She Needs Place to Hold Court

DONNA MILLS, who played Abby Cunningham for nine seasons on CBS’ “Knots Landing” and starred in January as a victim of domestic violence in the NBC movie “Dangerous Intentions,” has put her Beverly Hills-area home of nine years on the market at just under $3 million.

Mills, who ended her “Knots Landing” run in 1989, starred last season as a woman struggling to overcome alcoholism in the ABC movie “My Name Is Kate,” which she also executive produced, and she played a globe-trotting TV correspondent in the Barbara Taylor Bradford NBC miniseries “Remember.”

“I decided to sell my house because I’ve wanted one with a tennis court for a long time,” she said. “I play tennis a couple of times a week, and if I had my own court, I’d play more.

“I’d also like to entertain around tennis, with parties and brunches.” Mills, 49, is a single mother with an adopted infant daughter, but she is also active in Women in Film and a number of other professional and charitable organizations.

She also likes to refurbish and redecorate. “I redid my kitchen a couple of years ago, and I just redid the living room and den,” she said. Her five-bedroom, 6,000-square-foot home was built in 1953, but it looks new, a source said, “because Donna ostensibly gutted it.”

The gated home is on a bit more than two acres with rolling lawns, a motorcourt, cabana, sauna, gym, two offices and a pool with a waterfall.

Joyce Rey and Cecelia Waeschle, both of Prudential Rodeo Realty in Beverly Hills, share the listing.

MICHAEL CHIKLIS, who stars in ABC’s police drama “The Commish” and played John Belushi in the film “Wired” (1989), has leased a home in the Hollywood Hills for a year at close to its $9,000 monthly asking price, sources say.

Chiklis, 31, has appeared in “The Commish,” which is filmed in Vancouver, B.C., since 1991, but he and his wife had been leasing a home in Los Angeles that was recently sold.

Their new home has four bedrooms plus maid’s quarters in 4,000 square feet. Built in 1990, the Santa Fe-style home has a pool and city views.

Lea Lipman of Fred Sands’ Beverly Hills Estates office had the listing, and Jeanne Valvo of the firm’s Estates Directors office represented the lessees.

JENNY and SID CRAIG, heads of the Del Mar-based weight-loss empire bearing her name, have purchased a 237-acre horse training facility just east of Del Mar that was once owned by the late Eugene Klein, former owner of the San Diego Chargers who made a fortune in ventures ranging from movie production (as head of National General Corp.) to book publishing. Klein died at the age of 69 in 1990.

The Craigs bought the ranch, including a six-furlong training track and stalls for 150 horses, for $6 million. It was sold for $27 million after Klein’s death but was recently in foreclosure and owned by a bank.

“I’ve looked at that ranch for a long time and am happy to be able to get it now,” Sid Craig said by phone. The Craigs, who bought a Rancho Santa Fe home two years ago for nearly $6.9 million, own several race horses.

The Beverly Hills-area home of CARMEN McRAE, the great jazz singer who died last November at the age of 74, has come on the market at $795,000.

McRae, who lived in the home for 28 years and died there, decorated it in her favorite colors, mainly orange. Built in 1960, the 2,800-square-foot house has four bedrooms and a head-on city view, with living-room walls of glass.

Last December, the National Endowment for the Arts named McRae one of its masters of jazz. She studied to be a concert pianist but at 17, won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater and went on to sing with Count Basie and other famous big-band leaders.

Much of her memorabilia from the house will be donated to Rutgers University’s Jazz Studies Department, said listing agent Marilyn Watson of Celebrity Properties, Beverly Hills.

SUSIE FIELD, who was once married to movie producer Ted Field (“Three Men and a Baby”), has sold her Orange County home to former Westminster Mayor Calvin C. Brack.

Brack is CEO and a co-owner of Anaheim-based KDOC-TV, Channel 56.

Field sold the home, in the gated Harbor Ridge area of Newport Beach, for just under $2 million, sources say. The home was originally listed at about $2.4 million. The all-cash deal included the five-bedroom, 7,500-square-foot house, built about 10 years ago, along with its pool, spa and view, “overlooking all of Newport,” a source said.

In April, Field, 32, bought an 8,000-square-foot Bel-Air home, on 2.5 acres, for $4.7 million. She had lived in the Newport Beach home for a couple of years, since separating from the producer. She was recently remarried.

Spyro Kemble and Mark Cardelucci, both Newport Beach realtors with their own companies, represented Field in the sale, and Bill Cote, also a Newport Beach realtor, represented Brack.