Life on Farm Suits Her Fine
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, who appears in the just-released movie “It’s My Party” and hosts the Australian TV show “Wild Life” on the Discovery Channel, has listed her Malibu home at $7.5 million.
The pop singer and actress decided to sell the house, on 1.5 acres just south of Paradise Cove, because she is “scaling down” and spending more time on her farm with her family in Australia, sources say. Newton-John, 47, was born in England but was raised in Australia.
She was in Australia last week, promoting “It’s My Party,” which opened in the United States on Friday. Newton-John plays a friend of an architect (portrayed by Eric Roberts) who is dying of AIDS, and she sings the song “Don’t Cut Me Down” during the end credits. Newton-John co-starred with John Travolta in “Grease” (1978) and starred in the NBC movie “A Mom for Christmas” (1990).
The Grammy Award-winning singer, who has recorded many hit songs, co-produced her newest album “GAIA: One Woman’s Journey,” marking her return to the recording industry after being treated for breast cancer in 1992.
The album, out in Australia and Europe, is expected to be released in the U.S. this year. It also marks her debut as a songwriter. “I think what it’s made me realize is the value of simplicity . . . nature and . . . relationships more than . . . money and possessions,” she has said.
Her Malibu house has seven bedrooms and eight baths with guest quarters in about 10,000 square feet. The five-level, Santa Fe-style home also has a six-car garage, lap pool, spa, 12-seat theater, billiard room, gym and golf-cart path from the bluff to 150 feet of beach.
Newton-John and her husband, actor MATT LATTANZI, worked with architect James Chuda to see that the home was environmentally conscious in its design and construction, using nontoxic building materials as well as air filtering and water purification systems. The house was completed in 1993. It is listed with Glen Meyers at Coldwell Banker, Pacific Palisades.
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BUDD FRIEDMAN, the man behind the Improv and host of A&E;’s “Evening at the Improv” comedy-club series, and his wife, Alixandria, have sold their Beverly Hills house and bought two connecting condos in a building on Wilshire’s Golden Mile. “They wanted a change of lifestyle, now that their children are grown,” a source said.
The Friedmans sold their 5,000-square-foot home of eight years to attorney Herman Glatt for close to the $1.3-million asking price. Glatt is one of many attorneys retained by Orange County in its bankruptcy case.
The four-bedroom, 4,200-square-foot house has a 95-foot-long entrance gallery, 21-foot-high ceilings and a heated waterfall that cascades into a pool. The wood, glass, brick and terra-cotta tile home, which has a copper roof, was built in 1974 on rollers for earthquake safety.
The Friedmans’ condos total about 3,000 square feet and have treetop views over the L.A. Country Club.
Budd Friedman opened his first late-night coffeehouse and restaurant in New York in 1963. He opened a second club in West Hollywood in 1976. After he sold the New York club in 1979, he and his partner, Mark Lonow, opened clubs across the country, including in Santa Monica.
Geraldine Clark, of the Prudential-Rodeo-Jon Douglas Co. in Beverly Hills, represented the Friedmans in their sale and purchase.
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LAWRENCE BENDER, producer of “Pulp Fiction,” has purchased a newly built home in Holmby Hills for close to its asking price of $3.6 million, sources say.
Bender, 39, was living in an apartment that he was just starting to furnish and was driving a 10-year-old car. He was quoted in The Times, saying, “I’ve only been seeing any money out of all my work for the past two years, and when you’ve been as poor as I’ve been, you don’t think money is always going to be around.”
Bender, described in the January profile as “a leading light among American independent film producers,” bought a six-bedroom, traditional-style home on an acre, built and sold by designer Gail Adelson.
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BRYAN CRANSTON, who plays Curt the cop on Louie Anderson’s CBS sitcom “The Louie Show,” has built an addition to his Sherman Oaks home.
Cranston, 39, and his wife, actress ROBIN DEARDEN, bought the 2,600-square-foot house, built in 1941, about the time they were married, in 1990. They refurbished it and moved in about a year later.
Then he realized that they needed the extra space. “We have a 3-year-old, so I needed a place detached from the house where I could work, write and do some audition coaching for other actors,” Cranston said.
He and his brother-in-law built a 300-square-foot detached office for about $20,000. But the best part of it was that they did it themselves, Cranston said.
