Elvira sold Brad Pitt a haunted house

For those that don’t follow real estate, one of the biggest stories on the Hollywood front is that Brad Pitt recently sold his Los Angeles home for about $40 million. That’s a hell of a haul considering he bought it for $1.7 million. Oh, and this abode that Brad Pitt purchased in the mid-’90s was actually a haunted house sold to him by none other than Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Elvira (whose real name is Cassandra Peterson, but doesn’t it sound so much wilder when it reads Elvira sold Brad Pitt a haunted house?) told People she did her due diligence of letting Pitt know that he wasn’t purchasing any ordinary home. “We were just kind of warning him that a lot of weird things have been going on there in the house since we moved in…And he was very excited about that. He thought that was really cool…So we were telling Brad all about that and he loved it. I mean, there are not many buyers who that would be a selling point for, but he was like, ‘Oh, that’s so awesome.’” This should be no surprise, considering Pitt’s ties to the macabre, chiefly New Orleans, which is considered one of the most haunted cities in America. Prior to selling the 1.9-acre property, Elvira had a priest come in to perform an exorcism…which isn’t typically a requirement when purchasing a home. Speaking of the supernatural, Peterson has said the Elvira character can and should live on long after she’s gone.

The estate the horror icon sold to Brad Pitt isn’t the only spooky residence Elvira has been involved with, as the actress was honored with a pinball machine by Stern aptly titled Elvira’s House of Horrors. There, too, was the 1989 Bally release of Elvira and the Party Monsters. Pitt himself has ventured into the horror/-adjacent genre, with movies like Kalifornia, Interview with the Vampire and World War Z. And we’re still waiting on that Seven pinball machine, Jersey Jack!

A noted art and architecture buff, Brad Pitt was drawn to Elvira’s house for its unique aesthetic, although he did have to do some renovations. As for the heart-shaped swimming pool, no, it did not have a stake through it.