Mary Poppins Puts a Move On
JULIE ANDREWS--whose first sitcom, “Julie,” is expected to premiere on ABC in the spring--and her husband, producer Blake Edwards, have sold their Malibu home of 20 years for about $8.5 million and are making Brentwood their primary residence, sources say.
Andrews, who starred in “Mary Poppins” in 1964 and “The Sound of Music” in 1965 before making “S.O.B.” and “Victor/Victoria,” will play the star of a TV variety show who moves from New York to Iowa in “Julie.”
Edwards, who produced the “Pink Panther” films as well as “S.O.B.” and “Victor/Victoria,” will be executive producer of his wife’s sitcom. He wrote and directed the 1991 film “Switch,” about a man reincarnated as a woman, starring Ellen Barkin.
A recent Times story, about a fund-raiser at the Andrews/Edwards home in Malibu, described the estate as “a ‘90s San Simeon” and “Xanadu,” with its elegant grounds and grassy promontory overlooking the Pacific.
The home, on about five acres, has five bedrooms and 6 1/2 baths plus a guest house, swimming pool, tennis court, private beach and 130 feet of ocean frontage. The home also has a glass-walled, V-shaped building that Edwards used as a sculpture studio.
A couple of adjacent acres were sold with the home, sources said. The total asking price had been $11.9 million.
“The property had been unofficially on the market for years, once--a few years back--at $6 million,” a local realtor said. The buyer is a man from Florida who “dabbles in the film business,” another broker said.
Andrews and Edwards moved their personal belongings in December to the Brentwood home that they purchased in July, 1990, for about $3.3 million. It’s a Cape Cod-style house with a white picket fence, gardens, a swimming pool, three bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths and maid’s quarters.
The Malibu home had been listed by Gary Glass, Jon Douglas Co., and the buyer was represented by Barbara Hart, Stan Herman & Associates. Neither Glass nor Hart was available for comment.
Oscar- and Emmy-winning producer DAVID WOLPER and his wife, Gloria, have put their Bel-Air home of about 15 years on the market at $7,775,000.
Wolper was executive producer of last week’s ABC Monday night movie “Bed of Lies,” starring Susan Dey. He is probably best known, however, for producing the TV mini-series “The Thorn Birds” and “Roots” and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics.
“They hate to sell (their Bel-Air home), but they have a place in the Napa Valley, their children are grown, and this is more of an establishment than they need,” said Kay Pick, who has the listing at Mike Silverman & Associates.
The Bel-Air home has four bedrooms plus two maids’ quarters, 10 baths, a two-story projection room, game room, artist’s studio, art gallery, six-room office suite and den/library with 18-foot high ceilings--all in about 19,000 square feet.
The estate also has a memorabilia gallery, with the torch that Rafer Johnson carried in the Olympics, and a pool.
The gated, French Country-style house, which was built in the 1940s but was refurbished by the Wolpers, overlooks the Bel-Air Golf Course.
The Wolpers have their own golf course on the 30-acre Napa Valley site they bought in the spring of 1990. When they bought the property, Wolper said he was “a golf freak.” The Wolpers planned then to turn the property into a retreat for their family and friends.
“They’re re-doing and building onto what they bought,” Pick said.
BARRY LONDON, president of the motion picture group/worldwide distribution for Paramount Pictures, has purchased a home in Malibu for $3.6 million, according to public records.
London, a 20-year veteran of Paramount, developed a strong reputation as a distributor when he bought distribution rights to “Crocodile Dundee” for $8 million, and the low-budget Australian film grossed nearly $175 million when released in 1986.
His new home is about 10,000 square feet in size and sits on a two-acre bluff. The asking price had been $5.85 million, sources say.
