‘Wild at Heart,’ at Home in Castle
Actor NICOLAS CAGE, called “the crown prince of the darker realms of absurdity,” has purchased a 1920s’ castle in Los Feliz.
Cage, co-starring in this year’s Cannes Film Festival winner, “Wild at Heart,” is known for his spooky, oddball roles (“Raising Arizona,” “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Vampire’s Kiss,” “Cotton Club,” “Moonstruck.)
Citing these performances and others, a Times’ profile described him as “the crown prince of the darker realms of absurdity . . . at least in the movies.”
Cage paid about $1.5 million for a 5,367-square-foot house that was built in 1928 but was recently refurbished. The house, which has turrets and looks like a castle, was gutted in the mid-1980s before it was sold through foreclosure and then was rehabbed.
The 11-room home now has three bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths and maid’s quarters, and it sits on about a third of an acre on a gated promontory with a 360-degree city and garden view. All rooms have a view of the city, and the master suite, which has a black marble fireplace, even has a view from its white-tile bath.
Cage had been living in an apartment in Los Angeles, sources said.
Dorothy Carter and Jodi Hodges of Douglas Properties had the listing at $1,695,000, but they were unavailable for comment.
Four college students from Jakarta just bought a new Beverly Hills house that had been listed at $7.35 million.
“They traded an old house on Rexford that they finally got plans and permits to redo and paid $4 million in cash that daddy wired from Singapore after he had . . . seen a video of the new house,” said Drew Mandile, who represented the students with Barry Scott of June Scott & Associates and shared the listing with Valerie Fitzgerald and Jonathan Seltzer of Alvarez, Hyland & Young.
The video was important, because it showed that the house passed the tests for feng shui, the ancient Chinese craft used to determine if the site and layout of a home augur well for the buyer’s health, wealth and happiness.
Built by Joseph Dabby, the house has five bedrooms plus a maid’s quarters in 12,000 square feet. It also has a tennis court and a pool.
“Their only problem is that they (the students) have so many cars that they don’t have enough parking,” Mandile said with a chuckle. “They have a Ferrari, a Rolls, a couple of BMWs and a Mercedes.” The students attend Pepperdine, USC and UCLA.
Actor TOM SELLECK has listed his pied-a-terre on Wilshire Boulevard with Lauren Austin at Fred Sands’s Brentwood office at $950,000.
“Tom took it off the market for awhile, because he was doing some things in town, like the Emmys, and it was a place to change his clothes,” Austin said, “but now--with his wife, baby and nanny--there isn’t enough space to pop in.”
The 16th-floor condo has one bedroom and 2 1/2 baths in 1,828 square feet. It also has balconies covered with used brick; a knotty-pine, double-door entry, and built-in wine storage.
Selleck, who has been making the sequel to “Three Men and a Baby” called “Three Men and a Little Lady,” due out Nov. 21, also has homes on the Westside and in Ventura County.
Actor ARMAND ASSANTE just leased a house in the Beverly Hills Post Office area in the $5,000-a-month range.
The house is country ranch in style with three bedrooms and a den in 3,200 square feet. It also has a swimming pool.
The New York City native moved to California with his wife and two young daughters from a farm about an hour from Manhattan, “because he’s doing a lot of work here,” said leasing broker Natalie Janger of Mike Silverman & Associates.
Assante--who played a Puerto Rican gangster in Sidney Lumet’s urban thriller “Q&A;”--has just finished portraying gangster Bugsy Siegel in the upcoming movie “Marrying Man,” is working on an HBO movie and co-stars with Jon Voight in the film “Eternity,” which is due to be released this month. He also played Goldie Hawn’s French fiance in the 1980 film “Private Benjamin.”
A 10,000-square-foot, brick home, called the most expensive house in Fairbanks Ranch, is on the market at $4.8 million.
Gated and on about two acres, the house has an elevator, wine cellar, music room, media room, library and three bedroom suites, which include a master suite with a circular bed chamber, mirrored headboard wall, fireplace, his-and-hers baths, walled patio and spiral staircase leading to a loft/office, and three other suites.
Two of the suites are geared for children and have a total of four bedrooms. The third suite, with one bedroom and two walk-in closets, is for guests. And there is a studio apartment with a kitchen for in-laws or live-in help.
The owners are Paul Friedman, who built the house and has developed detached homes in Rancho Cucamonga and condos in Oceanside, and his wife.
“They’re selling because they moved back to Orange County, where they lived before their house in Fairbanks Ranch was built about three years ago,” said Nancy Bonforte, who has the listing at Prudential California Realty in Rancho Santa Fe.
