Hulkster Gets Grip on Florida

HULK HOGAN, who stars in the upcoming movie “Mr. Nanny,” and his wife, Linda, are completing their plans to build a country French estate on the waterfront in Belleair, Fla., near Tampa.

Hogan, once known as the “greatest draw in the history of professional wrestling” and “star of a merchandising empire” that reportedly grossed $1.7 billion in 1991, took an indefinite hiatus from wrestling last March after reports, which he denied, that he was a heavy steroid user.

The 39-year-old Terry Bollea, who became the professional wrestler Hulk Hogan in the late 1970s after moving from Tampa to Venice Beach, started cutting back on his wrestling schedule shortly before he starred in “No Holds Barred” (1989). He made his screen debut in “Rocky III” (1982), appeared in “Gremlins II” (1984) and co-starred with Christopher Lloyd in the action comedy “Suburban Commando” (1990).

“Mr. Nanny,” a comedy filmed in Miami about an ex-wrestler who becomes the guardian for two wealthy children, is due to be released in early spring. There is also talk of Hogan doing a TV series, to be shot in Florida. Hogan, who was born in Georgia, studied business and music at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he also started bodybuilding.

He and his wife, a former Californian, plan to start construction by March on their new home on the west coast of Florida. They live with their two small children in a 7,000-square-foot house on an island near the site of their new home.

“Their new home will be authentic country French with a slate roof and a lot of stone from France,” said Gail Claridge, Hogan’s mother-in-law, a Northridge developer/designer who plans to work on the interiors. “We’ll bring in the stone from demolished castles and estates.

“There will be an enormous working kitchen with a walk-in fireplace; built-ins featuring antiques, and a gym. . . . Doorways will be at least 8 feet tall and 3 1/2-feet wide. . . . Everything will be large scale for obvious reasons.” Hogan is 6 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs 290 pounds.

The home, which will be about 12,000 square feet, is being designed to nestle among some 200-year-old oak trees, Claridge said.

Hogan’s wife bought the 2.3-acre site for about $2 million in February and despite preservationists’ protests, razed a 17-room mansion, built there in 1931, in March. She had planned to renovate and live in the house but has said that it needed too many repairs.

Comedian YAKOV SMIRNOFF has sold his former home in the Hollywood Hills for close to its most recent asking price of $975,000, sources say.

Charles Liu, a Shanghai-born businessman and art dealer who was graduated from Columbia University, bought the gated home, which was built in the 1920s and was owned at one time by the late comic Lenny Bruce.

Smirnoff refurbished the five-bedroom home--adding a spa, sauna and aviary--after buying it in 1984. He listed it in 1990 at $1,795,000 after he and his wife, Linda, bought a home for $2.4 million in Pacific Palisades. They took the Hollywood Hills home off the market for a while and re-listed it in August.

The Smirnoffs moved because they wanted a larger place for their growing family. At the time, they were about to have their first child. They’re now expecting their second child about the time he will appear at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas Dec. 26-Jan. 3. He also plans to tape a Showtime Special in December, called “I’m One of You Now, Almost.”

Tony Shultz of Fred Sands’ Hollywood Hills office represented the buyer, and Jackie Fronen and Raquel Kaufman of Nourman & Associates, Beverly Hills, represented the Smirnoffs.

Actor MICHAEL J. FOX, whose main residence is on the East Coast, and sportscaster KEITH OLBERMANN, who recently moved from KCBS to ESPN, are among the sellers of 85 Southern California homes in Jon Douglas Co.’s “Operation Must Sell,” which will be held Nov. 22.

Sid Kibrick, who played the red-headed boy “Woim” in The Little Rascals but who is now Douglas’ executive director of new housing, conceived the idea, which Douglas describes as “a clearance sale” of homes now available at 30% to 50% less than their original prices of $105,000 to $5,895,000. Lower prices may be negotiated before or during the sale.

Prospective buyers can get catalogues of the listings at Douglas offices, view the homes and buy the properties before the sale, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the ballroom of The Olympic Collection on Olympic Boulevard at Sawtelle Boulevard in West Los Angeles.

Actor JOSEPH COTTEN and his actress wife PATRICIA MEDINA are back in town.

They have purchased a two-bedroom condo on the Wilshire Corridor and sold their home of seven years, known as White Gables, in Palm Springs. Their new home has views from Century City to the ocean.

“Their apartment is a showcase,” said Donn Whyte of ReMax Estates, Beverly Hills, who represented the couple in their purchase. One of the reasons the Cottens moved back to the Los Angeles area is that “it was too hot in the Springs for him this summer,” Whyte explained.

The 87-year-old actor, who has appeared in scores of films and on stage since 1930, had his voice box removed two years ago. “But they are still very active,” Whyte said.

They were among celebs Dinah Shore, John Raitt, George Montgomery, Jack Palance, Buddy Rogers, Jerry Van Dyke, Harry Morgan, Denver Pyle and Jane Withers last weekend at the Hollywood Westerner Hall of Fame, honoring Charlton Heston and the late Gary Cooper, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

“Mr. Cotten is an accomplished sculptor, who still sculpts,” Whyte said. “He and his wife are thinking of turning an enclosed balcony into a studio for him, and he also just got a call for a movie.”