Star Pays $2M for His Privacy

ROBERT REDFORD, who just finished directing the movie “Quiz Show”(opening Friday) about the TV scandals of the 1950s--and will begin work in November as the lead in Rob Reiner’s romantic comedy “American President,” has purchased a beachfront lot in Malibu from playwright and screenwriter NEIL SIMON for about $2 million, sources say.

Redford bought the 40-by-330-foot lot, which is between his beachfront house and Simon’s, so nobody would buy and build next door to him, sources say.

“Quiz Show,” Redford’s fourth film as a director (he won an Oscar for his first efforts as a director in the 1980 movie “Ordinary People”), is due to be released Friday.

Redford, 57, was nominated for an acting Oscar only once but has been described as “a cinematic icon” due to his roles in such films as “The Way We Were” and “The Sting.” He most recently played the billionaire who seduces Demi Moore in “Indecent Proposal” (1993).

Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning Simon, whose numerous plays and movies include “The Odd Couple,” “The Sunshine Boys” and “Lost in Yonkers,” took back a loan of $1.3 million on the sale of his lot to Redford, according to public records.

Redford has owned his Malibu home, with its five bedrooms in 5,000 square feet and a pool, since 1986.

He was recently divorced from his wife, Lola, whom he married in 1958. The couple have three children and three grandchildren. They apparently separated while he was working to raise money for his nonprofit Sundance Institute, the independent filmmakers workshop in Park City, Utah, that gave birth to the popular Sundance Film Festival.

Redford has been reported as saying, “Starting Sundance made me very happy. But my marriage ended, which was very sad. I spent so much time behind the scenes raising money.”

Simon has owned his beachfront home, with five bedrooms in just under 5,000 square feet, since 1987, sources say.

TOM ARNOLD, who appears in the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis film “True Lies,” has leased a Mediterranean villa in Beverly Hills for a year at $20,000 a month, sources say.

Arnold, 35, has been separated from TV comedy queen Roseanne since she filed for divorce in April, changed her mind three days later, and filed again. He created and starred in the TV series “Tom,” which was canceled in May.

The home he leased has five bedrooms and a guest house in about 9,000 square feet, behind walls and gates. The estate is on a knoll, about an acre in size with a panoramic view of the Los Angeles Basin. Lionel Richie and Elton John are among the former lessees.

Raymond Bekeris of John Bruce Nelson & Associates represented Arnold in the lease.

LOUIS J. HORVITZ, who will direct the Primetime Emmy Awards telecast on ABC today, has purchased a house in the Hollywood Hills for nearly $1.2 million, sources say.

Horvitz is a veteran director of scores of major live awards and special event TV programs including the Primetime Emmys last year and the American Film Institute Salute to Jack Nicholson on CBS last March.

He bought a four-bedroom, 6,300-square-foot house with city views and leased out his former home, which is nearby. His new home was originally listed at $2.2 million but was most recently on the market at just under $1.3 million, sources say.

Martin Genis of 1st London Realtors, Beverly Hills, represented Horvitz in his purchase, and Ron Abrams of Fred Sands Estates, Directors Office, had the listing.

INGO PREMINGER, late producer-director Otto Preminger’s brother and a producer himself of the 1970 movie “MASH,” and his wife, KATE, have bought a house in Pacific Palisades and put their Wilshire condo on the market at $429,000.

“We lived there for 16 years and loved it, but all of a sudden we had the urge to have a house, probably because we sold our home in Europe,” he said.

They had a house in Austria, near Salzburg, “but it was too much for us to keep up, having an apartment in New York and the one here.” He sighed. “After all, we are getting old.”

The Premingers, who celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in August, are both 83.

Even so, once they moved to their house in the Palisades, they missed the pool and gym at their condo building on Wilshire. “So we are going to build a pool,” he said.

Their condo has three bedrooms, a remodeled kitchen and a view of the Los Angeles Country Club and mountains. The condo is listed with Adam Blumenstein of Jon Douglas Co., Santa Monica.