She Buys Own ‘Little House’
MELISSA GILBERT, who co-stars with Cicely Tyson as a pair of Southern lawyers who champion the underdog in the fall NBC series “Sweet Justice,” has purchased a three-bedroom San Fernando Valley home for about $500,000, sources say.
Gilbert just finished a movie with Marlee Matlin for Lifetime Cable and is about to start work on a CBS movie with Patty Duke. Now 30, Gilbert became a well-known actress as a child, playing Laura Ingalls on the long-running series “Little House on the Prairie.”
She starred in the CBS movie “Babymaker: The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story,” which aired earlier this year, and co-starred last year in five TV movies, including “A Family of Strangers,” with Patty Duke and William Shatner, and “House of Secrets,” with Bruce Boxleitner.
Gilbert, who was divorced from actor-writer Bo Brinkman in February, was briefly engaged to Boxleitner after her separation from Brinkman.
She was living in her mother’s guest quarters in the San Fernando Valley before buying the home, which is between Sherman Oaks and Studio City.
Built in 1944, the 3,000-square-foot, Cape Cod-style house has shutters, window seats, French doors, two fireplaces, a cozy kitchen, breakfast nook, pool and spa.
Connie Nelson and Nicki Marcellino represented Gilbert, and Gayle Slade had the listing. All of the realtors are with Prudential California Realty in Sherman Oaks.
MATT FREWER, who played Trashcan Man in Stephen King’s miniseries “The Stand” earlier this month, and his wife, documentarian Amanda Hillwood, have purchased a three-bedroom Malibu home for close to its $799,000 asking price, sources say.
The home features what is being termed “an organic design of natural building materials” and has many trees on its 1.5 acres, with a footpath to the sand.
Frewer also played Cinemax’s high-tech talk-show host Max Headroom, which was resurrected by Bravo on cable this year, and he later appeared in the CBS sitcom “Doctor, Doctor.”
Alan and Char Rubendall of Fred Sands’ Malibu Riviera office handled both sides of the transaction.
THAAO PENGHLIS, who returned recently after an eight-year absence to his role as Count Antony DiMera on NBC’s “Days of Our Lives,” is nearing the end of a $130,000 refurbishing project at his home, built by architect John Lautner in 1964 just off of Mulholland Drive.
Penghlis, who also starred as master-of-disguise Nicholas Black in the revived “Mission: Impossible” series and co-starred in the miniseries “Memories of Midnights,” has been painting the three-bedroom, 2,400-square-foot house, which was originally gray, to complement his collections of Greek pots and Oriental screens and vases.
He painted the outside of his home cobalt blue and the inside in earth tones of yellow and gold with red touches. He is also redoing the landscaping, having completed a waterfall and pond, and modernizing the kitchen, installing black granite counters and walls and black kitchen appliances.
“I wanted to make it dramatic and masculine,” he said of the home, which he has owned for 10 years.
“It’s a maze, constantly turning corners, like my life,” Penghlis, who is of Greek descent but born in Australia, philosophized.
YVETTE MIMIEUX, who most recently appeared in Jackie Collins’ “Lady Boss” 1992 miniseries but has made dozens of TV and feature films since the 1960s, has a house for lease in the Beverly Hills area at $8,500 a month.
The home, which has two bedrooms and a den plus guest quarters and sits on a gated six-acre knoll overlooking Benedict Canyon, is co-listed by Elaine Young and Paul Czako, both of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills.
ROD McCARY, who is in the just-released movie “Night of the Demon 2” but is best remembered as Barbara Eden’s nemesis in the 1980s TV series “Harper Valley PTA,” has purchased a $700,000 home in Santa Barbara with his wife, Emily Reeves. The couple got married on Valentine’s Day in Las Vegas.
Their 3,000-square-foot Santa Barbara home has three bedrooms and oceans views. The newlyweds also have a three-bedroom condo in West Los Angeles.
