1929 Charmer to Get Face-Lift

Supermodel-actress CINDY CRAWFORD has purchased a Brentwood house for a bit more than its $1.8-million asking price, sources say.

The house, described as “old and dated but charming,” had a half-dozen offers the first day it was on the market, sources say. The seller, who died recently, had owned the house since 1979.

Crawford, 31, has appeared on more than 400 magazine covers, starting with Vogue in 1986, and has been a spokeswoman for Pepsi and Revlon. Her makeup book, “Cindy Crawford’s Basic Face,” was published last fall. She made her movie debut in “Fair Game” (1995).

She recently announced her return to the MTV show “House of Style,” which she hosted from 1989 to 1996. This time Crawford will be a correspondent on the show.

Crawford was married to actor Richard Gere from 1991 to 1995.

She bought a Spanish-style home with four bedrooms in nearly 4,000 square feet. Built in 1929, the hacienda has arches, stone pavers and a courtyard entrance.

“It looks like a small mission,” a source said. Although in need of refurbishing, the house has “immense charm,” another source added.

Crawford is expected to continue leasing on the Westside until she completes some work on her new home, including building walls and gates for extra privacy, sources say.

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Husband-and-wife actors ANTONIO BANDERAS and MELANIE GRIFFITH have purchased the Brentwood house they had been leasing since September 1995 from actress Michelle Pfeiffer, sources say.

The well-known couple bought the four-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot house, which they had been renting in the $15,000-a-month range, for about $3 million, sources say.

The Spanish-style home was built in the 1920s but was recently refurbished. It has three fireplaces, a courtyard with a fountain, a library, pool and spa.

Pfeiffer, who co-starred in the 1996 films “One Fine Day” with George Clooney and “Up Close and Personal” with Robert Redford, had owned the home since 1990, when she paid a bit more than $3.7 million for it, sources say.

Pfeiffer, 39, was married in 1993 to David Kelley, 40, creator-producer of the new legal series “The Practice” on ABC and “Chicago Hope” on CBS, where he also created and produced the long-running “Picket Fences.”

Banderas, 36, plays Che Guevara opposite Madonna in the film “Evita” (1996). He appeared in “Assassins” (1995), “Desperado” (1995), “Philadelphia” (1993) and “The Mambo Kings” (1992).

Griffith, 39, played Nick Nolte’s wife in the movie “Mulholland Falls” (1996) and she was in “Nobody’s Fool” (1995), “Born Yesterday” (1993), “Working Girl” (1988) and “Body Double” (1984).

Banderas and Griffith met on the set of the comedy film “Two Much” (1995). They were married last year and have a child, his first and her third.

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RAY WALSTON, who won two Emmys playing Judge Bone on the CBS series “Picket Fences” from 1992 to 1996 and starred in the popular 1960s sitcom “My Favorite Martian,” and his wife, Ruth, have bought a Westwood house for its full asking price of nearly $400,000, sources say.

Walston, in his 70s, and his wife are keeping their Beverly Hills condo, where they have been living, but they are moving to the house, which is next door to the home of their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, a source said.

Escrow closed last week on their two-bedroom, two-bath house. Built in the 1930s, the house was totally remodeled recently, a source said.

It was sold by corporate and real estate attorney John Mase and his wife, Cindy, who bought a larger home in Bel-Air for about its $900,000 asking price, sources say.

Mase, a tax specialist, is a partner in the West Los Angeles law firm of Fainsbert Mase & Snyder, and he appears as a consultant on the KNBC-4.

Leah and Tom Steuer of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, handled both sides of the Westwood deal, and they represented the Mases on their Bel-Air purchase. Diane Sharp and Joe Babajian, of Fred Sands Estates in Beverly Hills, had the Bel-Air listing.

A new 50,000-square-foot home on 5.5 acres overlooking the ocean and La Jolla coastline has been listed at $27 million “with some finishing items to be completed by the purchaser.”

The owner, Harry Eberlin, 56, was building the home for himself, his wife, Julie, 35, and their two young children, but he changed his mind when the project took him six years, expensive litigation took place and the remains of six 8,000-year-old skeletons were discovered and later reburied.

Now that the home is nearly completed, Eberlin wants to sell and move on, probably to Nevada, he says, where his company, Super Shops Automotive Performance Centers, is based. Eberlin built the 172-store, nationwide firm from one San Bernardino store, which he opened in his early 20s to sell tires and speed equipment to hot rodders.

Eberlin has owned the La Jolla property since 1991. He spent six years searching for the site, which has 800 feet of ocean frontage on top of a 200-foot bluff. “They had to rappel just to do the geological survey,” said architect Fleetwood Joiner of Newport Beach.

With input from Eberlin’s architect-wife, Joiner designed the house in an Italian Renaissance style. “I wanted it to look like [Palm Beach, Fla., architect] Addison Mizner’s work, which looked 200 years old when it was built 75 years ago,” Joiner said.

The La Jolla house was built with a steel frame and is being called “the largest single-family home ever built out of steel.” It has five family bedrooms, four guest suites, a maid’s apartment and a caretaker’s house. It also has a tennis court, conservatory, gym, beauty salon, wine cellar, theater, library, garden room, two elevators and an 8,000-square-foot subterranean garage for up to 50 cars.

Keith Hubbs, of HRE Development in San Bernardino, has the listing; he is also national director of real estate for Super Shops.

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WENDY WALSH, a correspondent on the TV show “Extra” and co-host of “How’d They Do That?” on the Learning Channel, has purchased a Marina del Rey triplex for nearly $750,000, sources say.

Built in 1988, the four-story apartment house has three units, including the 2,500-square-foot penthouse where Walsh, 32, plans to live.

Brian Selem of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co., Brentwood, represented Walsh in her purchase.