One previous superstar owner: How Tinseltown's royalty only ever buys property from fellow stars - and what lavish homes they are!

• Hollywood's finest homes are being bought by its most famous stars because of who used to own the mansions
• Cher won battle to buy Marilyn Monroe's Holmby Hills property from fellow Some Like It Hot star Tony Curtis 
• Steven Spielberg bought house once owned by Cary Grant who bought it from silent movie hero Douglas Fairbanks

By Etan Smallman for the Daily Mail

Published: 18:38 EST, 14 September 2015 | Updated: 06:43 EST, 15 September 2015

They are Hollywood's finest mansions owned by its biggest stars.

Today the Mail can reveal how these grand multi-million dollar homes have moved from generation to generation of the world's most famous actors, singers and directors.

Steven Spielberg bought Cary Grant's house because it was 'important to him' that Douglas Fairbanks Jr lived there when he produced his masterpiece Gone with the Wind.

Carrie Fisher, best know as Star Wars’ Princess Leia, bought her home from Bette Davis who bought it from Elizabeth Taylor.

In the music world Paul McCartney lives in a home that belonged to the widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, while Christina Aguilera bought her mansion from Black Sabbath star Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon.

Here is the lineage of some of Hollywood's most desirable homes:

CHER MOVED IN TO MARILYN'S PAD 

The ten-acre Owlwood estate in Holmby Hills, LA, came into being after the land on which three homes used to stand was merged.

One of those was Too Hot To Handle star Jayne Mansfield’s ‘Pink Palace’, previously occupied by singer Rudy Vallee. It got its nickname after the blonde bombshell painted it her trademark colour in the Sixties and installed a heart-shaped swimming pool. English crooner Engelbert Humperdinck bought it in 1976 and sold it in 2002. Shortly afterwards, it was demolished by developers.

Still standing on the expanded site is this house built in 1932, whose biggest celebrity inhabitant was Marilyn Monroe. She is said to have lived in the guesthouse while she had an affair with owner Joseph Schenck, co-founder of 20th Century Fox.

In 1966, Monroe’s Some Like It Hot co-star Tony Curtis snapped up the six-bedroom, Italian-style mansion for £200,000. Singer Cher and husband Sonny Bono fell in love with it when they went to a party there in 1967. They had to wait until 1970 to get their hands on the house when Curtis moved to London and sold it to them for £485,000.

Cher and husband Sonny Bono fell in love with the home when they attended a party there but had to wait until 1970 to buy it when Tony Curtis moved out

The house, built in 1932, had celebrity inhabitants Marilyn Monroe (left) her co-star in Some Like It Hot, Tony Curtis (centre) and Cher (right)

Steven Spielberg's home has had other famous occupants including Blue Velvet singer Bobby Vinton, Cary Grant and Gone with the Wind producer David Selznick

SPIELBERG'S MANSION WAS HOME TO CARY GRANT
Steven Spielberg, director of Jaws, Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List, bought his Los Angeles house in 1985 from Blue Velvet singer Bobby Vinton.

But the home, complete with Hobbit-themed TV room, has an even longer Hollywood lineage. Vinton bought it from legendary star Cary Grant who picked it up from swashbuckling silent movie hero Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

He acquired it from producer David Selznick. Spielberg once said: ‘It was important for me to know David Selznick had lived there during the time he produced Gone With The Wind.’

Jurassic Park director, Steven Spielberg (right) lives in a Hollywood mansion once the home of Cary Grant (left) and Bobby Vinton (centre) pictured above

Carrie Fisher bought this Beverly Hills home in 1992 with double Oscar-winner Bette Davis, an early owner of the luxurious property

BETTE DAVIS, LIZ TAYLOR AND PRINCESS LEIA 

As daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, Star Wars’ Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher, has an enviable Hollywood lineage.

As does her Beverly Hills home, which Fisher bought in 1992. Double Oscar-winner Bette Davis was an early owner. But arguably the most famous resident was Elizabeth Taylor (whose affair with Eddie Fisher broke up his marriage to Carrie’s mother). She would sleep in a guest room upstairs when she was going through a divorce — and may even have been there while divorcing Fisher in 1964.

None of which put off Carrie. She’d even invite Cleopatra star Liz to parties there.

Double Oscar-winner Bette Davis lived in this mansion. Elizabeth Taylor (middle) and Carrie Fisher (right) also stayed there

Kurt Cobain's widow Courtney Love bought this house in the Hollywood Hills from Ellen DeGeneres before selling it on to Sir Paul McCartney

POP WIDOW SOLD OUT TO MACCA 
In 1997, Courtney Love, widow of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, paid £1.95 million for this French-style house with two acres of land in the Hollywood Hills to U.S. comedienne and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres. Love sold it for £2.61 million in 2001 to Sir Paul McCartney.

