A New Home for New Baby
Oscar-winning actress DIANE KEATON, who co-stars with Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn in the movie “The First Wives Club,” has sold her Los Feliz home for about $950,000 and bought a Beverly Hills residence for close to its last asking price of $2.5 million, sources say.
Keaton, 50, made her feature film debut as a director last fall with the movie “Unstrung Heroes.” She played the mother in the comedy remake “Father of the Bride” (1991) and its 1995 sequel, both starring Steve Martin.
Keaton won her best actress Oscar for “Annie Hall” (1977) and starred in a number of other Woody Allen comedies before standing in for Mia Farrow when Farrow bowed out of his “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993). Keaton also starred in the TNT movie “Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight” (1994).
Keaton sold her Los Feliz home of eight years soon after becoming a first-time mother through adoption.
The three-bedroom home was designed by the late architect Lloyd Wright and built in 1928. Keaton is said to have put nearly $1 million into refurbishing the house, which she had purchased for about $1.2 million. The 2,700-square-foot home has ocean and canyon views.
Her new home has eight bedrooms in 7,000 square feet plus a guest house. The Spanish-style residence also was built in the 1920s. Keaton is said to be refurbishing it.
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MADONNA, who recently finished shooting her starring role in the film “Evita” and is expecting her first child in November, has sold her nine-level 7,800-square-foot Hollywood Hills home, built in the ‘20s and used by Bugsy Siegel as a gambling den.
The house is said to have sold in the low $5-million range. The last asking price was $6.5 million. The buyers are an L.A. television executive and his family, sources say.
The Mediterranean-style house was painted in yellow and rust stripes after Madonna bought it three years ago.
Late last month, she bought a smaller Mediterranean-style house, built in the 1920s in the Los Feliz area, for $2.7 million, sources have said.
Barry Peele of Sotheby’s, Beverly Hills, represented both sides of the Hollywood Hills transaction.
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Super-agent ED LIMATO, who has one of the best lists of actor clients in town, is buying a Beverly Hills-area home listed at just under $3 million and is selling his Hancock Park home. Its asking price is about $1.6 million.
Limato represents such stars as Mel Gibson, Richard Gere, Michelle Pfeiffer, Denzel Washington, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Marlon Brando, Faye Dunaway, Dennis Quaid and Liam Neeson. Once affiliated with the William Morris Agency, Limato joined International Creative Management in 1989.
He has owned his Hancock Park home since 1991. Built in 1920, the six-bedroom 6,200-square-foot house has been renovated and has a pool, garden and guest house.
The home that he is buying was built in the 1930s and has four bedrooms, two maids’ rooms, a billiard room and an upstairs playroom in 7,400 square feet. The gated estate is on 1.5-plus acres with canyon views, a tennis court and a pool. Escrow is due to close in November.
Richard Klug of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, has the Hancock Park listing.
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MIKE MILLS, bassist for the Grammy-winning band R.E.M., has lease-optioned a $1-million home in the Hollywood Hills at about $6,000 a month for a year, sources say.
In late August, R.E.M. signed the largest recording contract ever awarded: a five-album contract with Warner Bros. Records worth an estimated $80 million. The Athens, Ga., rock quartet has sold more than 30 million albums since it was formed in 1980.
Mills, 37, leased a 5,000-square-foot home with three bedrooms, maid’s quarters and a studio. Built in the 1950s, the home overlooks the Hollywood Bowl and the city.
Verna Cornelius of John Aaroe’s Pacific Design Center office represented Mills, and Paul Czako of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, represented the homeowners.
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Late filmmaker JOHN HUSTON’s longtime Irish residence will be auctioned in Dublin on Thursday. It is expected to be sold for about $2.2 million.
Huston, who died at 81 in 1987, directed such classics as “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and “The Asphalt Jungle.” He bought the house in 1954 and sold it in 1978.
While he owned the 10-bedroom, Georgian residence on 45 acres, Huston entertained dozens of film stars there.
Known as St. Clerans, the house, 45 miles from Shannon airport, has been owned most recently by two L.A. lawyers.
