‘Angel’ Alights in Brentwood
JOHN TRAVOLTA, who plays an angel in the comedy film “Michael,” and his wife, actress KELLY PRESTON, have purchased the Brentwood home they were leasing, sources say.
“They were looking at houses to buy and didn’t find anything they liked better,” a source said. The couple bought the gated Spanish-style home for $3.7 million, sources say. It had been listed at just under $4 million.
Travolta, who turns 43 on Tuesday, will star in “Have Gun, Will Travel,” his third consecutive film at a salary matching the $20 million-a-movie fee made by such actors as Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Travolta, who has been filming “Face-Off” with Nicolas Cage, co-stars with Dustin Hoffman in “Mad City,” due out next fall, and he will star in the Mike Nichols movie “Primary Colors,” expected to start shooting in April.
One of the biggest stars of the ‘70s, Travolta was in some forgettable films in the ‘80s but returned to Hollywood’s A-list in “Pulp Fiction” (1994). Since then, he starred in “Get Shorty” (1995) and the ’96 films “Broken Arrow” and “Phenomenon,” besides “Michael.”
Preston, 34, met Travolta in 1987 when filming “The Experts.” She played the NFL publicist engaged to Tom Cruise’s character in “Jerry Maguire” (1996), and she portrayed a lesbian attorney in “Citizen Ruth” (1996).
She and Travolta have been married since 1991 and have a son, Jett. Travolta is a licensed jet pilot and owns a Learjet. The family also has a 22-room estate in Maine.
Travolta, who had a ranch near Los Angeles that he sold in the 1980s, and Preston started leasing in the L.A. area in 1994, first in Beverly Hills, then in Brentwood.
Built in the 1940s, the Brentwood house is on nearly 2.5 acres with a tennis court and city-to-ocean views. The 8,500-square-foot one-story house has six bedrooms, 9 1/2 baths, six fireplaces, a gym, library-study and bar.
*
DR. DRE, rapper and record producer, and his wife, Nicole, have moved into a Chatsworth home he bought for $3.25 million, sources say.
The Grammy-winning star, who has produced more than $250 million in album sales, wrote and recorded the song “Been There, Done That,” which has been called a farewell to the gun-toting mentality he was accused of glorifying.
Dre, 31, co-founded Death Row Records but walked away from the company and gangsta rap last March. He then founded Aftermath Entertainment to market rap, R&B; and “ghetto metal” rock music as well as TV and film projects, which he is writing and plans to direct.
Dre and his wife, who married last May, moved from Calabasas to a five-bedroom 10,000-square-foot home on 7 1/2 acres in an exclusive gated section of Chatsworth.
Built about 10 years ago, the Victorian-style home has a game room and six-car garage with guest apartment.
There are also a pool, tennis court and tree house on the grounds, and Dre may build a recording studio.
Joe Coons of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills, represented Dre, and Joan Cohen of Sothebys, Beverly Hills, represented the seller, a doctor who moved to Orange County, other sources said.
*
Producer PETER GUBER, who stepped down as chairman of Sony Pictures in 1994 to form his own production company, and his wife, Lynda, have sold their Malibu Colony home for just under $5 million, sources say.
“With Honors” (1994) and “Batman Returns” (1992) are among the films Guber has produced. He is co-producing the film “Les Miserables” with Liam Neeson and Uma Thurman.
Guber, 54, became a partner last December in two minor league baseball teams, the Lake Elsinore Storm and Las Vegas Stars, and he became a partner in a minor league hockey team, the Las Vegas Thunder.
The Gubers’ principal residence is in Bel-Air, where they own two adjacent houses and are said to be creating a compound.
The Gubers had owned their Malibu home since 1989, when they bought it for $4.5 million from Ken Roberts, who sold radio station KROQ-FM (106.7) for $45 million in 1988.
Actress Lana Turner also once owned the house, which was built in 1928.
The Gubers put on a Japanese-style blue-tile roof and turned several bedrooms into one. The 5,500-square-foot house also has an indoor spa, tearoom, maid’s quarters and 50 feet of beach frontage, sources say.
*
GARY GERSH, president and CEO of Capitol Records, and his wife, Maria, have listed a Mandeville Canyon home site, where they had planned to build a 10,000-square-foot house, at $2.25 million.
Gersh, a native of Los Angeles, worked in the Capitol Records mail room when he was 19, but he developed his reputation as a judge of talent at Geffen Records before becoming head of Capitol at age 37 in 1993.
The couple had planned to build a Cape Cod-style house with pool, tennis court and guest house but bought a completed home some time ago in another part of Brentwood.
The 1.6-acre site is listed with Rick Chimienti of John Aaroe & Associates, Beverly Hills.
*
A Venice, Calif., house described as “the only private residence built by architect ARATA ISOZAKI outside of Japan” has been listed at a bit more than $1.3 million. Isozaki, 65, designed the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Disney Building outside of Orlando, the Olympic Games stadium in Barcelona and the disco Palladium in New York.
Art collector Teresa Bjornson, owner of the house, commissioned Isozaki to design the 1,250-square-foot studio-residence in 1981, using a rectangular plan with three pairs of triangular skylights. The house has one bedroom, a loft and two baths.
The house has several mud paintings created directly on two of the white walls by British sculptor Richard Long and signs at the entrances made by artist David Hockney. The windows are covered by motorized blinds.
Bjornson is selling because she has twin toddlers and an older child and they need more space, sources say. Anne Ruby of Coldwell Banker, Brentwood, has the listing.
