Rocker Rolls Into Malibu
New Jersey-born rock star JON BON JOVI has purchased a home on Broad Beach in Malibu for about $2 million, sources say.
Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea Hurley, had been living in Rumson, N.J.
Bon Jovi, also one of rock ‘n’ roll’s hottest sex symbols, and his band have had a number of hit albums, including “New Jersey” and “Slippery When Wet.”
He wrote and recorded “Blaze of Glory,” a top-10 hit, which he expanded into a million-selling album and soundtrack for the film “Young Guns II,” and he has co-written and produced songs for such other artists as Daryl Hall and John Oates.
The Malibu home that he bought has three bedrooms and three baths in about 2,000 square feet. It faces the ocean and has a private stretch of sandy beach.
The home, which is Country English in style, was built in 1949 but was recently remodeled.
“The home is older, but it’s done up nicely,” said one of Bon Jovi’s new neighbors.
It was a short escrow--just a few days, and title was taken in the name of a corporation. The asking price had been close to $3 million.
Singer DIONNE WARWICK has put her Beverly Hills home of 20 years on the market at $6.5 million.
“She’s selling to be near the one she loves,” said Elaine Young, who has the listing with Alvarez, Hyland & Young.
Warwick, who popularized such songs as “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and “Walk On By,” has traveled often in recent months to Florida to be with actor Phillip Michael Thomas, who played Detective Ricardo Tubbs on the 1984-89 NBC series “Miami Vice,” other sources said.
In June, Warwick and Thomas will co-host, with actress Diahann Carroll, the TV tribute “Celebrate the Soul of American Music” at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.
Warwick’s Beverly Hills home has three bedrooms and maid’s quarters in about 7,000 square feet, and is reached by way of a circular drive. The two-story, Mediterranean-style estate also has two family rooms with wet bars, two dens, a projection room, two breakfast nooks and a massive closet in the master suite.
“Dionne has more clothes than any star I’ve ever worked with other than Cher,” Young said.
All rooms overlook the swimming pool, north/south tennis court, gardens and rolling lawns.
There is also a one-bedroom guest house on the nearly one-acre, corner property. Warwick bought the house from Hollywood manager Helen Noga, who once shared the residence with her famous client, singer Johnny Mathis, sources said.
The house was built about 60 years ago but has been remodeled and redecorated by Warwick, who has her own interior design company. Warwick also has a foundation in her name to educate people about AIDS and other blood diseases.
Country music star JIM STAFFORD, known for such songs as “Spiders and Snakes” and “My Girl Bill” as well as the gold album “Not Just Another Pretty Foot,” has sold a Van Nuys house he once owned with his former wife, singer Bobbie Gentry.
After they were divorced, Stafford wound up with the house, which he rented out when he moved to Florida 1 1/2 years ago.
“He sold the house, because he relocated with his new wife to Branson, Mo., where he is in a joint venture in a theater,” said Rodney Johnson, of Century 21 All Properties. Johnson had the listing, which sold for slightly more than $500,000.
The house, which was built in 1934 and later remodeled, is behind gates in an area known as Chandler Estates. It has four bedrooms plus maid’s quarters in about 3,000 square feet.
It also has a pool, spa, paddle tennis court with a tent over it and a one-room basement that Stafford used as a recording/practice studio.
Laura Gold of Fred Sands’ Tarzana office represented the buyer, described as a motion picture cameraman.
Comedienne LUCILLE BALL’S Beverly Hills residence for at least 25 years until her death in 1989 has had another drop in asking price.
The four- or five-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot Beverly Hills home, which realtors are now calling “a tear-down,” has been reduced to $4.25 million from $6.3 million, and that was a drop from the original asking price, two years ago, of $7.8 million.
While many realtors considered the original prices to be too high, some consider the current price too low. “It’s outrageous, considering that there is a house for sale in the (same) 1000 block a few streets over at $12.9 million,” said one who sought anonymity.
Lucy’s house is on a bit less than an acre, but it’s on a flat lot in a prime residential area, directly across the street from actor Jimmy Stewart’s home.
Lucy’s longtime friend, realtor Thelma Orloff, who danced alongside the comedienne when they were both Goldwyn Girls, also lost the listing with the latest price reduction to Ron de Salvo of Douglas Properties.
Garfield is about to curl up in new, larger quarters.
The famous cartoon cat’s production company, FILM ROMAN, plans to move June 3 from Toluca Lake to North Hollywood, to consolidate and double its animation space.
The company has leased 17,000 square feet of the 125,000-square-foot Valley Corporate Center, on the southeast corner of Laurel Canyon and Chandler boulevards, at a value of $1.7 million.
