Man of Steel Lands in Hills
CHRISTOPHER REEVE, who played Superman in four movies between 1978 and 1987, has leased a Hollywood Hills home while in Los Angeles filming “The Rhinehart Theory.”
In the movie, Reeve plays a detective who double-crosses his wife and brother, who are having an affair, and murders them in a case solved by another detective, Rhinehart, played by Joe Mantegna.
An avid sailor who grew up in Manhattan and raced boats down the Jersey shore, Reeve portrayed a 19th-Century literary critic who goes to sea in TNT’s “The Sea Wolf” (1993). Last year, he also played the American millionaire in “The Remains of the Day” and starred as an ex-con who answers an ad for a husband in “Morning Glory.”
Reeve, 41, is married with three children, two from a previous relationship. He lives most of the time in a 19th-Century farmhouse in Bedford, N.Y., and in a Massachusetts country estate.
A stage actor since he was a teen-ager, with an English literature degree from Cornell University and drama school credentials from Juilliard, Reeve regularly does summer stints at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts.
The Hollywood Hills home, which he leased furnished for at least a couple of months at $9,000 a month, has four bedrooms in about 4,000 square feet. Described as “an entertainer’s dream,” the Mediterranean-style home has a billiard room, bar, patio, pool, gourmet kitchen, sunken living room and city views.
Reeve was represented in the lease by Michael H. Barton of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills. Rene of Paris, a Van Nuys wig maker to such stars as Dolly Parton and Cher, owns the house. The lessor was represented by Susan Del Prete of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills.
LISA STRAWBERRY, former wife of controversial Dodgers player Darryl Strawberry, has listed the Encino home, which they had purchased in 1989, for sale at just under $1 million and for lease at $4,000 a month.
The super-slugger, who signed a five-year, $20.3-million contract with the Dodgers before the 1991 season, was put on his team’s disabled list this month after he admitted having a substance-abuse problem.
His ex-wife has indicated that she decided to sell the Encino house, which they purchased a month before she filed for divorce, because her privacy has been invaded by fans and the media. The 32-year-old outfielder was remarried last December.
Built in 1989 and recently refurbished, the Encino house is in a gated community and has five bedrooms in about 4,000 square feet. Dee Crawford, wife of former Dodgers outfielder Willie Crawford, has the listing at Fred Sands’ Brentwood office.
Actress FAYE DUNAWAY has leased out her Beverly Hills home to some victims of the Northridge earthquake and is renting a smaller place on the Westside. She is being discussed as a possible successor to Glenn Close in the role of Norma Desmond in the L.A. production of “Sunset Boulevard.”
Dunaway had put her home of three years on the market in December at $2.2 million, saying that she wanted to become more bicoastal. Instead of selling the four-bedroom house and guest cottage, she leased it out at close to $10,000 a month, and she rented more low-key quarters at about $2,000 a month, a source said.
TOM SULLIVAN, the blind singer and songwriter who became a motivational speaker with the publication of his 1975 best-selling autobiography “If You Could See What I Hear” (which was made into a movie), has sold his house in Palos Verdes Estates for $1.37 million, sources say.
Sullivan’s most recent book, “The Leading Lady,” is about a seeing-eye dog he gave to actress and animal activist Betty White, who co-wrote the book.
Sullivan and his wife, Patty, moved to a small town just outside of Denver so that he wouldn’t need to travel as far when he has East Coast speaking engagements.
Their five-bedroom, 4,600-square-foot Palos Verdes home, which they had built almost six years ago, was sold to a Japanese-based computer company for use by its executives, sources said.
The Sullivans, who had lived on the Palos Verdes Peninsula for about 20 years--raising their two children there, also own a couple of acres just outside of Winterpark, Colo., where they plan to build a ski getaway.
“He skis and plays golf. About the only thing he doesn’t do is drive a car,” said listing agent Sue Goodale of Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Palos Verdes.
JIM SLOYAN, “the voice of Lexus,” and his wife, DEIRDRE, have completed a $200,000 renovation of their Sherman Oaks home.
Sloyan, who has earned a seven-figure annual salary doing the automobile commercials since 1989, is a veteran actor who has appeared in numerous TV movies and was the voice of the interrogator in the 1993 TV series “Crime & Punishment.” He will play Robert Vesco in a movie about the fugitive swindler to be filmed this fall.
The Sloyans, who have two teen-agers, bought their four-bedroom, Sherman Oaks home in 1991 for nearly $700,000. The 4,000-square-foot house was built in 1955.
