Moving, but not tonight
It’s just one “breakthrough” after another for Mary J. Blige. With eight nominations, the veteran R&B; singer leads the parade of possible big winners at the Grammy Awards tonight.
Blige, 36, made a guest appearance Friday on “Ghost Whisperer” and soon starts work in L.A. on a new album and other projects. That’s why the three-time Grammy winner and her husband, record executive Kendu Isaacs, leased a Hollywood Hills West home for at least six months with options to extend.
The lease price is $30,000 a month, unfurnished, and the couple hired an interior designer, which suggests they may settle in for a while. The house, built in 2003, has five bedrooms and 8 1/2 bathrooms in about 8,000 square feet.
It’s a modern architectural work of concrete, steel and glass, and has expansive views. There is a 55-foot-long pool in the backyard with a 75-foot-tall waterfall.
The waterfall is a showpiece of the home, according to Dan Miller of Coldwell Banker in Encino. He represented the couple in their lease. They own a home in New Jersey.
“The Breakthrough,” Blige’s seventh studio album, has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide.
*
Even in Malibu, it’s a jaw-dropper
Just when we were starting to get accustomed to hearing about homes priced in the $20-million range, actors Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette put their Malibu home on the market at a staggering $33.5 million.
So OK, the four-bedroom, 5,500-square-foot house has 80 feet of beach frontage, is on a double lot with a pool and has ocean views from almost every room.
And it is an architectural trophy. Known as the Segel residence, it was designed in 1979 by renowned architect John Lautner. He gained fame by creating Modernist homes such as the Chemosphere House off Mulholland Drive, which looks like a flying saucer.
But how many zillionaires are out there shopping for a $33.5-million home in Malibu?
“It is absolutely a select group,” said Jonah Wilson, who has the listing at Sotheby’s International Realty, Sunset. And the buyer might not be a celebrity, he added. “It may be an international businessman who loves architecture and has multiple residences.”
Both actors are busy on TV. He stars in the new ABC sitcom “In Case of Emergency.” Cox Arquette, of “Friends” fame, stars in the FX series “Dirt.”
Their Malibu home was purchased through Wilson six years ago from its original owners for close to $10.2 million.
*
One less Bizkit in Hollywood
Fred Durst, lead singer of the rock band Limp Bizkit, has sold his Hollywood home for about $1.4 million.
The buyer was producer Erica Westheimer of Lone Star Film Group, which includes her father, Fred Westheimer, a William Morris talent agent for 35 years.
The 1933 Spanish-style home was one of the first houses in Outpost Estates. Charles E. Toberman, credited with building the Egyptian Theatre and other Hollywood landmarks, built the 1,800-square-foot house.
John Lucy of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, represented Erica Westheimer in her purchase, and Michael Eisenberg, in the same office at the time, represented Durst. Eisenberg is now with Keller Williams, Beverly Hills.
*
To see previous columns, go to latimes.com/hotproperty.
