‘She-Devil’ Buys Brentwood Tudor
ROSEANNE BARR, star of the ABC-TV sitcom “Roseanne” and the movie “She-Devil,” and her husband of four months, comedy writer Tom Arnold, have purchased a Tudor-style home on about an acre in Brentwood. She paid in the $3-million range, sources said. Escrow closed last week.
“She got a good buy,” said a realtor who did not participate in the transaction but is familiar with the property. “You can’t buy another tennis court property for that in the area.”
The two-story, four-bedroom, five-bath home is behind gates and has a wine cellar and a guest house, besides a tennis court.
One reason Barr apparently got a good price is that the 17-room home was for sale for some time. “It came on the market at a much higher price with another firm, then sat there for quite awhile,” the realtor said.
“I think the reason it didn’t sell is because it has a lot of small rooms running into each other, and Tudor is not the preferred style here. Mediterraneans, colonials, Southwest and country homes are more popular.
“Even so, the house Roseanne bought is charming in terms of curb appeal; it has lovely frontage and looks very traditional with its Old English look and tennis court off to the side.” The nearly 7,000-square-foot home was built eight years ago.
“She’s planning to do extensive work on the interior of the house, remodeling it and creating a large projection room,” said Bruce Nelson, of the newly formed John Bruce Nelson & Associates. Raymond Bekeris, in the firm’s Holmby Hills office, had the $3.9-million listing.
Until she bought the Brentwood home, Barr was renting a country-style house with a pool and a tennis court in the Beverly Hills Post Office Area at $20,000 a month, another source said.
ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S Puerto Vallarta hacienda is being purchased by a couple who live in La Costa for about $100,000 more than its $350,000 asking price, according to a source not involved in the deal.
Escrow is expected to close later this month on the two-house compound, which came on the market again in February. It was first listed a couple years ago at $1 million.
When it was reported in this column that it was for sale again but at a reduced price, listing agents Elaine Dannenberg and Roger Wall with Fred Sands Realtors received more than 500 phone calls from all over the United States and Canada and a number of offers. All offers were submitted to the actress through her business manager, a spokeswoman for Sands said.
The buyers, Frank and Toy Holstein, plan to turn the hacienda, which Taylor and actor Richard Burton purchased in the early ‘60s, into a luxurious bed-and-breakfast.
“They rehab and revive properties,” the Sands spokeswoman explained. “They have a gentleman’s ranch in Blossom Valley (near Rancho Bernardo in the San Diego area) where they did the same thing.”
The 5 1/2-acre ranch, which the Holsteins bought about two years ago, has a tennis court, riding track, waterfalls, swimming pool, barn, servants quarters and a four-bedroom, four-bath, 4,000-square-foot main residence. Now the Holsteins have listed that property with Dannenberg and Wall at $2 million.
“Mr. and Mrs. Holstein had been spending half their time in Puerto Vallarta before making their offer, and they love it there,” the Sands spokeswoman said.
JEAN SMART, who plays Charlene on the CBS-TV sitcom “Designing Women,” and her husband, RICHARD GILLILAND, who stars in the reoccurring role of Ellen’s married lover Jeffrey in the ABC-TV hit “Thirtysomething,” have bought a home with a tennis court in Encino for nearly its asking price of $1,395,000.
The pair moved from their Los Feliz home, which is on the market in the $400,000 range, because it was too small for them, sources said. The couple has a 6-months-old baby.
Built about 40 years ago, their ranch-style Encino home has three bedrooms and maid’s quarters in a nearly 4,000-square-foot main house and a 700-square-foot artist’s studio. The property is two blocks from singer Michael Jackson’s family home.
The Encino home had been owned by an internist/nephrologist and his artist wife, who bought a four-unit apartment building in Venice that they are rehabbing into an artist studio and living quarters.
Sherwin Swartz of Asher Dann & Associates represented the doctor and his wife, and Kathy Roach of Mike Glickman Realty represented Smart and Gilliland.
The rock group VAN HALEN, which opened its own nightclub and bar in Cabo San Lucas in late April, and its partners, Van Halen’s business manager and a Mexican investor, spent about $1 million to build the project, it has now been determined.
Lead vocalist SAMMY HAGAR, who oversaw most of the construction, was reported as saying in April that he originally intended to spend $150,000, but wound up going “far beyond.”
The 10,000-square-foot Cabo Wabo Cantina, named for a song co-written by Hagar, has indoor seating for 280 and an outdoor bar that seats 70. Van Halen performed there on opening night and plans to participate in future jam sessions with house bands and visiting celebrity musicians.
A Bel-Air home built in 1966 by car dealer FLETCHER JONES and later owned by Sylmar pacemaker manufacturer Alfred E. Mann is on the market for $14 million.
The 11,000-square-foot residence, with a pool and tennis court, was built on the 4-acre site of a home that burned to the ground during the 1961 Bel-Air fire. That home was owned, at the time, by the late JUSTIN DART, an adviser to President Reagan.
The house built by Jones, on one of the highest peaks in Bel-Air, has been the home for nearly 10 years of German industrialist Carl E. Press, who owns radio stations and vineyards in West Germany and prawn and alligator farms in Australia.
“His son graduated a year ago from (nearby) Harvard School, and now Press is only spending four to six weeks out of the year here, so he’s selling,” explained Cecelia Waeschle, who shares the listing with Joyce Rey at Rodeo/Prudential Realty.
