Hollywood at Home

Penn JILLETTE

THE ILLUSIONIST AND TV STAR OPENS UP HIS MASSIVE LAS VEGAS COMPOUND FILLED WITH ‘ART AND COLOR’

Penn Jillette’s sprawling Las Vegas home was just a simple A-frame when he purchased it 20 years ago. “It’s a 2,000-sq.-ft. house with a 10,000-sq.-ft. addition,” says the talkative half of magician duo Penn & Teller, who customized the space for his 6’7″ frame with extra-high counters and windows. “I built the ultimate bachelor pad— hidden rooms, fire poles.” Then, once he met his wife, Emily, now 49, and began preparing for kids Moxie CrimeFighter, 9, and Zolten Penn, 8, he expanded again. “My wife and I got married to have children – we were both just waiting to find the right person,” says the 60-year-old SyFy Wizard Wars judge. “We talked to people about making the house child-friendly, but it was impossible. So we just built on another house.” Now the expansive, candy-colored complex – designed by L.A.-based architect Colin Summers – includes a playroom, an office, a much-used guesthouse and a home theater that doubles as a band room (where he once jammed with Lou Reed). “The house is big, stupid and nutty,” he says. “What’s a more perfect description of me?”

The home is less than 20 minutes from the Rio casino – where Jillette and his partner, Teller (a.k.a. Raymond Joseph Teller), have the longest-running headline act in Vegas. But the illusionist admits that his dream home is not close to the kids’ schools, and they don’t have nearby neighbors for easy playdates. Since being diagnosed with high blood pressure last year, he has dropped 105 lbs. through diet and exercise and become a “more energetic” dad. So after marking Penn & Teller’s 40th anniversary in July with a Broadway comedy/magic show, “I think we’ll come back to a different house,” he says, expecting that selling this “eccentric” passion project will be no easy trick. The next place will probably be “much more traditional,” he concedes. “Gated communities are planned for families. This is for a crazy person living alone in the desert.”

1. EXTERIOR HALLWAY

Moxie scoots down one of the house’s outdoor hallways, modeled after 1960s motels. “I lived in motels all over the country for years,” says the magician. “It’s my life.”

2. MUSIC ROOM

Jillette is all about that bass, jamming with his kids in the band room, which also serves as a home theater.

3. SCRABBLE BATHROOM

Jillette’s wife, Emily, designed the unique downstairs bath. (The extra tiles spell out family members’ names!)

4. GUESTHOUSE

The Wizard Wars judge converted the property’s original house into a guest area.

Danielle PANABAKER

THE FLASH STAR USES FLASHES OF BOLD COLOR TO MAKE HER WEST HOLLYWOOD CONDO A HOME

This is Danielle Panabaker’s version of paradise: a two-bedroom condo she bought in 2012, complete with small deck, walk-in closet and a dining room big enough to host pizza night with her attorney boyfriend and pals. A friend studying interior design helped her select the scene-stealing blue wallpaper and dining table and chairs from Restoration Hardware. (Panabaker re-covered the chairs “to give them a little texture.”) In previous apartments, “everything was from Ikea,” says the CW actress, 27. “I started from scratch here to make a place I loved.”

Michael WEATHERLY

THE NCIS ACTOR’S LIGHT-FILLED LIVING ROOM FEATURES VAULTED CEILINGS AND A FIREPLACE, PLUS FURNITURE THAT’S KID (AND DOG!) FRIENDLY

“The key is that everything has to be able to get thrown up on or crayoned,” NCIS’s Michael Weatherly says of his pretense-free decorating philosophy. With two dogs and two young kids – Olivia, 3, and Liam, 17 months – “we’re not precious about stuff.” The CBS star, 46, and his wife, Bojana Jankovic, a physician, 34, moved into their four-bedroom, 4,000-sq.-ft. Hollywood home (designed by noted L.A. architect Fred Smathers) shortly after their daughter was born. The major selling point? “It feels warm,” he says. “Not formal, but it can dress up nice.” One of his favorite spaces is the airy living room, which features “impossibly comfortable, marshmallow-like” seating clustered in a “social circle.” And despite all the windows, “it’s not a place that’s about the view,” says the actor. “It’s not showy in that way. It’s about having family and friends together.”

Shad “Bow Wow” Moss & Erica MENA

THE CSI: CYBER STAR AND HIS FIANCEE UNWIND IN THEIR REFINED ATLANTA HOME

When Bow Wow – who goes by his given name, Shad Moss, as the star of CBS’s new hit CSI: Cyber – first bought this eight-bedroom mansion in suburban Atlanta around 2004, “I had murals of Tupac and Biggie on my walls,” he says. But then his mom, Teresa Caldwell, who also lives there, seized control of the design. “She painted over them!” says Moss, 28. “But it’s all good. She’s knows what she’s doing.” They added a pool and cultivated what Moss describes as a “homey, modern” vibe. As for living with his mother, he says, “I’ve had full-blown house parties downstairs, and she never heard a thing.” The sheer size of the house came in handy when his fiancée, Erica Mena, of VH1’s Love & Hip Hop, moved in last December. “Everything was perfect,” says Mena, 27. “All I had to do was place my shoes where I wanted them and I was home.”

1. SITTING AREA

“The energy of the house is so important,” says Moss’s mom. “I wanted the feel to be a mix of Moroccan and modern.”

2. LIVING ROOM

“This is where we kick our feet up,” says Mena. “He plays video games or I watch Scandal.”

Jared PADALECKI

‘IT FEELS LIKE I’M A PART OF NATURE,’ SAYS THE SUPERNATURAL STAR OF HIS RUSTIC AUSTIN, TEXAS, HOME

“My dream as a child was literally to grow up and live in Austin, as silly as that sounds,” says Jared Padalecki, who spent his childhood 80 miles away in San Antonio. So when he met his actress wife, Genevieve, 34, on the Vancouver set of the CW’s Supernatural, Padalecki, 32, proposed relocating. “We came and visited one summer, and she’s like, ‘Austin is cool!’ ” So they snapped up a 10,600-sq.-ft. lodge and guesthouse filled with dark wood. “I love the feeling of an old cabin lodge,” he says. “We bought the place in 2012 and have been making it our own ever since.” While the main house is being remodeled, the family – including sons Thomas, 3, and Shepherd, 1 – are bunking in the two-bedroom guesthouse, equipped with an exercise room, home theater and wine cellar. But the actor’s favorite spot is his upstairs office [bottom right]. “When I come here, I pour myself a little bourbon and grab my guitar,” he says. “I’m free of my worldly responsibilities.”

1. WINE CELLAR

“This has been a 10-year passion project,” says Padalecki of the 1,000- bottle wine collection he stores in the spacious cellar. “I don’t think of wine as an art, it’s a craft.”

2. HOME OFFICE

“This is my first stop when I get home,” he says of the room scattered with memorabilia (like his four People’s Choice Awards). “When I’m not working, I want to be relaxed.”

Updated by Emily Strohm,

Ana Calderone,

and

James Hibberd