Keeping Up With Joneses

Singing superstar TOM JONES, who will make his movie debut Friday in the Tim Burton-directed sci-fi comedy “Mars Attacks!” with Jack Nicholson and Glenn Close, has listed his Bel-Air home of 20 years at $7.9 million.

Jones, who regularly performs in Las Vegas, is spending less time in Los Angeles and more time elsewhere, especially in Britain, sources say.

The 56-year-old entertainer was born in the South Wales mining town of Pontypridd, where actor Richard Burton was born, and has an estate in the Welsh valleys, sources say.

Jones and his wife, Melinda, are said to be planning to keep a smaller residence in Southern California, where his sister and mother still live. Jones and his wife were married in Wales when he was 16 and they have a son, who is his manager, and two grandchildren.

Jones became a British singing sensation in 1964 with his recording of “It’s Not Unusual.” By the late 1960s, he was breaking attendance records at American nightclubs with such songs as “What’s New Pussycat” and “Delilah.”

In 1969 he became the first British entertainer to star regularly on TV in this country with his “This Is Tom Jones” on ABC, sources say. In 1993, he hosted a show on VH1. Still an international star, he tours as far away as Australia, doing an estimated 200 shows a year.

Jones bought his nine-bedroom home on an acre in Bel-Air in 1976 from singer-actor Dean Martin. Martin had lived there for more than 10 years, and his oldest daughter was married there, sources say.

The brick-faced house was built in 1940 with 13,000 square feet. Martin remodeled the house and added a screening room with a sunken wet bar. Jones added a 1,000-square-foot-plus gym with a sauna, solarium and shower. There is a jogging track on the gated and walled property.

The formal Tudor-style home also has a guest house and a two-story entry with a suspended staircase. The master suite has a deck and a city view. The wood paneling was imported from England.

Cecelia Waeschle and Joyce Rey share the listing at the Prudential-Rodeo-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills; neither was available for comment.

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“Baywatch” star-executive producer DAVID HASSELHOFF has sold his house in the Sherman Oaks hills for a bit more than $1 million to MICHAEL CHIKLIS, who reprised his 1991-95 starring role in “The Commish” TV series in three ABC movies during the 1995-96 season, sources say. Chiklis will open a one-man Broadway show in about six weeks.

Escrow closed last week on the 6,000-square-foot house, which has four bedrooms, maid’s quarters and a two-story guest suite. The house, which also has a screening room, is on an acre behind gates. It was Hasselhoff’s home for a dozen years.

Hasselhoff, 44, and his wife, actress Pamela Bach, moved to the 1.5-acre, five-bedroom Encino home they bought last April for $1.5 million from actor John Goodman, sources say. The Hasselhoffs have two children.

Chiklis, 33, and his wife, actress Michelle Epstein, were leasing in Beverly Hills, sources say.

Jeanne Valvo, Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills, handled the Sherman Oaks transaction for both parties.

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KATE JACKSON, who stars in the upcoming CBS movie “What Happened to Bobby Earl,” has sold her Coldwater Canyon home, sources say, and moved to a larger Beverly Hills house that she bought almost a year ago.

Earlier this year, Jackson hosted the ABC special “Gail Sheehy’s New Passages” and co-starred with Tracey Gold in the ABC movie “A Kidnapping in the Family.”

Jackson also starred this year in the CBS movie “The Cold Heart of a Killer,” set at an Iditarod dog sled race. She did her own stunt work and driving, sources say. Jackson, 48, is divorced and has a son.

Her Coldwater Canyon home was sold for close to its last asking price of $995,000 to Steve and Frannie Rennie, sources say. He is a senior vice president and general manager of Epic Records, which has such artists as Babyface, Gloria Estefan and the Spin Doctors.

The four-bedroom, 3,600-square-foot house in Coldwater Canyon was sold but fell out of escrow soon after Jackson bought her current residence for $1.5 million, sources say. The home was recently reduced in price from about $1.2 million.

Leah and Tom Steuer of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, represented the buyers, and Shirley Wells and Darryl Wallace of John Aaroe & Associates, Beverly Hills, had the listing.