Liz & Realtors in AIDS Benefit
ELIZABETH TAYLOR has joined forces with Beverly Hills realtor Ron de Salvo to rally the Southern California real estate community in the fight against AIDS.
The actress and the realtor are chairing the opening performance Oct. 9 of Cirque du Soleil’s new show, “Saltimbanco,” in Santa Monica, to benefit Taylor’s new AIDS foundation, which bears her name.
“They have been magnificent, aware, caring and doing,” she said of members of the realty industry and their past support of AIDS programs. “They put their money where their mouths are.”
The Southland real estate community netted $100,000 to help AIDS patients during one evening of Cirque du Soleil in 1988, according to De Salvo, who spearheaded the event. “Now we’re trying to do it again,” he said.
He enlisted Taylor’s participation and she responded by forming an alliance with the Cirque du Soleil that will support her foundation throughout the circus’ 1992-93 North American tour.
Besides including contribution envelopes in the program of every performance, the Cirque will donate all proceeds of its Oct. 9 opening, and an evening March 31 in New York City, to Taylor’s foundation, which will disperse funds to a number of AIDS organizations.
“Last time, it was completely real estate related people,” De Salvo said of the supporters behind the 1988 benefit. A foundation of 15 top producers, which he organized from among several real estate companies, mobilized the real estate community.
“It was the first time I know of that the real estate industry came together for one purpose outside of real estate,” he said. “But this time, the climate is a lot different. It’s a lot harder.”
With the slowness of the economy, he figured he could use some help outside of the real estate industry. He thought of Elizabeth Taylor because of her longtime concernabout AIDS and suggested to herthat the Oct. 9 event could be her group’s first fund-raiser.
“Since she is related to the entertainment industry, the combined efforts should be successful,” he said. The new foundation now has sizable entertainment and real estate support committees.
He has also blanketed real estate offices and realty boards from Palm Springs to Santa Barbara with information on the fund-raiser, which will cost from $50 to $300 for reserved seating, with larger donations for sponsors, patrons and ringmaster.
“I doubt that we will get many sponsors at $3,000 apiece,” said De Salvo, who works out of Douglas Properties in Beverly Hills, “but I sold 16 $300 tickets to one person in my office last week. So maybe we’ll do better than I thought.”
KARYN PARSONS, who plays the bratty Hilary on the NBC sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” has purchased her first home: a Spanish-style house in the Hollywood Hills for about $500,000.
Built in the 1930s, the house has an observatory and Art Deco baths, with lavender and black tile. It also has room for her production company offices, Bamboozled Golligwog.
The 25-year-old actress, who was born in Hollywood and grew up in Santa Monica, is a collector of golliwogs--black dolls--and other black folk art from the early 1900s.
Entrepreneur HAIM SABAN has put his former Beverly Hills home on the market at $4.5 million, with adjacent grounds listed at $2.2 million.
Saban is chairman of Saban Entertainment, an independent studio in Burbank. The company, which has amassed one of the largest TV libraries in Hollywood, recently announced an $85-million production slate to include such upcoming TV movies as “Overdrive,” starring Stacy Keach, on NBC.
Saban’s firm also plans to premiere more than 155 half-hours of animation, including new episodes of “X-Men.”
Saban moved to another, larger estate in Beverly Hills about a year ago. The home he just listed at $4.5 million has been on and off the market for about 10 months, originally at about $6 million.
It is a Mediterranean villa, built about three years ago, with five bedrooms, seven baths, a media or guest room, library and maid’s quarters--all in about 10,000 square feet. There is also a free-form lagoon pool and spa with a waterfall on the gated property.
Raquel Kaufman and Jackie Fronen of Nourmand & Associates have the listing.
There is a house for sale in Aspen that a potential home buyer can see only if he or she can prove a net worth of at least $100 million.
The house is listed at $20 million, furnished.
It was built on spec by Leslie Troyer, niece of the late Paul Trousdale, developer of Trousdale Estates.
More than 100 craftsmen from Aspen, including an 80-year-old leather worker who covered the banisters, worked on the 14,000-square-foot-plus house, which took 18 months to build.
The three-acre property is called the Ponds for its ponds, complete with mallards and trout. Bob Starodoj has the listing with The Prudential, Mason & Morse.
ALAN WHITE, British-born drummer with the progressive-rock band Yes, and his wife, Gigi, have put their home just north of Woodland Hills on the market.
“It was a part-time house when he bought it about five years ago, but he’s here pretty much full time now, and so he wants to sell it to get something bigger,” said listing agent Debra Kohler with Fred Sands’ Sherman Oaks office.
The three-bedroom A-frame, built in the 1960s, is on the market at $239,000.
