This isn’t really the sort of story Yolanda would normally yakk about, but If y’all live in the area or follow local LA news religiously, you probably already know that the super-wealthy yet low-key and family-friendly Pacific Palisades neighborhood recently got shook. A few days back, you see, an (allegedly) alcohol-fueled gunfight went down — the likes of which seem more akin to a situation you’d come across in an Albuquerque trailer park than a $15 million mansion in the Palisades. And it’s all the more interesting because Pacific Palisades is a very wealthy but very lefty-liberal enclave, the kind that shuns guns and violence of any sort.
Heavens to Betsy! Yolanda was gone for the weekend and the neighborhood has already gone to shit!
Anyway, the incident took place in the “Riviera” section of the Palisades, which is the ritziest part of town and certainly one of the most expensive neighborhood pockets in all of LA. The multi-winged Mediterranean mansion in question spans more than 9,302-square-feet with annual property taxes that come to a throat-clenching $176,000. The house was last assessed at a value of more than $14.7 million.
From what we can gather, the violence erupted after a man — the on-again/off-again boyfriend of the Palisades homeowner — stumbled over to her house and a drunken domestic quarrel ensued. The man grabbed a gun that belongs to the homeowner’s mother and began shooting at her. The lady escaped unharmed, luckily, and called security, but the man barricaded himself in the house, necessitating SWAT team reinforcements and tear gas grenades. Anyway, the boyfriend (a WeHo man named Eric Bogart) died of what may have been a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Yikes!
In an odd coincidence, Yolanda already wrote extensively about this house and its owner just last year — right on this blog. The owner’s name is Tamme Mccauley, and she’s certainly got an interesting life story.
Ms. Mccauley was born in Arkansas to a teenage mother named Brenda Burns and raised mainly in Indiana. She grew up in poverty — her mama worked a variety of odd jobs to make ends meet, at one point employed as the cigarette girl in a local hotel.
You might wonder how an unemployed Indiana gal raised in these circumstances came to own a humongous house in Pacific Palisades, right? And since we’re feeling today, Yolanda will tell y’all.
At some point in her late childhood, Ms. Mccauley’s fortunes rapidly changed when her mama married billionaire shopping mall magnate Melvin Simon, who was (until his 2009 death) the co-owner with his brother of the Indiana Pacers professional basketball team.
As an adult, Ms. Mccauley was officially adopted by Mr. Simon. And, well, the rest is history. Though long based in Indianapolis, the Simon clan relocated to Los Angeles some years back. Records show that our Ms. Mccauley paid a very A-list $12,500,000 for her Pacific Palisades mansion way back in 2005. In the 12 years since, Yolanda would bet that the house has appreciated by several million dollars.
Anyway, y’all should know that real estate baller Bren Simon (the former Brenda Burns and Ms. Mccauley’s mama) done sold her Bel Air mega-mansion for almost $35 million last year only to “downsize” to a $10 million Santa Monica house located on what is probably the city’s best residential street.
Ms. Mccauley also has a connection to Hollywood — her daughter Tasha is the wife of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. That makes Ms. Mccauley the grandma of Mr. Gordon-Levitt’s son, of course.
Back in Pac Pal, some of Ms. Mccauley’s nearest neighbors are Gregory Milken (son of billionaire Michael Milken) and Matt & Kathy Barrett (who paid $22 million for the former Ronald Reagan estate). Also within walking distance are the homes of Tom Hanks, Jennifer Garner, Brooke Shields, Sam Harris, JJ Abrams, and many more celebs.
Yolanda is glad Ms. Mccauley remains safe and sound. We advise her to exercise caution in picking boyfriends in the future. Yolanda herself exercised bad judgment when we married our second ex-husband George, a fellow with a lot of money but philandering ways. And even worse, the old bastard was a cheapskate! How egregious is that!
But we digress…