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Your support makes all the difference.The dude no longer abides. In fact, he's moving up the property ladder. The house occupied by Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski has been placed on the market. But unemployed pot smokers who spend the hours of daylight wearing a dressing gown will almost certainly be unable to afford it.
Twelve years of real-estate boom and bust after the Coen brothers cemented its place in history, the one-bedroom cottage on Venezia Avenue, which its agent describes as "just blocks from" the white sands of Venice Beach, Los Angeles, will be sold to anyone able to rustle up a spare $2.3m (£1.5m).
If you think that sounds extortionate, you're not wrong. But the seller's particulars reveal that the price applies to a tranche of six small homes, of which the cottage is one, measuring a total of 10,628 sq ft. The residence has also been given a considerable facelift since Bridges last crossed the threshold.
"It's a gorgeous little compound," estate agent Winston Cenac told the LA Weekly newspaper. "Some of the tenants are decorators, so on the inside, the units just look primo... In the movie the whole compound is run down. [But] the people who bought it upgraded it."
To the dismay of old-timers such as Jeffrey Lebowski – to use The Dude's full name – the property's gentrification is mirrored across Venice, which was once the edgy home of LA's artistic community, but is now stacked with mansions. Today's best-known local celebrity is Lindsay Lohan.
It is also unlikely Lebowski would be seen dead in the "lushly landscaped gated courtyard" described in the sale particulars. As fans of the film are well aware, his biggest concession to home improvement is a tatty rug "which really tied the room together" before it was urinated upon by a "Chinaman" called Walter. Interest in the otherwise-unremarkable property highlights the cult following now enjoyed by The Big Lebowski, a comedy which celebrates ten-pin bowling, marijuana, and life in the slow lane.
Each year, fans of the film attend a conference which is known as the Lebowski Fest, where they drink White Russians (The Dude's favourite tipple) and wear costumes inspired by the film. Concession stands at the event sell T-shirts with the slogan "The Dude Abides".
The Coen brothers have thus far stayed away from the event but Bridges turned up to one held in Los Angeles.
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