Star Buys Near ‘Pretty Woman’
Actor RICHARD GERE has purchased a house behind gates in the Hollywood Hills for $2.25 million, sources say.
Gere, co-star of the movie “Pretty Woman,” starred in “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” and “The Cotton Club.” He was cast last summer in renowned Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s next film, “Rhapsody in August.”
The house that Gere bought is a one-story contemporary, built in 1952 but recently remodeled, sources say. It has two bedrooms and maid’s quarters in about 2,600 square feet. The home also has a swimming pool and what realtors describe as a magnificent city view.
The property is at the end of a cul-de-sac, a few doors from a home owned for years by the late director George Cukor and about four blocks outside the Beverly Hills city limits.
Gere’s new residence is also near the home of JULIA ROBERTS, a “Best Actress” Oscar nominee for her “Pretty Woman” co-starring role. She bought her house last March for $1.04 million, sources say.
Like Gere’s, it’s a one-story contemporary. The house, which was built in 1957, has three bedrooms in 1,944 square feet.
Gere had been looking for a home for some time and has been renting at the Four Seasons Hotel near Beverly Hills, a source said.
“He will spend his time between his new home here and a home he is building in Upstate New York,” he added.
Hockey star WAYNE GRETZKY and his wife, JANET, have entered into an agreement to buy a house for about $3.5 million and a lot in the $2-million range in the gated Mulholland Estates, a 188-acre project in the Beverly Hills Post Office area, sources say.
The Gretzkys plan to live in the house for a couple of years while their dream house is being built for them on the lot, the sources explained.
The existing house has four bedrooms, maid’s quarters and a basement in 7,700 square feet. It also has a view of the San Fernando Valley and a pool.
The Gretzkys listed their six-bedroom Encino house last July at $3.25 million. They decided to sell, sources said then, so they could move closer to the Forum in Inglewood, where the Los Angeles Kings practice. Gretzky is a center with the Kings.
Joe Babajian and Judy Cycon, both of Fred Sands Estates, are listing agents on the Gretzkys’ purchase. Kenneth Kai Chang is developer of the 85-home community.
JERRY PERENCHIO, who sold the TV production company that he owned with Norman Lear for $485 million in 1985, will move in June into the Bel-Air estate he has been remodeling and expanding almost since he bought it in 1986, sources say.
The 10-bedroom home, known as the Kirkeby Estate and as the house used in the 1960s CBS sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies,” has been undergoing a $9-million-plus rehab, which includes an underground motor court said to be large enough for 30 cars.
Perenchio, who also co-produced “Driving Miss Daisy,” paid $13.6 million for the property, then bought three adjacent homes for slightly more than $9 million, making his 11.5-acre estate the largest in Bel-Air. He also owns a compound in Malibu Colony.
The late actor ERROL FLYNN’s Hollywood Hills estate has been sold to RANDY MILLER, president and co-founder of New York Seltzer.
“The estate has four totally landscaped acres, a beautiful pool, tennis court and forest,” said Denise Fraker, who represented the buyer and sellers through Jon Douglas Co.’s Beverly Hills office.
“The only thing missing is the house,” Fraker said.
The sellers, Stephen and Judith Weis, tore down the residence, built by Flynn in the late 1920s. The late pop singer RICK NELSON, who owned the property at one time, was the last person to live in the house, Fraker said.
“It was OK for my client, the buyer, because he wants to build a house,” she added.
The property sold for close to its $4.3-million asking price, said sources not involved in the deal.
DAN ENRIGHT, president and chief executive officer of Barry & Enright Productions, and SUSAN STAFFORD, who preceded Vanna White for seven years as hostess of NBC’s “Wheel of Fortune,” have listed their 15th-story penthouse, on a bluff in Santa Monica, at $8.3 million, including a 1979 white Clenet specialty automobile said to be in mint condition.
Barry & Enright, formed in 1947, has produced such shows as “Concentration,” “The Joker’s Wild” and “Tic Tac Dough.”
The 3,000-square-foot condo has 360-degree views and a separate guest or maid’s unit on a separate floor.
Enright and Stafford want to move to larger quarters right on the beach, and are considering the South Bay, sources say.
Nili Hadash of Fred Sands’ Brentwood office has the listing.
