She’s Outta Sight in H’wood Hills
Oscar-winning actress MIRA SORVINO, in town to start filming this month on the action thriller “The Replacement Killers” and to be a presenter in March at the Academy Awards, has leased a Hollywood Hills home until mid-May at nearly its $7,500-a-month asking price, sources say.
She won her Oscar as best supporting actress in Woody Allen’s romantic comedy “Mighty Aphrodite” (1995), in which she played a prostitute. She played Marilyn Monroe in the HBO film “Norma Jean and Marilyn” (1996) and appeared in “Beautiful Girls” (1996) and “Quiz Show” (1994).
Sorvino, 29, co-stars with Lisa Kudrow in the comedy “Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion,” due out in May.
The house she leased is behind gates and has three bedrooms in about 3,000 square feet. The house was built in the 1940s but was recently remodeled, sources say.
Sorvino, who owns a flat on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, leased the traditional-style home complete with linens, china and other furnishings. The house also has a pool, spa and canyon views.
Jodie Foster is also known to have recently leased the house. “Celebs like it for its privacy,” a source said. “You can’t see it from the street.”
Sorvino’s companion, Oscar-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, also lives in the Hollywood Hills. He bought a seven-bedroom, 14,000-square-foot house there last year.
The actress was born in New Jersey and graduated with honors from Harvard University, where she majored in East Asian Studies. She spent about eight months in Beijing, where she taught English and sang with two jazz bands. She speaks fluent Chinese.
She won her first role in a major Hollywood film in Robert Redford’s “Quiz Show” after coming to his attention in the movie “Amongst Friends” (1993) when it was shown at Redford’s Sundance Film Festival.
Paul Czako of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, represented Sorvino in the lease, other sources said.
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Denver Broncos wide receiver MIKE SHERRARD, an 11-year NFL player out of UCLA, has purchased a home in Bel-Air at just under $2 million, sources say.
Sherrard, 33, was selected in the first round of the 1986 NFL draft to play for the Dallas Cowboys. He then played with the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants before joining the Broncos.
Sherrard bought a newly built, Spanish Mediterranean-style house in a guard-gated community. The 9,000-square-foot house has six bedrooms and a bonus room on three levels, as well as a pool and city views.
Sherrard has other homes, but this will be his primary residence, sources say.
Joe Babajian and Kyle Grasso, both of Fred Sands Estates in Beverly Hills, had the listing.
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Swedish supermodel VENDELA, who plays Arnold Schwarzenegger’s wife in the upcoming movie “Batman and Robin,” has sold her Beverly Hills home for close to its last asking price of about $1.98 million, sources say.
Vendela, 29, owned the home for about a year. The 3,200-square-foot house has three bedrooms plus maid’s quarters. Vendela remodeled the house, built in the ‘50s.
The buyers, a young local couple, were represented by Keith Binkley and Shari Huntington of the Palisades East office of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co.
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RICK ROSENFIELD, co-founder of the California Pizza Kitchen chain, and his wife, Esther, have sold their Bel-Air home for a little more than $6 million, sources say. The couple bought the 11,000-square-foot house on five acres for $7 million in 1994, according to public records.
Leonard Green, who heads his own private merchant-banking firm specializing in management buyouts, and his wife, Jude, bought the house, closing escrow just before Valentine’s Day. The Greens sold their Beverly Hills home in January to Neil Diamond.
Green, 62, is known for engineering friendly buyouts of such firms as Budget Rent-a-Car. He has been involved in acquisitions partnerships since 1969, sources say.
Rosenfield, 51, is a former federal prosecutor who co-founded the California Pizza Kitchen chain in 1985. In 1992, PepsiCo paid each of the partners $17.5 million and retained them as co-chairmen.
Kay Pick of Mike Silverman Estates, a Prudential-Jon Douglas Co., represented the Greens, and Joyce Flaherty of the Prudential-Rodeo-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, represented the Rosenfields, said sources not involved in the transaction.
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The Encino home of the late DON FEDDERSON, who produced such early TV shows as “My Three Sons” and “The Lawrence Welk Show,” has been sold for about $1 million, sources say. His widow, Yvonne, sold the house.
The home, on an acre in the Royal Oaks area, has a tennis court, pool and guest-house. Built in the 1940s, the Spanish-style, 3,600-square-foot house also has five bedrooms and a four-room maid’s quarters. The buyers, who have 2-year-old triplets, plan to extensively refurbish.
Don Fedderson died in 1994 at the age of 81. He produced “Do You Trust Your Wife?” with Edgar Bergen, “Family Affair” with Brian Keith and “To Rome With Love” with John Forsythe.
His widow co-founded Childhelp USA in 1959 as an international orphanage. The organization has expanded and shifted focus, now operating centers for abused children.
Claire Heebner represented the sellers, and Hal and Nancy Daum represented the buyers. The Realtors are all with the Encino/Sherman Oaks office of Coldwell Banker.
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An open house will be held today in Eagle Rock at two Craftsman-style houses, designated as Los Angeles historical cultural monuments in 1988.
Both houses were built just after the turn of the century. One is reminiscent of the cottage in the Disney movie “Snow White,” the other is a Swiss chalet-style studio with a Hansel and Gretel-type playhouse.
Each house is listed at a bit under $180,000. The houses, at 1203 and 1207 Kipling Ave., will be open from noon to 4 p.m. John and Marion Fairbanks share the listing at the Pasadena office of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co.
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