Diva Digs In at the Beach; Director Leases Beverly Hills Digs
BARBRA STREISAND has put her Holmby Hills home of 18 years on the market at $7.5 million.
Streisand, who was nominated for an original song Oscar at last week’s Academy Awards, lives in Malibu, where she has a compound that she created in 1995 by buying three adjacent houses for a total of about $12.5 million.
Streisand, 54, produced, directed and starred in “The Mirror Has Two Faces” (1996), which not only earned her the Oscar nomination for co-writing “I Finally Found Someone” but also brought a best supporting actress nomination for film legend Lauren Bacall.
Streisand won an Oscar for co-writing “Evergreen” in 1976. She won a best actress Oscar for “Funny Girl” (1968) and has won several Grammy, Emmy and Golden Globe awards and a Tony.
Streisand’s Holmby Hills house has five bedrooms and seven baths in 9,500 square feet. Built in 1927, the walled and gated Mediterranean-style home has a two-story living room, dining room with fireplace, screening and sun rooms, an office and a library.
The house, on slightly more than two acres, also has a pool and parking for 10 cars.
Joe Babajian and Mindy Williamson, both of Fred Sands Estates in Beverly Hills, share the listing.
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MIKE NICHOLS, in L.A. to produce and direct the upcoming political movie “Primary Colors,” starring John Travolta, has moved into a Beverly Hills-area compound, which he leased for a reported six months at $25,000 a month.
Elaine May, “Primary Colors” screenwriter and Nichols’ collaborator on “The Birdcage” (1996), is staying in the guest house on the one-acre property, sources have said.
Nichols’ wife, ABC’s “PrimeTime Live” co-anchor Diane Sawyer, is expected to visit on weekends. The couple has a home in Connecticut.
Nichols, 65, and May, 64, met in the 1950s as members of the Compass Players in Chicago. The improv group was later known as Second City.
As a comedy act, Nichols and May appeared on Broadway in 1960, but they had split as a team before Nichols won his best director Oscar for “The Graduate” (1967).
“The Birdcage” was the first movie they worked on together. Nichols produced and directed it, and May wrote the screenplay.
Besides the guest house, the contemporary Southwestern-style home that Nichols leased has a 5,000-square-foot main house with three bedrooms and maid’s quarters.
The gated estate, which was recently rebuilt, also has canyon and city views, a tennis court and two swimming pools, one for the guest house, which has a private drive. The home came furnished, even with linens.
Paul Czako of Hilton & Hyland represented Nichols in the lease, and Kurt Rappaport and Loren Judd, both of Stan Herman-Stephen Shapiro & Associates, had the listing, other sources said.
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CAROL BURNETT, who exchanged her Century City house for a Wilshire penthouse earlier this year, has listed her Santa Fe, N.M., home, which she built in 1995, at $3.95 million. “In the course of the past two years, I’ve realized that my career has kept me traveling quite a lot, and I haven’t been able to spend as much time in Santa Fe,” she said in a prepared statement. “I don’t need a home as large as the one I built, so I plan to look for a smaller place.”
Burnett taped a second “Mad About You” segment last week, playing Helen Hunt’s mother, and she is expected to be honored in April by the Library of Congress.
The main house has two bedrooms, an office and a media room in 7,500 square feet. The gate house has one bedroom in 1,000 square feet. There are arched and hand-painted doorways, several fireplaces and outdoor sitting areas.
The adobe, on five acres, is listed with Pat French and Jan Sekas, French & French Fine Properties.
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The Bel-Air home of the late LORD GORDON WHITE, co-founder of the British conglomerate Hanson P.L.C. and a successful takeover artist during the 1970s and 1980s, has been sold for close to $9 million to David Rosen, founder of the video-game company Sega, and his wife, Masako.
Rosen started the video-game giant in Tokyo when he returned there in 1954 as a 20-year-old from Brooklyn. He had been in Japan earlier, serving in the Air Force.
The Rosens have been living in Beverly Hills.
White died in 1995 at 72. The house was sold by his estate.
Situated on a 4.2-acre private knoll, the home was built in 1971 for Texas oilman Doyle Cotton. It was later owned by Abraham Lurie, who once was Marina del Rey’s biggest developer. Madonna offered to buy the house for about $8 million in 1991 but changed her mind.
The one-story house has five bedrooms in about 10,000 square feet. French Regency in style, the house has 20-foot ceilings and a backyard that is nearly an acre.
The backyard was expanded after White bought it in 1992. It has a downtown L.A.-to-ocean view.
Steve Levine of Hilton & Hyland represented the Rosens, and Don Ellis of John Aaroe & Associates, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
