Slice of Hollywood history: Site of the former Malibu Lodge is sold to cellphone honcho

The site of the former Malibu Lodge has been purchased by international cellphone magnate Sebastian Harrison and his wife, actress Linda Gucciardo, for $2.4 million.

The Malibu Lodge was an elegant French-Californian restaurant in the 1940s and early 1950s frequented by Hollywood luminaries including “Gone With the Wind” producer David O. Selznick and songwriter Irving Berlin. The restaurant building was destroyed in a landslide.

The 3-acre compound Harrison and Gucciardo purchased includes a two-bedroom main house plus five rental cottages, some of which were developed by the late Doreen “Biddy” Field, whose Malibu Lodge Trust was the seller.

Harrison, who lives nearby on property owned by his father, actor Richard Harrison, said he plans to make small improvements and keep renting to the existing tenants, some whom have been there for decades.

The site has unobstructed ocean views across Pacific Coast Highway as there are no houses on the ocean side.

“There are not any other properties that have flat lots and are close in on PCH,” he said by e-mail from Sicily, where he is redoing a beach house.

Harrison, 44, is a former actor and the founder and chief executive of Cellular Abroad Inc.

Christine Rodgerson of Coldwell Banker, Malibu Colony, represented the seller and the buyers.

lauren.beale@latimes.com