Natasha Bedingfield buys Los Feliz home for $2.3 million
Pop star Natasha Bedingfield, who launched her own British invasion of the U.S. airwaves with such often-played hits as “Unwritten,” has purchased a home in the Los Feliz area for $2.3 million.
The London-born singer-songwriter bought a 4,792-square-foot contemporary with four bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, a media room, gym and office in three stories.
FOR THE RECORD:
Grammy nomination: A Sept. 5 Hot Property column item on record producer Joel Diamond listing his Calabasas home for sale incorrectly described him as a Grammy winner. Diamond produced Engelbert Humperdinck’s Grammy-nominated hit “After the Lovin’.” —
The recently renovated house, built in 1953, has city light and mountain views. There is a swimming pool and a detached three-car garage with a guesthouse above.
Bedingfield, 27, earned a Grammy nomination for best female pop vocal performance in 2007 for the title song on her debut album, “Unwritten.” She released “Pocketful of Sunshine” in 2008 and tweets that she has been back in London for part of the summer working on her third album.
The face of Gap advertisements proved herself a savvy home shopper. The price of the house she acquired had been dropped $2 million since coming on the market in January 2008 at $4,495,000.
The husky-voiced singer appeared this year on “America’s Got Talent” and “Dancing With the Stars,” among other shows. She performed songs for 2009 movies including “Bride Wars” and “ Confessions of a Shopaholic.”
Richard Stanley of Coldwell Banker, Los Feliz, had the listing. Bedingfield was represented by Aaron Montelongo of Sotheby’s International Realty’s Sunset office.
Solid-gold space in Calabasas
Grammy-winning record producer Joel Diamond has listed his gated English country-style home in Calabasas for sale at $1,895,000 or for lease at $9,850.
The 4,400-square-foot house, with five bedrooms and five bathrooms in two stories, was built in 1980. It sits on an acre of park-like grounds that include a seasonal creek crossed by a whimsical wooden bridge.
“You will hardly believe you are in Los Angeles,” said Diamond, who shares the home with his teenage daughter.
The dining area can accommodate 16, and the movie screening room features a 10-foot screen. A winding exterior staircase leads to the spa area.
There is a newly built 1,600-square-foot guesthouse, a full-size tennis court, a gazebo and an outdoor entertainment area with a 30-foot granite bar, fireplace and a TV that rises out of a deck.
Diamond has produced 36 gold and platinum records for recording artists such as Engelbert Humperdinck, Helen Reddy, Gloria Gaynor and David Hasselhoff. He has held executive and creative positions for music companies including Sony. Among recent projects of his Silver Blue Productions were three No. 1 CDs for the classical music group the 5 Browns.
The listing agents are Wendy Carroll of Sotheby’s International Realty, Malibu, and Douglas E. Carroll of Prudential Malibu Realty.
Guaranteed to laugh it up here
A Beverly Hills house originally designed in 1956 by architect Wallace Neff for comic actor Groucho Marx has come on the market at $12.9 million.
The Trousdale Estates home, which has been rebuilt and updated but maintains its Neff footprint, is entered through a landscaped motor court with a central fountain. The one-story contemporary has strong horizontal lines, with walls of wood and glass, and terrazzo and walnut floors. There are five bedrooms and six bathrooms in slightly more than 6,000 square feet.
A pool, a spa, a waterfall, an alfresco dining area, patios and a fire pit extend the living space outdoors. The gated three-quarter acre lot has downtown L.A. and canyon views.
Marx, the brother identifiable by his trademark cigar, wire rims and fake eyebrows and mustache, made films both with his siblings, including “Duck Soup” (1933) and “A Night in Casablanca” (1946), and without, such as “Copacabana” (1947), in which he played opposite Carmen Miranda.
He hosted the radio quiz show “You Bet Your Life,” which later was picked up by television and ran from 1950 to 1961.
The actor shared the home with his third wife, actress Eden Hartford, until his death in 1977 at the age of 86.
Jeeb O’Reilly of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, and Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, have the listing.
The ‘60s live on in landmark home
A 1966 landmark home in Los Feliz designed by architect Edward H. Fickett has sold in less than a month.
The post-and-beam house appeared on the Multiple Listing Service in late July, and the same day, Bruce Livingstone, founder of iStockphoto.com, made an offer of $2,445,000 with a 15-day close that was accepted. The property had been listed for $2.5 million.
The three-bedroom, 2 1/2 -bathroom house, called the Jacobson House for its original owners, is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and had been kept intact and meticulously maintained. The 2,926 square feet of living space in two stories features high ceilings, an open floor plan, exposed beams, walls of glass and floor-to-ceiling doors. There is a swimming pool and a two-story atrium.
Fickett is known for having designed tens of thousands of single-family homes, including prefab and affordable houses, as well as projects such as La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad and the Port of Los Angeles Passenger and Cargo Terminals.
Livingstone, 38, who is relocating his family to Los Angeles, also acquired artwork and ‘60s furnishings with the gated house. He sold iStockphoto to Getty Images in 2006 for $50 million.
Patricia Ruben of Sotheby’s International Realty, Los Feliz, handled both sides of the transaction.
Having a ball at Lake Arrowhead
NFL analyst and former player Robert Griffith has listed a Lake Arrowhead site for sale at $799,999.
The 38,000-square-foot property comes with a single-slip dock site and plans for an 8,000-square-foot old Lake Arrowhead Lodge-style home that Griffith had intended as a retreat. It is in the gated Shelter Cove community.
Griffith, 38, said he has “always loved Lake Arrowhead. The air is always clean, and the environment puts me in a whole other place.” This is the second property that he has owned in the area.
The safety spent the bulk of his 13-year pro football career with the Minnesota Vikings but also played for the Cleveland Browns and Arizona Cardinals. He has since established Matador Enterprises, and his varied entrepreneurial pursuits have included wireless and land-line phone distribution and the restaurant business.
The listing agent is Debra Parkinson of the Parkinson Group Resort Properties, Lake Arrowhead.
