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Record Mogul’s Latest Release

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Multimedia mogul DAVID GEFFEN, who has been working since last fall to establish his DreamWorks SKG studio with Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg and former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, has sold his Hollywood Hills home to pop songwriter DIANE WARREN.

Geffen, described as “Hollywood’s richest man” after his Geffen Records label was sold in 1990 for $540 million in MCA stock that was worth $710 million months later when MCA was sold to Matsushita, had owned the Sunset Strip-area pied-a-terre since 1991, when he bought it from Jerry Herman, who composed “La Cage aux Folles,” “Mame” and “Hello, Dolly!”

Geffen bought Herman’s home as a place to live while refurbishing late movie mogul Jack Warner’s nine-acre Beverly Hills estate, which Geffen bought in 1990 for $47.5 million. There has been talk that he would sell the Warner estate after restoring its 15,000-square-foot-plus main house, but now he is said to be planning to move into it this summer.

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Geffen sold his three-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot Hollywood Hills home, with a view from downtown to the ocean, for about $2.63 million. The house had been on the market for only six weeks, said listing broker June Scott of June Scott Estates, a Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills. Liz Nifoussi of Prudential/Rodeo Realty, Studio City, represented Warren in the deal.

Warren, one of the most successful pop songwriters, has written for such stars as Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston and Cher. Among Warren’s hits have been “Time, Love and Tenderness,” recorded by Michael Bolton.

Warren--in her 30s but already named “Songwriter of the Year” three times by the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers--is working on projects for Al Green, Jon Secada and Aaron Neville. She also has homes in Malibu and Sherman Oaks.

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Geffen, 52, also has homes in Malibu and New York City, where he went from sorting talent-agency mail to becoming a millionaire at 25 when he sold his first record company.

Continuing to head Geffen Records after sale of its label, Geffen started DGC, a new record label, while producing movies and plays. Among his films have been “Interview With the Vampire” (1994) and “Beetlejuice” (1988). He has backed such blockbuster Broadway hits as “Dreamgirls,” “Cats,” “M Butterfly” and “Miss Saigon.”

TWIGGY, the original super-waif of the fashion world when she was a 16-year-old model in the 1960s, and her husband, actor Leigh Lawson, have put their Hancock Park home of four years on the market at just under $600,000.

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Twiggy, now 45, made her Broadway debut in “My One and Only” after making her film debut in “The Boyfriend” (1971). More recently, she starred in the TV series “Princesses” (1991) and appeared in the 1988 film “Madame Sousatzka.”

The couple is moving to New York to be closer to their work and Twiggy’s teen-age daughter, according to their realtor, Delphine Mann of Douglas Properties, Beverly Hills. Twiggy’s daughter, from her first marriage to the late actor Michael Witney, attends boarding school in England, where Lawson is doing a Harold Pinter play, Mann said.

Built in 1918 but rehabbed by the Lawsons, the Hancock Park house has five bedrooms and four baths in about 3,500 square feet. It also has a front porch, steam shower and pool.

CARY WOODS, a producer of the upcoming Andy Garcia thriller “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead” and the Timothy Hutton/Rosie O’Donnell drama “Beautiful Girls,” has bought a Mediterranean-style, Hollywood Hills house for about its $2-million asking price, sources say.

Built in 1931, the 4,500-square-foot house, restored and remodeled during the past five years, has many arches; original-tile baths, and commanding views of Los Angeles. It also has a 2,000-square-foot deck with a pool and spa.

Woods was a talent-agency exec before he became a producer of such films as “Threesome” (1994), “Only You” (1994), “Rudy” (1993) and “So I Married an Axe Murderer” (1993). He had been leasing in the Beverly Hills area, a source said.

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Paul Czako of Hilton & Hyland and David Perry of Prudential Rodeo Realty represented Woods.

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