Glam Couple Exit Bel-Air
RICHARD GERE, who plays Lancelot to Sean Connery’s King Arthur in the upcoming romance adventure “First Knight,” and his estranged wife, super-model CINDY CRAWFORD, have sold their Bel-Air home for about $5.2 million to Emmy Award-winning director JAMES BURROWS, sources say.
Burrows, 54, has been called “a preeminent shaper of sitcoms.” He co-created “Cheers” and directed its pilot episode as well as those for the series “NewsRadio,” “Frasier,” “Wings,” “Friends” and “Roc.”
Gere, who has been signed to play an attorney in the thriller “Primal Fear,” most recently co-starred with Sharon Stone in the 1994 movie “Intersection.” He also co-starred with Jodie Foster in “Sommersby” (1993) and with Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman” (1990).
Crawford will make her feature film debut this summer in the action drama “Fair Game,” co-starring William Baldwin.
Gere, 45, and Crawford, 29, were married in late 1989 and separated late last year. They acquired the Bel-Air home in 1993 for about $5 million. Gere put another $1 million into it, turning a den and wine room into a media room, baths and an office, sources say. “He also bought some extra land so he could have a circular drive built in front,” a source said.
The nearly 10,000-square-foot, Georgian-style house, on an acre with rolling lawns and a curvy pool, has five sitting rooms and a mirror-lined gym. The home was originally built in 1939 but was gutted and rebuilt at a cost of nearly $2 million two years before Gere and Crawford bought it. The couple who rebuilt the house paid nearly $4 million for it in 1991.
Gere and Crawford spent little time in the home, sources say, even after it was decorated with such items as a modern Tibetan imitation-tiger rug and Buddha figures. Gere is a Buddhist and supporter of the Dalai Lama, Tibetans and Tibet, which is under China’s domination.
Helene Sherman of John Aaroe & Associates, Beverly Hills, had the listing, originally at $6.5 million, and Mike Deasy of Mosler, Deasy & Doe, Beverly Hills, represented the buyer.
Wilson Phillips singer CARNIE WILSON, one of former Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s daughters, has moved to the East Coast to host her upcoming New York-based talk show “Carnie,” and she has sold her Sherman Oaks home for just under $1 million.
“Carnie,” to be produced by the Warner Bros. subsidiary Telepictures Productions, will be targeted to women aged 18-34 when it starts airing this fall on KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. The choice of Wilson, who is in her 20s, as host was inspired by the success of “Ricki Lake” and is one of a new generation of talk shows, based on dramatic growth of younger adult viewers.
Wilson’s former Sherman Oaks home has four bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths, behind gates. Marilyn Wilson of Jon Douglas Co., Bel-Air, represented her daughter in the sale, and Dale Beck of King Realty, Sherman Oaks, represented the buyers.
The Holmby Hills home of former L.A. Kings president BRUCE McNALL, who pleaded guilty last year to four felonies, will be the subject of a court hearing May 30 to see if a private school can buy the residence.
McNall, 44, faces sentencing in July of up to 45 years for defrauding financial institutions out of more than $236 million.
The house, which McNall bought in 1982 for about $7 million, was listed last September at just under $5.6 million. Harvard-Westlake School, which owns adjacent property, is said to have made an offer, subject to overbid at $4,738,750.
The home has five bedrooms and seven baths in about 10,000 square feet. The house was built in 1937 but was gutted and rebuilt in the 1980s. There is also a tennis court on the 1.5-acre grounds. Shirley Wells of John Aaroe & Associates, Beverly Hills, has the listing.