There were rumours, denied by Macca, this was where fellow Beatle George Harrison died in 2001.

Courtney Love sold the French-style house to Sir Paul McCartney for £2.61 million in 2001

The 11,817 sq ft mock-Tudor mansion was repossessed when Nicolas Cage fell behind with the mortgage payments

CAGE SNARED THE RAT PACK'S HAUNT 

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin star Nicolas Cage snapped up his own green, green grass of home from Tom Jones in 1998.

The 11,817 sq ft mock-Tudor mansion with Olympic-sized swimming pool in the smart Bel Air neighbourhood cost Cage £4.5 million, though Sir Tom had paid just £600,000 when he bought it in 1976. It was previously owned by Dean Martin who bought it in 1972 and used the home to host parties for the ‘Rat Pack’ actor gang.

In 2010, the property was repossessed after Cage fell millions behind on his mortgage and failed to find a buyer willing to pay his £23 million asking price.

Dean Martin (left) bought it in 1972 and hosted parties for the ‘Rat Pack’ actor gang before Sir Tom Jones snapped it up and Nicolas Cage later owned

The six-bedroom, five-bathroom Bel Air villa was put on the market for £9.7 million two years ago by socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor

ZSA ZSA BAGGED HOWARD HUGHES' VILLA

Nonagenarian actress and socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor put her six-bedroom, five-bathroom Bel Air villa on the market for £9.7 million two years ago.

At least some of that price tag will be down to the cachet of its other owners. Tycoon and aviator Howard Hughes owned it in the Fifties. 

He was so paranoid that he hung two walls of mirrors in the living room, which were angled so that he had a 360-degree view of the entire house and patio from his chair.

Gabor claimed Elvis Presley had owned the property, though this is disputed. She bought it in 1971 for £160,000.

It has been claimed that previous owners of the above property include Elvis Presley (left), Howard Hughes (middle) and actress and socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor (right)

The Beverly Hills home which has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, two guesthouses and pool, was once owned by actress Betty Grable

MADGE'S PROFIT, DIANE KEATON'S LOSS

Madonna and then- husband Guy Ritchie bought this Twenties Spanish-style estate from Annie Hall star Diane Keaton for a reported £4.2 million in 2000.

Four years later, the couple sold it for £5.7 million. The Beverly Hills home — with seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, two guesthouses and pool — was once owned by How to Marry A Millionaire actress Betty Grable and Columbia Pictures founder Harry Cohn.

Betty Grable, Diane Keaton (middle) and Madonna have all owned the Twenties Spanish-style estate over the years

This 5,500 sq ft, five-bedroom, five-bathroom French-style mansion has been home to a host of stars including film producer Sydney Holland

CROC HUNTER TO HUNGER GAMES STAR

Oscar-winning star of The Hunger Games Jennifer Lawrence bought her Beverly Hills home in 2014 from film producer Sydney Holland, who bought it from singer/actress Jessica Simpson a year earlier.

Lawrence, 25, paid £5.4 million for the 5,500 sq ft, five-bedroom, five-bathroom French-style mansion, which Holland bought for £4.2 million. Simpson paid £3.47 million in 2005 for the property, whose previous owners also include Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres.

Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan (left) once owned the property which has had Jessica Simpson (middle) and Jennifer Lawrence (right) as its owners

Christina Aguilera reportedly sold her Beverly Hills home to Chinese film star Miao Pu after two years on the market

POP DIVA BOUGHT OZZY'S PINK PALACE

Pop star Christina Aguilera bought her garish ‘pink palace’ from Black Sabbath rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon for £7.5 million in 2007. The 10,000 sq ft, six-bedroom, nine-bathroom Beverly Hills mansion was where the Osbournes filmed their reality show.

In 2013, after two long years on the market, Aguilera, sold it on for the same price to Chinese film star Miao Pu.

Pop star Christina Aguilera (right) bought her garish ‘pink palace’ from Black Sabbath rocker Ozzy Osbourne

Jane Seymour sold this home to supermodel Cheryl Tiegs before she sold it on to Jodie Foster

BOND GIRL MADE WAY FOR JODIE FOSTER 

British actress and former Bond girl Jane Seymour sold her Hollywood Hills home to supermodel Cheryl Tiegs for £1 million in 1987.

Eight years later, Tiegs flogged it to The Silence Of The Lambs star Jodie Foster who then sold it for £3.2 million in October 2014.

Built in 1935, the 6,060 sq ft Spanish-style house has a cathedralesque ceiling in the living room.

Jane Seymour (left) sold her Hollywood Hills home to supermodel Cheryl Tiegs (middle) before Jodie Foster bought it

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