Westside Home KOs Champ

OSCAR DE LA HOYA, who retained his World Boxing Council welterweight title last month in a Las Vegas fight against Hector Camacho, has purchased a house on the Westside for close to its $3.9-million asking price, sources say.

De La Hoya, 24, earned $9 million in the Camacho fight. Since he was dubbed boxing’s “golden boy” for winning a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics, he has won more than $25 million in the ring. His next fight is in Atlantic City in December, and he is scheduled to fight in Japan in March.

De La Hoya also earns significant sums through endorsements and pay-per-view TV.

Although he owns and has been renovating the East L.A. gym where he once trained, De La Hoya was accused of turning his back on the barrio when he joined a country club to play golf and moved last year from his family’s home near East L.A. to a condo in Whittier.

De La Hoya countered that it was his late mother’s wish for him to take his family out of the old neighborhood. “It was my mother’s dream for us to better our lives,” he said.

He has long dreamed of eventually becoming an architect, and he helped to design a home he owns in Big Bear, where he now trains. He also owns several condos in Cabo San Lucas.

The house he bought on the Westside was built in 1990 and has eight bedrooms in nearly 11,000 square feet. The home also has a tennis court and a pool.

It had been listed by Leah and Tom Steuer of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, records show.

Actress MADELEINE STOWE and her husband, actor BRIAN BENBEN, have purchased a newly built, three-story Mediterranean-style home in Santa Monica Canyon for $1.4 million, sources say.

Stowe, 39, co-stars with Kenneth Branagh in the upcoming movie “Tempting Fate.” Her breakthrough role was as co-star with Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992). She also co-starred with Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis in “Twelve Monkeys” (1995).

Benben, 41, was the star of the HBO series “Dream On” (1990-1996). He was also in the movie “Radioland Murders” (1994). He and Stowe were married in 1986. They also have a 400-acre ranch near Austin, Texas.

Their new Westside home has a master suite with what has been described as “a huge greenhouse shower.” The house sits on a promontory with an ocean view. There are three bedrooms plus a maid’s quarters in the house, which also has tiled patios and French doors.

Actor RICHARD MOLL, probably best known for playing the bald bailiff in the TV series “Night Court” (1983-1992), has sold his former Playa del Rey bachelor pad, which he has rented out since marrying his wife, Susan, in 1993. She is comedian Milton Berle’s step-daughter.

Moll, 54, is working on the movie “Dish Dogs” with Sean Astin. Moll appeared in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie “Jingle All the Way” (1996) and in “The Flintstones” (1994). In September, he appeared as a witchcraft boot-camp drill instructor on the ABC series “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.”

Susan Moll is editor in chief of Milton Magazine, a new national publication with the motto: “We drink, we smoke, we gamble.” The quarterly journal, dedicated to preserving the Las Vegas life style as Berle remembers it, offers tips on cigars, liquors and such games as 21.

Moll sold his four-bedroom 2,600-square-foot house with two fireplaces for $575,000, other sources said. He had lived in the house for five years before marrying.

The Molls bought a $2-million home in Pacific Palisades shortly after they were wed. They recently completed a major refurbishing.

Roberta Trousdale of Re/Max Beach Cities handled both sides of the Playa del Rey transaction.

A Miracle Mile triplex where JACK BENNY lived during his early radio years has come on the market at $545,000.

Built in the 1930s, the triplex was designed by the architectural firm of Meyer & Holler, which designed Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the original Egyptian Theatre. The Spanish Colonial units have private patios and a common rose garden and courtyard.

FRED CRANE, well known throughout Los Angeles for his many years of radio broadcasting, is one of the owners. He had his own radio show on KFAC for more than 40 years and previously worked on the Jack Benny Radio Show.

Crane, in his 70s, is now hosting a classical music show Saturday mornings on KKGO (105.1 FM).

Bernice Gibbons of Fred Sands’ Sunset Strip office has the listing.

A 15,000-square-foot house on nearly five acres in South Orange County has been sold for $7 million in what is being termed “the highest sale to date off the water in Orange County.”

The gated estate, built less than a year ago, has a pool house, guest quarters, seven-car garage, putting green, tennis court and 50-foot-long pool with spa. The buyer and sellers were described as “low-profile local business people.”

Betty Comegys and Nancy Peterson of Coast Newport Properties were the selling agents.

Literary agent JOEL GOTLER, who represents novelist James Ellroy (“L.A. Confidential”), and his wife, Beth, have bought a French Country-style home in Beverly Hills for $1.1 million, sources say.

The four-bedroom, 3,700-square-foot home was built in 1992.

“L.A. Confidential,” an adaptation of Ellroy’s book, was released this fall as a movie, starring Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito.

Gotler, president and partner of Renaissance Literary Agency, also represents such other authors as Frank McCort (“Angela’s Ashes”), Tami Hoag (“Guilty as Sin”) and James Halperin (“The Truth Machine”).

Strouds CEO CHARLES CHINNI has moved from New Jersey to North San Gabriel, where he bought a 4,200-square-foot English-style home overlooking a country club for $1 million, sources say.

Chinni, a former Kmart Corp. executive who previously worked at Macy’s for nearly 30 years, became CEO of Strouds last summer. The Industry-based Strouds--a specialty retailer of bed, bath and other home-textiles products--has 65 stores in five states.

Tony and David Rios of Anthony Co., San Marino, were the selling agents.