind of a bargain, to be able to pick the house up for close to half of its original listing price — and, almost $400,000 below its final asking price.

Pitt’s other properties on his compound are as follows:

–The compound’s historically significant, five-bedroom, 5,760-square-foot main Craftsman-style house, which was built in 1915 and which Pitt purchased in 1994 for $1,700,000. That house sits on nearly an acre (a 43,268-square-foot lot), according to public records. Pitt appears to have recently expanded the house, which public records previously had said measured 5,338 square feet.

–Another adjoining 1,653-square-foot house on a small, 0.13-acre (5,606-square-foot) lot, which Pitt purchased in 1998 for $475,000.

–An adjoining 2,454-square-foot house on a 0.29-acre (12,458-square-foot) lot, which Pitt purchased in 1996 for $380,000; as part of the 1996 transaction, Pitt also purchased an adjoining, 0.03-acre (1,307-square-foot) strip of vacant land that he also continues to own.

–An adjoining 1,534-square-foot house on a 0.15-acre (6,530-square-foot) lot, which Pitt purchased in mid-2008 for $1,287,500.

Putting all these parcels together, we see that Pitt now as under his own personal control 79,928 square feet of contiguous land in the Oaks (across six separate parcels!), or more than 1.8 acres of land. In addition, as we noted in September 2008, Pitt, who also not long ago won approval to add a guardhouse to his compound, sold another adjoining 3,141-square-foot house on a 0.30-acre (12,972-square-foot) lot in October 2003 for $740,000 to Richard “Richie” Malchar and Rebecca Malchar, according to public records. Richie Malchar has been identified in various news reports over the years as being Pitt’s security chief (and he has his name on the deeds of many of Pitt’s properties as his money manager, as does money manager Cynthia Pett). So in many regards, Malchar’s house and parcel could be included as part of Pitt’s compound as well. Pitt also sold a 2,219-square-foot house on a 0.30-acre (13,190-square-foot), uncontiguous tract at 5720 Valley Oak Drive in 2002 for an undisclosed price (north of $1 million, though).

Also, tallying everything up, we see that Pitt has spent $4,933,500 in assembling this compound, or close to $5 million. It’s obviously worth a lot more than that now, though, since some of those purchase prices were from long ago.

We have written many times about Pitt’s other properties around the country (and world).

Today’s installment of our popular “Which celebrity’s house is this?” feature involves the 2,903-square-foot vintage house at 256 S. Van Ness Avenue in Los Angeles’ Windsor Square neighborhood, which sold several months ago for $1,750,000.

The reason we believe that this house was purchased by a celebrity is because public records show that the the trust that purchased the house is whimsically named “Rubys Residence Trust.” As if that weren’t enough, the money manager whose name appears on the deed representing the trust is none other than that of Matthew Lichtenberg. Astute and loyal readers of Big Time Listings will know that Mr. Lichtenberg has represented many celebrities in their residential real estate dealings over the years, including Will Ferrell, Fred Durst and Ron Fair.

Built in 1914, the four-bedroom house has two and a half baths and sits on a 0.23-acre (10,197-square-foot) lot, according to public records. Records show that the deal closed on August 25, with the transaction being recorded on September 17. The seller was not a celebrity. Somewhat weirdly, however, in this environment, he did actually make a profit on the house despite buying it in 2005; records show that he paid $1,500,000 for it in early ‘05. Also somewhat weirdly, we were unable to locate pics of the house, and it does not appear to us that the house was listed in the MLS. If that’s true (and we’re hopeful our readers will correct us if the house *was* in the MLS), then it obviously was a private sale.

So, dear readers, we ask you as we always do: which celebrity purchased the house at 256 S. Van Ness Avenue in L.A.? Who is the bold-faced name behind the Rubys Residence Trust?