Editor’s Note: Every now and then a publication will do a feature on me and I’m grateful for them all, but I particularly loved this one on Answers.com, because I felt it really captured the essence of what Lisa Johnson Mandell, and AtHomeInHollywood.com, are all about. They have my eternal gratitude for running this.  

Q&A with Lisa Johnson Mandell

• You’ve toured many Hollywood homes and have had the inside scoop on Hollywood realty for years. What is the most lavish thing you’ve ever seen?
• I’m thinking it’s the 50,000 square foot Hacienda de la Paz in the Rancho Palos Verdes area, a 7.72 acre estate that has a subterranean secret: 80 percent of the 50,000 square foot residence is underground. The area has an ordinance that all buildings must be single story, so no one’s view is blocked. The owner spent 17 years excavating and constructing five stories underground. One of its most extraordinary features is a 10,000 sqaure-foot Moroccan-style Turkish bath, or hammam, with a cobalt-blue lap pool at its center, accented with 24-karat gold tiles, fountains and imported columns and corbels. There’s also a massive ballroom that doubles as a USTA regulation tennis court and emergency shelter. Five stories high and capable of seating 350 guests, the vast room is decorated with floor-to-ceiling trompe l’oeil murals.  You can see the photos on my website!
• You pride yourself on providing the best Hollywood has to offer to your audience, without the sleazy gossip and cheap details. What made you decide to move in a different direction with your brand?
• I noted that there’s a plethora of salacious gossip sites, and they don’t interest me or people like me. But let’s face it – who isn’t interested in seeing gorgeous homes? We all have to live somewhere, and the inspiration we find in other people’s dwellings can affect us on a daily basis. In addition to interesting homes, I run film reviews, from the perspective of helping people make informed decisions about how they spend their invaluable time and money. And you’ll note I also feature products that help enrich people’s lives – if you’re really observant, you’ll see that many of the products I write about come from female founded businesses. I like to give my sisters a leg up.
• How has realty and home-buying in Hollywood changed throughout the years?
• Other than certain neighborhoods heating up (Silver Lake, Los Feliz) and other neighborhoods cooling down (the flats of Beverly Hills and Sunset Plaza), celebrity real estate buying habits seem to stay the same. Most celebs want the affirmation of having other stars living in their neighborhoods, or perhaps once having lived in their own homes. Celebs exchange real estate via pocket listings all the time, without the rest of us realizing the homes have ever been on the market. The one thing that has changed, however, is that celebrities are more inclined to rent their homes to the general public, now more than ever. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessica Alba and the Winklevoss twins are examples of this (see my website for details).
• How did At Home In Hollywood come to be?
• I had all these fabulous real estate and design resources from my days as HGTV.com’s L.A. correspondent, and from my 15 years as a film/TV critic and entertainment reporter. Plus, I’d learned a thing or two about SEO from setting traffic records during my time at AOL and Yahoo. So I decided to start my own website that would hopefully lead to meaningful employment for myself, as well as many other talented writers whom I hope to hire as soon as possible.
• Who has inspired you most in your career?
• That’s a good question. I think it’s my maternal grandmother, Margaret Ruenitz, who got a masters degree at USC back in the 20’s, when that was an extremely unusual thing for a woman to do. She then went on to have successful career in education while raising two daughters, always mindful of the obligation we all share to give something back to society. Once she retired, she dedicated herself full-time to charity work, making a huge difference in people’s lives the world over. Yet she was always there for her family, whenever we needed her, with unlimited support, wisdom and understanding. I get teary eyed just thinking about her.
• If you could purchase any Hollywood home (finances aside), whose would you choose?
• Well, it sounds a little crazy for a married couple with only an Australian Labradoodle puppy at home, but I’m kind of in love with the $70 million home Minecraft founder Markus “Notch” Persson just bought. It’s the ultimate entertainment pad, 23,000 square feet with eight bedrooms and 15 bathrooms atop a hill in Trousdale Estates. My particular favorite features are the four, count ’em, four specialty bars, a James Bond-themed tequila bar, a vodka bar, a $200,000 candy bar, and a 12-seat dining bar in the eat-in kitchen. If you count the ballet barre in the giant, mirrored gym, that would be five. See more photos and details at At Home In Hollywood.
• What do you think people can do to bring a little bit of Hollywood glamour into their own homes while on a budget?
• It’s never been easier to do that, thanks to the red hot trend toward mid-century modern decor. Celebs are absolutely in love with the Mad Men style, and are paying a fortune for original pieces, while the rest of us can get good quality likenesses of them and design accessories at Ikea, Target. Websites like AllModern, Houzz and Etsy can lead you to screaming deals, as can a visit to your nearby thrift shop.
• What do you like to do when you’re not writing or working on AtHomeHollywood.com?
• It’s all about the Doodles. I have a wonderful group of girlfriends who also have Doodle dogs – we met while working on the world’s largest gathering of Doodles and their owners, a fundraiser called “The Malibu Doodle Romp.” Seems our husbands get along great as well, and we spend many happy hours dining, walking, traveling, cooking, etc. together. In addition to that, I adore my extended family – I have multiple nieces, nephews, cousins, etc. and spending time with them is heaven. My more solitary interests involve reading (I read at least a novel per week) and gardening (little by little, I’m trying to convert my yard to drought resistant plants). I’m also a very active member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA) we’re the ones who do the Critics Choice Awards, which are now airing on A&E.
• You published your book, “Career Comeback – Repackage Yourself to Get the Job You Want,” after your experience in a recession. What is one tip you can give for “botoxing” your resume?
• The best advice I can give, and this is absolutely imperative, is replacing that tired old, vacuous “Career Summery” or “Career Objective” at the top of your resume with an exciting list of bulleted career highlights. Attention spans are shorter than ever these days, and if you can catch a potential employer’s interest with a lively list, instead of a big block of ugly type, you’ve got it made! Think of it as giving someone five great, unique, and easily sharable reasons to hire you, right out of the gate.
• What was the biggest challenge you faced writing this book?
• You know, that book really flowed. It was dying to be written. It was smooth sailing right from the start. I think the hardest thing was coming up with a title. The publishers wanted to use ‘Botox Your Resume’ in the title, and I was opposed to that, but now I wish I would have gone with it. It’s so much more memorable and fun.
• What’s next for Lisa Johnson Mandell?
• Well, my most pressing goal is to get my website in a position where I can hire professional writers and actually pay them what they’re worth. I want to create jobs! In order to accomplish that, I’m trying to raise my personal profile as the go-to source for celebrity home and lifestyle infotainment. That, and I’m trying to convince my puppy, Frankie Delano Feldman, that it’s a bad idea to chew up mommy’s favorite shoes.

Answers.com’s Q & A With Lisa Johnson Mandell