Due for a location transformation
What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happened in the homeownership life of Josh Duhamel, a star of the TV series “Las Vegas” and the upcoming summer movie “Transformers,” hasn’t stayed in Brentwood.
That’s where the 34-year-old actor sold his home of 2 1/2 years for close to the asking price of $2.4 million.
There were multiple offers. The buyer is a business executive with residences in New York, Hong Kong and, now, Los Angeles.
Duhamel listed the 2,500-square-foot house because he wanted larger quarters. The contemporary-style home has skylights and a wall of glass facing the ocean. There are canyon, city, mountain and pool views.
The three-bedroom house, built in 1956, has been updated and has a kitchen with a center island, a wet bar and a dramatic backyard with a spa and an infinity pool.
Duhamel did a lot of the renovation and landscaping work himself, having learned some things about carpentry and making other home improvements while growing up in North Dakota.
The actor plays Danny McCoy in “Las Vegas” and Captain Lennox in the Michael Bay-directed “Transformers,” due out June 27 in L.A.
Elise Woroboff of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Beverly Hills North office, had Duhamel’s listing.
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A fast break from Newport Beach
Steve Lavin, former UCLA head basketball coach turned ESPN and ABC college basketball analyst, has listed his Newport Beach home at close to $4 million.
Lavin, 42, wants to buy in Brentwood or Corona del Mar. He’s also exploring the market for a second home in his hometown of San Francisco.
The sports analyst is planning to marry actress Mary Ann Jarou in August.
The house he is selling is Old World Tuscan in style and has four bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms and Italian gardens. It also has three masonry fireplaces, a bonus room and hand-molded clay roof tiles. It was built in 2004.
Tim Smith, of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Newport Beach, has the listing.
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Some big plans on the front burner
Donald Trump may have rattled attorney Kristine Lefebvre when he said, “You’re fired,” just before this season finale of “The Apprentice” on NBC. Lefebvre quickly recovered, however, when she got a phone call from Hugh Hefner asking her to appear on the cover of the June issue of Playboy.
More good fortune followed when Lefebvre and her husband, chef Ludovic Lefebvre -- formerly of L’Orangerie, which shut its doors, and Bastide, which is closed for renovations -- sold their four-bedroom, 3 1/2 -bath room Studio City home, with its open floor plan and Valley views, for about $1.5 million.
Now the couple is looking for a new home and a new restaurant. Ludovic Lefebvre, author of the bestselling cookbook “Crave,” is scouting locations and hopes to open a restaurant of his own by year’s end.
Leah Lail, of the Brill Group in the Beverly Hills East office of Coldwell Banker, represented the couple in selling their remodeled midcentury home.
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Selling a piece of Malibu history
It’s known as the Zubin Mehta Malibu estate, for the famous symphonic conductor who recently owned it, but some call it the “Pony Express house,” because it was thought to be built on the site of a mail route stop.
The structure was built in the ‘30s as a guardhouse for the Rindge family, who owned most of Malibu for years after one of them acquired the 13,000-acre rancho in the 1800s.
Whatever it’s known as, the property has been sold for $14 million.
The house is a two-story Mediterranean with four bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms in an estimated 2,500 square feet. It sits on nearly 120 feet of beachfront.
Features are a bonus room, breakfast room and breakfast bar, den, dining area, living room, open and enclosed patios, a service entrance and central air conditioning, which is unusual for homes this close to the beach. It also has wraparound decks and a side yard.
There is a gas fireplace in the living room and a wood-burning fireplace in the master bedroom. The gated home also has detached parking, a built-in barbecue and parquet and stone floors. The roof is made of slate and tile.
Bob Rubenstein of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Malibu West, handled the deal, according to sources not involved in the sale.
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He’s writing his canyon exit scene
Del Shores, playwright and gay pop-culture icon, and his partner, actor-producer Jason Dottley, have listed their 1929 Laurel Canyon, Spanish-style home at $1.65 million.
The house has four bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms in about 2,800 square feet. There is also an office in the home.
Shores produced and wrote on the Showtime series “Queer as Folk” as well as “Dharma & Greg,” “Ned and Stacey” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” He also wrote the plays “Daddy’s Dyin’ ... Who’s Got the Will?” and “Sordid Lives,” which is expected to be turned into a series starring Dottley.
Jeff Lovell and Zan Sacker of Century 21 Better Homes, Santa Monica, have the listing.
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To see previous columns, go to latimes.com/hotproperty.
