Singer and actress DIANA ROSS--whose other homes...
Singer and actress DIANA ROSS--whose other homes are in Connecticut, New York City and Switzerland--has purchased one of Hollywood entrepreneur Jerry Perenchio’s Malibu homes for close to its $3.5-million asking price, sources say.
Perenchio, who owned a TV production company with Norman Lear that they sold in 1985 for $485 million, owns several houses in Malibu Colony, just up the coast from the house Ross bought. This month he is expected to occupy the Bel-Air home used in the 1960s CBS sitcom “Beverly Hillbillies,” which he has been remodeling since he bought it in 1987.
Ross, the “Diva of Pop” who has been said to have sold more No. 1 recording hits than anyone except the Beatles and Elvis Presley, is lined up to star in the TNT cable TV movie biography of the late blues singer Josephine Baker.
This will be Ross’ first acting role since she re-created Judy Garland’s Dorothy in the all-black, 1978 film “The Wiz.” She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the late torch singer Billie Holiday in the 1972 film “Lady Sings the Blues.”
The house she bought is on Carbon Beach, where singer Janet Jackson bought her $4.5-million furnished home in May. Both houses were newly completed rehabs.
Ross’ house is a white, New England clapboard on the water, with 40 feet of beachfront. The contemporary, nearly 3,000-square-foot interior has five bedrooms, including a master suite with a fireplace and sitting area; high ceilings and lots of open space.
The home also has what is being described as “a flower-filled, sunning balcony.”
Carol Rapf of Jim Rapf & Associates handled both sides of the transaction but couldn’t be reached for comment.
Singer BOBBY VINTON, a showbiz veteran who has hosted scores of TV variety shows and who popularized such mid-’60s songs as “Blue Velvet” and “Roses Are Red,” has put his 113-acre home in the Malibu mountains on the market at $25 million.
“He’s moving to Florida, where he bought a house,” said Thelma Orloff of Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills, who shares the listing with Spencer Tenen, in Sands’ Malibu office.
“Bobby works mostly in the East, singing, and only one of his five kids is still at home, so he doesn’t need such a big home now,” Orloff added.
Vinton and his wife of 23 years, Dolly, built the 10,000-square-foot ranch house on their Malibu property about four years ago, after selling their Pacific Palisades home to producer/director Steven Spielberg.
The home also has two guest houses, an indoor swimming pool, lighted tennis court, lake stocked with fish and horse facilities.
PETE ELLIS, whose three South Gate auto dealerships led the nation in sales of Chrysler trucks and cars before the ailing businesses were shut down in February, has sold his Bel-Air house for close to its asking price of $2.75 million, furnished.
“The close of my Chrysler stores devastated me, because I had them for 12 years, but my Ford dealership is alive and well in Bellflower,” he said. In March, the city voted to provide him with $700,000 in a federal loan and grant to help save the franchise.
Now Ellis is commuting to Bellflower from his home in La Quinta.
“I have a friend who lets me use his plane,” he said. “I fly his prop jet. It takes one hour (using the plane) to get from my office to my home. . . .”
The Bel-Air home--a six-bedroom, French country-style house built in 1979--had been listed by Cecelia Waeschle and Joyce Rey, both of Prudential Rodeo Realty.
KNBC Channel 4 weekend anchor JUNE THOMPSON and her husband, DAVID SPARKS, who works for Barry & Enright Productions, have sold their Silverlake home and leased a Pacific Palisades residence for six months.
“She’s from Florida . . . and since coming to Los Angeles, she’s wanted to live at the beach. So now--with their 6-month-old daughter--they’re trying it out,” a source said.
Their three-bedroom, two-bath Dutch colonial home, with a guest house, sold for nearly its $369,000 asking price, sources added. The home had been listed by Joseph Fiorillo of Fred Sands’ Los Feliz office, who was not available for comment.
SYLVIO TABET, who just completed producing and directing “Beastmaster II: Through the Portal of Time,” due to be released in September--has put his Bel-Air estate on the market at $8.9 million.
Tabet, who was the executive producer for “Beastmaster” and co-produced “Cotton Club” and “Dead Ringer,” is moving back to Europe, sources say.
His gated, Mediterranean-style home is on two acres overlooking the Bel-Air Country Club. There are five bedrooms in the nearly 7,000-square-foot home.
