John Mayer and director McG (Family Switch) have teamed up to buy one of Hollywood’s most historic studio lots. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson for guitarist/singer Mayer confirmed that the pair are “under contract to buy Henson Studios.”
THR reported that the approximately $60M bid was a “dramatic reversal” for the famed property that was the former home of A&M Studios and, before that, Charlie Chaplin Studio, and which was reportedly being bid on by the controversial Church of Scientology, which already owns a number of other properties in the area.
Before Mayer and McG (born Joseph McGinty Nichol) swooped in, the property was reportedly being circled by Fab Factory Studios, a music production company run by father/son team Steven and Shaun Fabos; the elder Fabos is reportedly a major Scientology financial supporter and his son was tagged as a hostile witness by the prosecution during Scientologist Danny Masterson’s rape trial for changing his testimony on the stand in support of the actor who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2023.
According to THR, the Fabos had a hold on the property, but when that ran out Mayer, who already has offices on the premises, swooped in to close the deal. The lot is a piece Hollywood history that had been under the Henson company since its purchase in 1999. It dates back to the early days of movie production when it began as the home base for silent film icon Charlie Chaplin’s studio beginning in 1917. After Chaplin sold the facility in 1953, the Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument was eventually acquired by A&M Records in 1966, which subsequently sold it to Muppet master Henson in 2000 to serve as the home base of The Jim Henson Company.
