Eddie Murphy Rents ‘Big, Big, Big’ Home

Eddie Murphy, whose residence is on the East Coast, has leased a house in Bel-Air so he can be near Paramount, where he’s making that as-yet-untitled film, directed by John Landis, about an African prince who journeys to the United States to find an American bride. (Murphy and his pal Arsenio Hall wrote the script.)

The house is what Stephen Shapiro of Stan Herman & Associates, who negotiated the lease, termed “big, big, big.” Just how big? “About 14,000 square feet, with a tennis court on 3.75 acres.”

Before Murphy leased it, the house, which is about three years old, was on the market for $8 million. It has six bedrooms, 10 (!) baths, two maid’s rooms, a projection room, family room and a city view.

Shapiro also just leased a house to Glenn Frey, who was with the Eagles rock band and wrote the music for TV’s “Miami Vice,” and another home--with a pool and a guest house--to actress Mary Tyler Moore. Both are renting in Benedict Canyon.

Linda Evans, who has moved nearby, has asked Shapiro to find a tenant for her house in the Beverly Hills post office zone, and wouldn’t you know? The place has a heart-shaped lawn!

The “Dynasty” heartthrob also apparently likes antiques, because the house--which is offered furnished--has plenty of collectibles in its 4,000 square feet, which also has two maid’s rooms, three bedrooms and two baths--all for only $10,000 a month!

The Swedes are coming! The Swedes are coming! Not like the Canadian land developers of the ‘70s, but in the form of Swedish home craftsmanship through the Swedish Hammars Corp., which has developed a house in San Juan Capistrano that is for sale at $895,000, and includes . . . a 1964 Rolls-Royce.

Sure, the Rolls is from Britain, but the triple-pane windows (with a Venetian blind between two of the three panes), fireplaces, floors, cabinets and even the bricks and mortar are from Sweden.

Palos Verdes builder Chris Ek, who is of Swedish descent, built the house for the Hammars Corp., which has opened an office in Glendale to market the Swedish housing components in packages to California builders--all in time for the April arrival in Los Angeles of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and his wife, Queen Silvia.

Jaimie Farr, who gained fame as Klinger in the TV series “MASH,” is already planning to add on to the new Tudor- style (what a paradox) home he bought near Woodland Hills about four months ago. Why? “Because we wanted a cabana to complement the pool with a dressing area and gym.”

Farr and his wife of 25 years have a couple of teen-agers, but Farr says the gym, designed by William M. Bray & Associates of Encino (the same architect that designed Farr’s house), will be “primarily for me, because in my business, you have to keep in shape.”

Farr is hardly the Arnold Schwarzenegger type, but he is in the CBS movie, “Run ‘Til You Fall,” which he expects to air sometime this year.

For those Malibu folks who have been wondering . . . yes, something has been happening at the landmark shopping center at 3900 Cross Creek Road. The 13,040-square-foot facility on about an acre has been sold for $4.5 million to Koss Real Estate Investments, which also owns the Malibu Country Mart and the Malibu Center, both directly across the street.

Plans are now being made “to integrate the three centers,” the developers say, “forming a high-quality entertainment aggregate comprising about half of the Malibu Civic Center.”

In case you can’t quite place the center that just sold, it’s the one with the Malibu S&L;, Malibu Art & Design, Super Care Drugs and (realtor) Jim Rapf & Associates as tenants.