Not Leaving for Las Vegas
Nicolas Cage, who co-stars with Meg Ryan in the upcoming movie “City of Angels,” has purchased a Westside home for just under its asking price of about $7 million, sources say.
Cage also will play Superman as an alienated outsider in an upcoming movie directed by Tim Burton, and he will appear in Brian De Palma’s crime thriller “Snake Eyes,” due out in August.
The Oscar-winning actor co-starred last year in the action-adventure movies “Face/Off” and “Con Air.” He won his best actor Oscar in 1995 for his portrayal of the alcoholic screenwriter in “Leaving Las Vegas.”
“City of Angels,” to be released Friday, is a love story inspired by the Wim Wenders-directed film “Wings of Desire” (1988).
The house that Cage bought was built in 1940 and was gutted and rehabbed in the 1950s. The Country English-style home has nine bedrooms, a screening room, gym and guest house in 13,000 square feet. It’s on an acre behind gates.
Cage, 34, is a longtime resident of the L.A. area. Before this home purchase, he and his wife, actress Patricia Arquette, were living in another area of the Westside. Arquette, 29, appeared in “Flirting With Disaster” (1996) and “Ed Wood” (1994).
Joe Babajian and Kyle Grasso of Fred Sands Estates represented Cage in his purchase, and Cecelia Waeschle and Joyce Rey of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co. had the listing, other sources said.
The Holmby Hills home of the late Lillian and Walt Disney has come on the market for the first time in nearly 50 years, sources say. The asking price is $8.9 million.
The gated 2.6-acre property had been owned by the Disneys since they bought the site in 1949. They built the 5,000-square-foot house there and moved into it in 1950.
On land below the house, Walt built a scaled-down railroad with a track shielded from neighbors by shrubs and trees. When Lillian didn’t want him to make a 6-foot-wide cut through a hillside, he dug a 90-foot tunnel, through which he drove the train, carrying adults and children.
The railroad was dismantled after Walt died in 1966. Lillian died in December at 98.
Don Ellis at John Aaroe & Associates, Beverly Hills, has the listing, other sources said.
Steve Oedekerk, who wrote the screenplay and is co-producing the upcoming Robin Williams-starring movie “Patch,” has sold his San Juan Capistrano home for close to $1 million and moved into a house nearby that he bought last year for about $2 million, sources say.
Oedekerk, 37, is writing and will direct the remake of “The Incredible Mr. Limpet,” starring Jim Carrey. “Patch” is being filmed now, with a December release date. The Jim Carrey movie is due to start shooting in May. “Cowboys and Aliens,” which Oedekerk is writing and will direct, is expected to start shooting soon.
Oedekerk wrote and directed Carrey’s “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls” (1995). The two met as stand-up comics at the Comedy Store in Hollywood. Later, Oedekerk was a writer on Fox-TV’s “In Living Color,” sharing an office with Carrey, who was a writer as well as a performer on the show. Oedekerk hosted his own NBC special in 1997.
The house he sold, to a local investment banker, is Mediterranean in style and has five bedrooms, a rock pool and a spa. He bought a Spanish-style home with a guest house in a gated community with a pool and tennis court.
His new home was built in 1993 and was purchased through foreclosure, sources say. Oedekerk renovated it before moving in with his wife, Tonie, and their daughter, Zoe.
John Miller of First Team Real Estate in Dana Point represented Oedekerk in his sale and purchase.
William A. Wilson, a former ambassador to the Vatican, has sold his home in Bel-Air for $3.5 million, sources say.
Wilson, 83, was a financial consultant, rancher and land developer in 1984 when then-President Reagan appointed him as the first U.S. ambassador to the Vatican in more than a century.
Wilson was also a member of Reagan’s “kitchen cabinet” of wealthy unofficial advisors when Reagan was governor and president.
Wilson’s wife, Betty, was known as a philanthropist and an international hostess. She was a close friend of Nancy Reagan, and the two couples socialized regularly for several decades. Betty Wilson died in 1996 at 79.
The Wilsons’ Colonial-style home was designed by architect Paul Williams. Built in 1937, it has four bedrooms and a guest house-office in a bit more than 6,000 square feet. The buyer is a local businessman.
Jeff Hyland of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, had the listing, and Raymond Bekeris of John Bruce Nelson & Associates represented the buyer, other sources said.