Spending His ‘Mad’ Money
PAUL REISER, in his sixth season as co-star with Helen Hunt of the NBC-TV sitcom “Mad About You,” has purchased a Beverly Hills-area home for just less than $6 million, sources say.
Reiser, also familiar to TV viewers in a series of AT&T; commercials, is co-creator, executive producer and writer as well as co-star of the sitcom, for which he also wrote the theme song. A piano and composition major in college, Reiser, 40, started doing stand-up comedy as a teenager.
Besides TV and skit writing, Reiser has written two published books of humor: “Couplehood” (1994) and “Babyhood” (1997), based on his experiences.
He and Hunt became TV parents of a baby girl in last season’s finale. In real life, Reiser and his wife, Paula, have a young son.
Reiser bought a gated 17,000-square-foot house with a master suite, five other bedrooms and staff quarters. The house also has a projection room.
It was sold by a musician and his wife who separated in 1994, the same year that the house was built, sources say. The house had been on the market for about a year.
Barbara Robinson of Dalton, Brown & Long, Beverly Hills, had the listing, other sources said.
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BRUCE DERN, a veteran stage and screen actor who appeared in the 1996 movies “Last Man Standing” and “Down Periscope,” and his wife, Andrea, have listed their Malibu home at $6.5 million.
The actor, who is about 60, won an Oscar nomination for “Coming Home” (1978). He is the father of actress Laura Dern, whose mother is actress Diane Ladd.
The actor’s wife, Andrea, is an artist who loves to paint roses and tend to her garden. For years, she has wanted a larger garden, and the couple has talked about moving to get one.
“Now the market is at a place where they feel they can sell,” said listing agent Paula Reddish of Beverly Hills.
The house, which the Derns have owned for 24 years, was built in the 1920s by Oscar-winning director Frank Capra (“It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”). Behind one of the Derns’ paintings, is an opening in the wall leading to what was Capra’s projection room.
Country English in style, the 6,100-square-foot Malibu house has four bedrooms, including a master suite, with a greenhouse bath and art studio. There is also a sleeping loft with a fireplace and deck.
The home, which has mountain and ocean views, has 60 feet of beach frontage and is behind gates in Malibu Colony.
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SHERILYN FENN, star of the upcoming movie “Dangerous Obsession,” has sold her Sherman Oaks home for $585,000 to an executive of Disney’s Buena Vista Home Entertainment, who is moving back to L.A. from London, sources say.
Fenn, who filmed “Dangerous Obsession” on the Isle of Man, has moved to a rental near the home that she sold and is considering a move to London, sources said.
Fenn, 33, appeared in the ABC-TV movie “Nightmare Street,” which aired Jan. 15. A former Playboy bunny, she played Audrey, the teen seductress of “Twin Peaks” (1989-1991) and starred in “Boxing Helena” (1993). She also played Laura in “Fatal Instinct” (1993) and Elizabeth Taylor in a 1995 miniseries.
The house that Fenn sold has three bedrooms in about 2,500 square feet. It was built in 1959 on a hillside with a pool. The house also has cathedral ceilings and two fireplaces.
Barry Weiss and Joe McClaskey of Fred Sands’ Sherman Oaks office represented the buyer in the transaction.
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DAN RICH, a sound editor on “Mouse Hunt” (1997) and “Air Force One” (1997) as well as “Braveheart” (1995), is putting final touches on restoring a three-bedroom, two-bath Craftsman-style house in the Hollywood foothills that he has listed at $525,000.
“This is my third [house] project,” Rich, 39, said. “One of the virtues of being in the film business is that we can do something else during the free time. I find it fun to fix up old houses.”
His father, builder Kelvin Rich, and designer-carpenter Manuel Hernandez helped on the Craftsman house.
Built in 1919, the 1,900-square-foot house had been used for the last 20-plus years as a home and recording studio for another sound editor, Rich said. That owner built a basement. Rich added a master suite and a walk-in closet with a ladder to reach clothes at three levels.
“We studied the Craftsman style and did a lot of restoration, making cabinetry and doing woodwork on the site,” he said. Lori Matson of DBL Realtors, Sunset office, has the listing.
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STEVE BACKER, executive vice president of EMI Music Publishing, and his wife, screenwriter-playwright PAM WICK, have purchased a Beverly Hills-area house for close to its $895,000 asking price, sources say.
The couple, in their 30s, married in 1995. Wick, who was a writer on the TV series “Married . . . With Children,” is the daughter of Charles Z. Wick, who was director of the U.S. Information Agency under President Reagan.
Built in 1936 and refurbished in 1992, the Colonial-style home that Backer and Wick bought is about 3,000 square feet and has a spa. The sellers were described as a cardiologist and his wife.
Leah and Tom Steuer of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co. in Beverly Hills represented the buyers.
A 42-acre Montecito estate has been listed for the first time in more than 60 years. Its asking price is $22.5 million.
The seller is a trust for the John and Heloise Bacon estate, sources say. John B.F. Bacon, who died in his 70s in 1964, was the grandson of John Baptiste Ford, who founded the Libby-Owens Ford Co. Heloise Bacon died several months ago, a source said.
The property, owned by the family since 1932, includes an 8,000-square-foot main house, built in 1957 on a knoll, with a library, master suite, two guest bedrooms, an office, butler’s pantry, servant’s quarters and two-bedroom downstairs suite. In the entry, there is a vista to the ocean through glass doors.
There is also a six-bedroom Craftsman-style guest house that sits in its own meadow on the south side of the estate. Built in 1912, the 4,000-square-foot house was used by the Bacons as a retreat until they built the main house and retired there in 1960 from Pasadena.
On the grounds, there are also a gatehouse, barn, picnic area, herb and flower garden, orchard, two ponds and a lake.
Bob Lamborn, Ricky Allen and Joan Curran, all of Pitts & Bachmann Realtors in Montecito share the listing.
