Clang: Behind gates
Paris Hilton has a new home, and it’s behind gates, not bars.
As the whole world knows, the hotel heiress, 26, wasn’t keen on jail life after she was sentenced to 45 days for violating probation on an alcohol-related reckless driving conviction. She also learned that she valued her privacy.
So, soon after she returned to her home in the busy Sunset Strip area of the Hollywood Hills, she listed it for $4.25 million and purchased a home on a street less traveled for $5.9 million. The asking price was $6.25 million. Hilton bought in the Beverly Hills Post Office area and, as she desired, in a gated community.
Her new home was built in 1991 and has five bedrooms and six bathrooms plus separate guest quarters and an office in 7,400 square feet.
Hilton’s former residence, built in 1926, has four bedrooms, although one was turned into a mega-closet. And no need to carry an iPod; there are speakers throughout the house, which sold quickly.
Judy Cycon of Prudential California Realty, Beverly Hills, represented the seller, and Mauricio Umansky of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, had the listing. Umansky is Hilton’s uncle.
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But how far is it from Moe’s bar?
After a thorough renovation, the Beverly Hills home of Al Jean, executive producer of “The Simpsons” on Fox TV and a writer-producer of “The Simpsons Movie,” and his wife, television writer Stephanie Jean, has been listed at close to $3.3 million.
The couple bought another house closer to a school that they want their children to attend.
The Spanish-style house, built in 1933, has four bedrooms, four full bathrooms, two half-bathrooms, a vaulted entry, a chef’s kitchen and a master-bedroom suite with a fireplace and a bathroom so sumptuous it would make Homer drool. Bathers can watch TV, and there is a chandelier.
The grounds have a swimming pool, and the house has a bonus room.
The home once belonged to actress Carroll Baker, who was nominated for an Oscar in 1957 for her work in the Elia Kazan-directed film “Baby Doll,” written by Tennessee Williams.
Leah Lail of the Brill Group, Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills East, has the listing.
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A property with operatic history
The Beverly Hills site of a home designed by John Woolf for Lauritz Melchior, a renowned Wagnerian tenor, has been sold for $9 million. Other owners of the house after Melchior included actress Jane Wyman and her then-husband, actor Ronald Reagan, and novelist Judith Krantz.
The Woolf house was torn down, and a seven-bedroom, 11,000-square-foot residence was built in its place in 1988.
The newer home, which is situated in a prime spot one block north of Sunset Boulevard, has a tennis court, swimming pool and spa, as well as two family rooms.
Orah Dayan of John Bruce Nelson & Associates had the listing, and Fariba Bolour of Sotheby’s International Realty, Sunset, represented the buyers.
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Griffin was once king of this hill
Activity is brewing on what might be called “Merv’s Mountain,” a hilltop site once owned by Merv Griffin, now that a group of developers is moving toward buying the 157-acre Beverly Hills property for more than $100 million, area real estate sources said. The plan is to resell the land in parcels of 2.5-acre lots. Each parcel would sell for at least $20 million.
Previous owners of the parcel expected to build one home -- or palace -- on the property. The late Princess Shams Pahlavi, sister of the last shah of Iran, was one of those owners. Entertainment mogul Griffin was another.
Griffin, who died in August, changed his mind about building on the tract after grading 14 acres.
He sold the land to Herbalife founder Mark Hughes, who died in 2000 before getting a construction go-ahead.
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To see previous columns on celebrity realty transactions, go to latimes.com/hotproperty.
