She’s in the meet market
Meeting the parents is one thing, finding a buyer is quite another.
Teri Polo hit it big as Ben Stiller’s girlfriend in the movie “Meet the Parents” (2000), and she played Stiller’s fiancee in “Meet the Fockers” (2004). So it’s no surprise she will be in the upcoming film “Little Fockers.”
Now the 38-year-old actress and mother of two has put the Manhattan Beach home that she shares with musician Jamie Wollam on the market at just under $2.6 million.
The house, built in 1949, has been remodeled into an Asian-inspired contemporary with five bedrooms and four bathrooms in 3,000-plus square feet.
The home has bowed cherrywood archways and plank beams. The kitchen has stainless-steel appliances, and there are fireplaces in the living room and master bedroom. There is also an outdoor fire pit and an indoor spa.
Polo started out as a dancer and model and wound up as an actress on the ABC daytime drama “Loving” (which aired from 1983 to 1995) and the CBS drama “TV 101” (1988-89).
In “Meet the Fockers,” her parents were played by Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner. Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand portrayed Ben Stiller’s parents.
In 2005 and ‘06, Polo had a recurring role on the NBC series “The West Wing” as the potential first lady of Matthew Santos, played by Jimmy Smits. Among her most recent credits is the 2007 comedy film “Full of It.”
Darlene Hutton-Levine of Sotheby’s International Realty, Brentwood, and Kathleen Cartier of Shorewood Realtors, Manhattan Beach, share the listing.
Getting house for more than a song
Frank Sinatra Jr. and his very famous father had something in common besides music, and that was a taste for acquiring real estate.
When he died in 1998, the elder Sinatra had glamorous homes in the desert and in Beverly Hills. His sprawling compound in Rancho Mirage was later used as a corporate retreat. One of the cottages in the compound is filled with miniature railroad cars, tracks and bridges. Another cottage was reserved for John F. Kennedy, according to a small sign on the front door. Ol’ Blue Eyes sold the property for close to $4.9 million in 1995.
Over the years, Sinatra Jr., 64, also has bought and sold a number of houses. He just purchased one in the Beverly Hills Post Office area for $4.1 million. The three-story house has six bedrooms and 7 1/2 bathrooms in slightly more than 7,000 square feet. The Mediterranean home is newly built.
Its ceilings are soaring, and there is a two-story entry, which leads into a great room. The home has a den, a media room, an office with a separate entrance, a pool and a spa, a patio with a fireplace, and an elevator to a three-car garage.
Sinatra Jr. is no newcomer to the Beverly Hills area. He bought a house there in 2002 for about $1.8 million and sold one he had refurbished nearby for $2.9 million. In 2001, he listed a Brentwood town house at $1.25 million, and he put a Westside home on the market at $3.5 million. He had bought the 7,200-square-foot home for just under $3 million in 2000. It had a detached guesthouse, tennis court and pool on 2 acres.
When not buying and selling houses, Sinatra Jr. continues to sing on his “Sinatra Sings Sinatra” tour. He released the album “That Face” in 2006.
Michele Martin of Keller Williams Realty, Beverly Hills, represented Sinatra Jr. in his most recent purchase, and Todd Baker of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Brentwood had the listing.
Testament to the Durbin legend
Deanna Durbin, who in 1939 won “a special Oscar” along with Mickey Rooney “for their significant contributions . . . as juvenile players,” is the former owner of a Pacific Palisades estate now on the market at $10.5 million.
The brick Colonial, built in 1938, has been owned by the same family for more than 50 years. It has eight bedrooms, six bathrooms, two half-bathrooms, seven fireplaces, guest quarters above a three-car garage, a library, pub room and pool. The 7,500-square-foot house is on 1.5 acres with a pond, creek bed and an orchard area.
The Canadian-born actress and singer made such movies as “Three Smart Girls,” (1936), a musical. She received her first screen kiss from Robert Stack in “First Love” (1939).
Durbin, 86, retired in the late ‘40s and settled in France with her third husband.
Dolly Niemann of Prudential California Realty, Pacific Palisades, has the listing.
This home will be forever Young
Speaking of Oscar winners, a West Hollywood home owned by Loretta Young and producer Tom Lewis for almost 30 years has come on the market at close to $3 million.
Young, who won a best actress Oscar for her role in “The Farmer’s Daughter” (1947), did not live in the house but owned the place from 1940 to 1969 and used it as a rental. The family lived next door instead. During that time, the couple founded Lewislor Films, which produced “The Loretta Young Show.”
Young won three Emmy awards for the show, which was originally called “Letter to Loretta.”
The house, country English in style, was built in 1926 and has four bedrooms and four bathrooms in 3,000 square feet. Among its features are the original entry gate, a breakfast nook, office, family kitchen, pool and spa.
The house was sold in 1969 to actor Craig Stevens, who played the title role in the NBC series “Peter Gunn,” and his wife, Tony winner Alexis Smith, according to research by Tim Gregory, the Pasadena-based Building Biographer.
Young made nearly 100 movies before she died at 87 in 2000.
Pat Barr and Dan Jordinelli of Jordinelli & Associates in Eagle Rock have the listing.
