Their new base of operations

It’s back to the military life for actress Catherine Bell, who costarred for nine seasons on “JAG.” Now she is a star on “Army Wives,” and much like a real military wife, she is pulling up stakes when duty calls.

In anticipation of moving to South Carolina, where the Lifetime series is filmed, Bell and her husband, actor Adam Beeson, put their Calabasas home on the market for $3.25 million. The couple have owned the one-story, nearly 6,000-square-foot villa for about two years.

Bell, 39, and Beeson, 38, bought the Calabasas home when it was being built. The home, on slightly more than an acre in a gated community, has a screening room, five bedrooms, six bathrooms and mountain views.

The actress, who played Marine Corps attorney Lt. Col. Sarah (“Mac”) MacKenzie on the action-drama series “JAG,” also portrayed a sassy siren in the movie “Bruce Almighty” (2003) and its sequel, “Evan Almighty” (2007).

Richard L. Klug of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, has the listing.

Goodbye canyon, hello mountains

“R.J.,” as actor Robert Wagner is known, and his wife, actress Jill St. John, spend much of their free time at an out-of-state mountain resort. So, Wagner, 77, decided to sell his home in Brentwood’s Mandeville Canyon, designed by Cliff May, for close to $15 million, including an adjacent parcel. The combined 2-acre property is about ready to close escrow.

The one-story house has six bedrooms and five bathrooms in 4,500 square feet, according to public records.

May, known as the father of the California ranch-style house, designed the home for himself and his family in 1940.

He remodeled the house a few years later and then in 1953 built a more lavish home, also in Mandeville Canyon, called Mandalay.

Wagner’s extensive credits include playing Number Two in the “Austin Powers” movies and starring in the long-running television series “Hart to Hart,” starting in 1979.

Among her many roles, St. John, 67, was a Bond girl in “Diamonds Are Forever” (1971).

Is that a spaceship above the hills?

Ever stayed up late to catch “Zombies of Mora Tau” or “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers?” The flicks are just two of at least a dozen written in the ‘50s and ‘60s by the late Bernard Gordon, whose former Hollywood Hills home has been sold for close to its $2.3-million asking price.

The home, built in the late ‘40s in the Moderne style, has four bedrooms and four bathrooms in 3,400 square feet.

The sale followed Gordon’s death in May at age 88. His greatest fame came not from his sci-fi classics. Gordon was blacklisted during the McCarthy era as one of the Hollywood Ten.

Ron Holliman and Constance Chesnut -- both of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills North -- had the listing, and Bennett Carr of Prudential California, Beverly Hills, represented the buyer.

Moving up, after a fashion

Style maven and fashion critic Steven Cojocaru is following the trend for a change and taking to the celebrity-studded Hollywood Hills, where he is buying a contemporary house with city views and a pool for close to $4 million.

The home has five bedrooms and four bathrooms in about 4,000 square feet. The Mid-century Modern has been remodeled. After appearing regularly on NBC’s “Today” show for four years and serving as People magazine’s West Coast style editor, Cojocaru became a correspondent on “Entertainment Tonight” in 2003 and the “ET” spinoff series “The Insider” in 2004.

Venice is their new launch pad

Chris Salvaterra, an executive with Nickelodeon Movies and producer of “Fast Food Nation,” and his writer wife, Marjorie, have sold their Venice home to “Flightplan” director Robert Schwentke and his wife, Jen Howard.

The refurbished contemporary has five bedrooms and three bathrooms in 2,600 square feet. The selling price was $1.6 million.

The Salvaterras bought a home in Hancock Park.

Schwentke is in preproduction for “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams for New Line Cinema.

Jen Stein Lore of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Hancock Park South, represented the Schwentkes, and Leah Lail of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills East, represented the Salvaterras in their deals.

ruth.ryon@latimes.com

To see previous columns on celebrity realty transactions, go to latimes.com/hotproperty.