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Pitt Eyeing Palm Springs Prize?

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NEUTRA SWEET The Kaufmann house in its prime; Pitt (inset)
Life may be about to imitate art for Hollywood's sexiest architecture buff. We hear the Kaufmann House, a Palm Springs landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright protégé Richard Neutra (considered to be one of the finest examples of residential modernism in the U.S.) is about to go on the market, and locals are petrified by buzz that Brad Pitt has the inside line.

The house was designed in 1946 for department store magnate Edgar J. Kaufmann, who also owned Wright's famous Fallingwater House. The current owners, investment tycoon Brent Harris, managing director of PIMCO Bonds, and his wife, Beth Edwards Harris, plan to sell the property soon owing to their pending divorce, according to a Palm Springs real estate insider. Though the house isn't formally for sale yet, the source said, Pitt has expressed strong interest in buying it.

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WRIGHT STUFF The Kaufmann House today
The neighborhood may hold sentimental value for the actor and his mate, Angelina Jolie: It's just down the road from another modernist landmark, the Kenaston Residence in Rancho Mirage, scene of the elaborate "fake family" photo shoot the couple conducted with photographer Steven Klein for W in 2005, weeks before the two acknowledged they were dating. Shortly after the spread was published, the Kenaston Residence went on the block for nearly $3 million; Pitt and Jolie were not among the bidders.

Should Pitt get his hands on the Kaufmann House, he'll join the ranks of former Gucci designer Tom Ford and actress Kelly Lynch, who also own Neutra-designed homes. Prospective neighbors would also include GQ creative director Jim Moore, who recently renovated a house designed by Donald Wexler. He'd also be a stone's throw from his latest pet project, a $60 million, 200,000-acre futurist resort he's building with Berlin-based architects Willemeit, Putz, and Krueckeberg.

According to one architecture site, the Kaufmann House is set back from the road behind a high wall, making it relatively paparazzi-proof. Still, anyone who moved to Palm Springs for the desert solitude might consider moving on should the Brangelina crazytrain roll into town.

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PLAYING HOUSE A pre-fab Brangelina smolders in a 2005 photo shoot at the nearby Kenaston Residence; W magazine (inset)
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