Rocker Axl Rose Heads for the Hills

Heavy metal rocker AXL ROSE, due to be arraigned Thursday for allegedly clubbing a neighbor in his condo building with an empty wine bottle, has purchased a house in the Hollywood Hills and is remodeling it, sources say.

Rose and his wife, Erin, purchased the two-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot house on a private, 1 1/3-acre knoll in Beachwood Canyon for $800,000, public records show.

The lead singer of the band Guns N’ Roses, Rose was arrested in late October after an argument began over loud music he had been playing in his 12th-floor condo off Sunset Strip, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Rose’s new neighbors are also worried about the noise. One wrote to The Times:

“We are hoping Mr. Rose won’t blast us out of our bedrooms at night . . . The noise factor from his house would be the main concern . . . It is down a narrow road and sits on a promontory, where sound from it echoes throughout the canyon.”

The Roses bought the home, which also has a pool and city and Griffith Park views, from Victor Kaminoff, who had gutted and renovated the ‘50s-era house in 1988 after buying the property a year earlier for $330,000, sources say.

Kaminoff gave the house what the sources described as “an Out-of-Africa, earthy or organic” feeling, with sisal on the floor.

Rose has been replacing the sisal with hardwood, and he has been remodeling the kitchen, sources said last week.

However, a few days before his arrest, Rose apparently suffered a bad case of buyer’s remorse. The Nov. 19 issue of People magazine quoted him, saying:

“This house doesn’t mean anything to me. This is not what I wanted. I didn’t work forever to have this lonely house on the hill that I live in because I’m a rich rock star.”

Then he broke all of the windows, shoved a $38,000 piano through the side of the house and destroyed a fireplace, according to the article. The fireplace, etched out of granite and placed against a 30-foot glass wall, was estimated to have cost Kaminoff $30,000.

The house had been Kaminoff’s personal residence, but he was also the listing agent on the sale to the Roses, through Prudential California Realty’s new Sunset Strip office. Neither he nor the selling agent, Arleen Ruby of the firm’s Beverly Hills office, was available for comment.

Newly elected state Treasurer KATHLEEN BROWN and her husband, ex-CBS news chief VAN GORDON SAUTER, have put their West Hollywood home on the market at $2.5 million.

The couple has owned the one-story, 53-year-old house for nearly four years. They’re planning to move to Sacramento.

The home has three bedrooms, six baths, maid’s quarters and a screening room in about 5,700 square feet. There is also a pool, spa, koi pond and circular drive on the property, which has ocean and city views, said realtor Donna Fields, who shares the listing with Joyce Rey at Prudential Rodeo Realty.

GARY NARDINO--executive producer of the movie “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” and former head of Paramount Television, overseeing such hits as “Cheers,” “Taxi,” “Happy Days” and “Webster”--has sold his Beverly Hills home of 14 years.

Nardino, now chairman of Orion Television Entertainment, and his wife, Florence, sold their Italian villa just north of Sunset Boulevard and moved to a nearby rental, sources said.

Former Beverly Hills mayor, DONNA ELLMAN, and her new husband, Dr. Jess Garber, a retired obstetrician/gynecologist, bought the four-bedroom, 4,025-square-foot home with a pool for close to its $1,795,000 asking price, the sources added.

Jana Jones and Michael Mahoney of Alvarez, Hyland & Young shared the listing.

DAWN MOORE, daughter of actor Clayton Moore--who played the Lone Ranger for more than 35 years, and her husband, architect Michael Gerrity cq, just purchased the Hollywood Hills home of Edward Mallory, a director of the NBC soap opera “Generations,” and his wife, Suzanne, a former star of “Days of Our Lives” and “The Young and the Restless.”

The Mallorys sold their English, two-story home, built about 1926, for close to its $520,000 asking price and moved to Malibu. The house has three bedrooms and three baths in 1,600 square feet, and it has a swimming pool.

Moore and her husband will use the home as a pied a terre, as they also have a ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains, with a late ‘40s house filled with buffalo heads and bearskin rugs, sources said.