The party moves upstairs
Tucked within a garden courtyard, this remodeled three-story in Marina del Rey takes entertaining to new heights, with a penthouselevel bar room that opens to an ocean-view deck space. Scaled formal rooms, a media room with a wet bar and an elevator keep the party lit on all floors.

Buying into Malibu — for a song
Outdoors, lawns and lush landscaping surround the swimming pool and lounge area. An outdoor dining pavilion complete with a built-in barbecue, mounted flat-screen TV and fireplace sits off the main house. A separate guesthouse overlooks the pool area..

Less heat but lots more warmth
Actor Phillip P. Keene has a good reason for hanging out in the downstairs den of his Los Feliz home: It’s part of a larger space that serves as an office for his husband, writer/producer James Duff, with whom he works on the TNT show “Major Crimes.”.

All it’s missing is an identity
The Tongva people called the area Washna and laid their dead to rest in alarge burial ground in the shadowofthe WestchesterBluffs. The Spanish used the area for grazing and called it Rancho La Ballona. In the 1900s, oil was struck in the westernmost edgeof the wetlands, and it wasredubbed the Playa del Rey Oil Field.

Mini-movies change the narrative
Successfully marketing a mansion now requires much more than panning shots from an iPhone or even expensive videos shot by drone. Real estate agents with luxury listings are now experimenting with full-on property movies — films featuring actors, story arcs, scores and Tinseltowncaliber cinematography.