Beach Is ‘Write’ Spot for Couple

RENEE TAYLOR and JOSEPH BOLOGNA- a husband-and-wife, acting/writing team--have leased a $2-million-plus, ocean-view home in Malibu for the run of her performance in “Telegram From Heaven” at the Hudson Theater in Hollywood.

Taylor, who plays Brian Benben’s mother in the HBO sitcom “Dream On,” played Sean Young’s mother in the film “Hollywoodland,” completed earlier this year, and James Spader’s mother in Sydney Pollack’s 1990 film “White Palace.” The director/comedienne has been involved in many other film and TV projects as well as on Broadway.

Bologna, a show-biz veteran himself, played Walter Winchell in the August HBO movie “Citizen Cohn” and appeared in the CBS movie “Danger of Love” that aired Oct. 4.

While in the Malibu home, the couple is working on developing a comedy for Bette Midler. Among the pair’s many writing collaborations were the Emmy-winning “Acts of Love and Other Comedies” and Oscar-nominated “Lovers and Other Strangers.” They also appear on stage together from time to time and plan to co-star in February at the Hudson in the play “Love All Ways.”

They have homes in Beverly Hills and Englewood, N.J., but leased in Malibu because the Beverly Hills house, which they’ve owned since 1974, was occupied.

“We rented out the house for a year, but when we came back from Vermont, the people (who had rented it) had bought the house across the street and gutted it,” Taylor said. Because the renters wanted to continue renting while remodeling, Taylor and Bologna leased in Malibu.

The Malibu house has a large motor court behind electric gates, an herb garden just outside the kitchen door, and a swimming pool looking out to the ocean. Taylor is the swimmer in the family. “I like to swim for about an hour, or 160 laps, a day,” she said.

But both she and Bologna like to cook, though she authored “My Life on a Diet,” a Putnam-published spoof on “how to” celebrity health books. Just before they moved into the Malibu home, Bologna said, “Renee and I never cook except when we’re in the country, in Vermont. Then we cook up a storm. And I think we’ll be cooking here.”

They signed a short-term lease valued at about $5,000 a month through Terry Heffron of Spinello Realty, Malibu.

Three days after Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai on Sept. 11, former Laker center KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR made two phone calls from Honolulu: the first one to his mother, the second to Los Angeles architect Gus Duffy.

Abdul-Jabbar called his mom to let her know that he had survived the hurricane despite difficulties in making phone contact. He called Duffy to say that the house the architect had designed and completed for him on Kauai a week earlier had also come through the storm with hardly a scratch.

SYLVESTER STALLONE’S home on Anini Beach didn’t fare as well. It had some roof and water damage.

“And a lot of trees were down on his polo field, but there are some leaves and nice blooms on the trees (that are still standing),” said Hanalei broker Patrick Harrington, who has the listing on Stallone’s polo field, which is being subdivided into three lots priced from$1 million to $1.8 million.

Harrington had been showing Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith some properties days before the hurricane struck. They didn’t buy, but Johnson sent Harrington a generator. “And we’ve been using it ever since,” the realtor said last week.

GARY LIEBERTHAL, the recently resigned Columbia Pictures Television chairman, and his wife, Ann, have sold their Holmby Hills home for just under $5 million, sources say.

The 9,000-square-foot mansion, behind gates with a 300-foot-long driveway, was originally listed at $8.9 million.

Myra Nourmand of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills, took the listing at $5.25 million in July, and she represented the Lieberthals in the sale. Steve Durbin, Jon Douglas Co., represented the buyer, described as a local resident.

The Lieberthals are relocating to a 1,200-acre estate in Virginia, which they have been renovating.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S joint efforts with Beverly Hills realtor Ron de Salvo and Cirque du Soleil brought in more than $600,000 last weekend to fight AIDS, De Salvo said.

Thanks to the Cirque, all funds from the Oct. 9 performance will go to AIDS programs through the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, he noted, adding, “We’re well over $600,000, and the money is still coming in.”

De Salvo, of Douglas Properties in Beverly Hills, also observed that the benefit was “wonderfully attended by the real estate industry.” Because of the economy, realtor turnout couldn’t be as good this year as it was in 1988, the first time he teamed with Cirque du Soleil to raise funds to fight AIDS, he noted. “But the combined efforts of the real estate and entertainment industries were wonderful.”

Cirque du Soleil is also planning to donate proceeds from its March 31 performance in New York City to Taylor’s Foundation.