Still ‘Wheeling’ and Dealing
MERV GRIFFIN, who donated 104 acres of land in Benedict Canyon to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy earlier this year, has sold his Beverly Hills home of eight years.
The singer/talk-show host-turned-mogul owns the Beverly Hilton hotel, new riverboat casinos in Louisiana and Illinois, and a hotel-casino in Atlantic City. Griffin, 68, is also executive producer of the TV game shows “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune,” both of which he created.
He sold his Beverly Hills home “because he wanted to spend more time in La Quinta, where he has his ranch,” a Griffin spokesman said.
Frederic Rosen, chairman of Ticketmaster, bought the Beverly Hills home, on three acres, for $7.5 million, including the trade of Rosen’s former Beverly Hills residence, valued at about $2 million, sources say. Griffin, who can stay at the Hilton when in town, is expected to put that house back on the market. It was once listed at $3.5 million.
The home that Griffin sold was for sale in 1989 at $20 million, the same price he was asking in 1990 for his Benedict Canyon land. “He was planning a huge compound (there) . . . but decided it wasn’t worth the money, time or effort, because he’s never home, he’s such an entrepreneur,” his spokesman said.
Griffin, who also has a home in the Carmel Valley, decided to make the 160-acre La Quinta ranch his Southern California residence because he goes there every weekend to watch his 18 Arabian horses.
“And he had put so much into La Quinta,” his spokesman said. Griffin had the Moroccan-style house, guest cabanas and stables built, then almost entirely rebuilt after a fire during construction six years ago, about the time he bought the Beverly Hilton.
Griffin had purchased his Beverly Hills home through probate court for $5 million in cash. The 10,000-square-foot Georgian colonial had been owned by the late Liliore B. Rains, a daughter of Beverly Hills co-founder Burton Green. An avid tennis player, Griffin had a tennis pavilion and sunken tennis court built after he had the 1940s-era mansion refurbished.
Producer ROBERT EVANS (“Sliver,” “The Two Jakes”), who recently completed his autobiography, “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” about his highly publicized ups and downs, has put his Beverly Hills home of 27 years on the market at $5.95 million.
Evans, 63, was one of Hollywood’s golden boys during the ‘60s and ‘70s when he was a top executive at Paramount. He has been credited with making the studio a powerhouse with such hits as “The Godfather,” “Love Story” and “Chinatown,” which won him personal acclaim.
During this time, it was said that more deals were put together in the projection room of his home and on his tennis court than at any studio. He also married and divorced actresses Sharon Hugueny, Camilla Sparv, Ali MacGraw, then TV host/former Miss America Phyllis George.
Depression from a drug-possession conviction, financial woes (stemming from “The Cotton Club” film, which he co-produced in 1984) and the Cotton Club murder case, in which he was implicated but never charged, led Evans to take a professional hiatus, which ended in 1991 when he signed a five-year production deal with Paramount, starting with “Sliver” (1993).
Evans sold his Beverly Hills home in 1989 but continued to live in it as a renter for 10 months, when he repurchased it. He had seller’s remorse almost as soon as escrow closed but was unable to talk the buyer, international businessman Tony Murray, into selling it back. Five months later, actor Jack Nicholson, a friend of Evans’, flew to Monte Carlo and convinced Murray to let Evans buy the house the following January.
Evans won’t change his mind about selling this time, sources say, because he is ready to move on now that he has completed his autobiography and is starting two new films for Paramount, including the Joe Eszterhas thriller “Jade.” He is also in the process of buying a 57-acre horse ranch in Montecito and a penthouse in Los Angeles, sources say.
Built in 1941, his Beverly Hills home is a 16-room, one-story French Normandy on 1.6 acres, with waterfalls, 300-foot-high eucalyptus trees and 2,000 rose bushes. Kurt Rappaport of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
JACK BERNSTEIN, who co-produced the 1992 films “The Mambo Kings” and “Under Siege,” and his wife, Sunny, have sold their Encino home of five years for their asking price of $625,000, sources say.
The six-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot home, nestled in the hills, was sold to Michael Sheller, an architect with the Jerde Partnership in Venice, and his wife, Geannie. The Bernsteins are moving to Mercer Island in the state of Washington, said listing agent Mike Glickman of Jon Douglas Co.’s Encino office. Jan Reichmann of Rodeo Realty represented the buyers.
