He’ll Say Bye to Brentwood Hood
KEENEN IVORY WAYANS, who created the “In Living Color” Fox-TV comedy/variety show and produced and appears in the recent spoof “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood,” has listed his Brentwood home at $4.9 million, sources say.
Wayans, 37, directed, wrote and starred in the comedy film “A Low Down Dirty Shame,” released last fall. He formed a TV production company in partnership with CBS in 1994, when “In Living Color” ended its four-year run.
One of 10 children, several of whom followed him into the entertainment industry, Wayans was born in Harlem and started out as a stand-up comic at the Improv in Manhattan. He moved to Los Angeles in 1980 and now wants to move back to the East Coast, sources say.
Wayans’ house has four bedrooms in just under 8,000 square feet. The home, on about seven acres with city views, also has a tennis court and a pool.
Wayans bought the home newly built for $3 million in 1992, and he did the finishing work. Wayans is said to be a talented carpenter but spends much of his free time playing chess and working with weights, sources say.
The home is listed with Joe Babajian of Fred Sands Estates, Directors Office, Beverly Hills and Laurent Louvet of Sands’ office in Sherman Oaks, other sources said.
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MADONNA, who is in Argentina to star in the film version of “Evita,” has taken her well-publicized house in the Hollywood Hills off the market after a year of its being for sale at various prices, starting at $7 million.
“She’s keeping it, despite the fact that she just had a good offer on it,” said a realty source not involved in the listing. “She decided that she wants to stay here now that the trial is over.” Madonna testified in a January trial that resulted in the conviction of a man for stalking the singer-actress.
Built in the ‘20s and used by Bugsy Siegel as a gambling den, the nine-level Mediterranean-style house caused a stir when Madonna, who bought it about three years ago, had it painted in yellow and rust stripes.
Madonna, 37, also has a 1920s-era waterfront home in Miami and an apartment in New York.
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BARBARA RUSH, who appeared in the HBO movie “Widow’s Kiss” in January, has put her longtime Beverly Hills house up for lease for about six months while she is on a sabbatical in New York.
The actress, 66, guest-starred last year on A&E;’s “Police Story.” She has appeared in many TV movies and was a regular in the 1980s on “Flamingo Road.”
Her house, which she has owned for about 20 years, has three bedrooms and maid’s quarters in nearly 4,000 square feet. Built in 1937, the home has been refurbished, with one bedroom turned into a closet.
Elaine Young and Barbara Eisner share the $6,500-a-month listing at Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, Beverly Hills.
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DORIS DAY, the top box-office draw in America during the 1950s and ‘60s, has sold a Spanish-style home in Franklin Canyon that she had owned since 1983 and used most recently as a rental. The actress, 71, lives on a ranch on the Carmel River in Northern California.
The 1,400-square-foot house that she sold was built in 1923 and has a balcony overlooking the living room and a sleeping porch/guest suite. It sold for $475,000 to a local businessman, sources say.
Day was represented by Randall Fred of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, and the buyer was represented by Stephen Baker of the same office.
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Singer-songwriter-record producer RAY PARKER JR., probably best known for writing the theme song to the hit 1984 movie “Ghostbusters,” has sold his Beverly Hills home, which he bought about six years ago. He has been living in Mammoth, sources say.
Parker, 41, sold the home, on an acre, for about $1 million to a French fashion-company owner, a source said.
Richard Klug of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, represented the buyer, and Stephen Shapiro of Stan Herman-Stephen Shapiro & Associates had the $1.25-million listing.
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Soap star LOUISE SOREL, who was named best supporting actress at the Soap Opera Digest awards in February, has purchased a New York City apartment.
Sorel, who plays the villainous Vivian Alamain on NBC’s “Days of Our Lives,” plans to keep her West Los Angeles home as well as her 1,000-square-foot New York apartment, which she bought for about $200,000, sources say.
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The highest sales of private residences in Manhattan during 1995 have been reported, and the top price, $8.75 million, went for JACKIE ONASSIS’ Fifth Avenue co-op, sources say. The buyer was billionaire energy mogul David Koch.
A four-story 10,000-square-foot townhouse was sold for $7.5 million to fashion designer Gianni Versace.
And a newly built 7,000-square-foot penthouse condo was sold for $6.75 million to an investor in Asia. The buyer “probably will divide it and rent it out,” said Marilyn H. Kaye, president of the Prudential MLBKaye International Realty, which represented the investor.
