Verdict Is Now Up to the Buyer
CHRISTOPHER DARDEN, one of the lead prosecutors in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, has put his Ladera Heights home on the market “to move into new directions now that he is married,” a source said.
Darden, 39, and Marcia Carter, a Rysher Entertainment executive, were married in August in her hometown of Vienna, Va. It was the first marriage for both.
He had purchased his home in Ladera Heights, between Culver City and Inglewood, in mid-1996 while working on the screenplay of his bestseller, “In Contempt,” based on the Simpson case.
Darden did a walk-on in the 1997 movie “Liar Liar” and a cameo on the TV series “Touched by an Angel.”
He is writing a novel and teaching at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles.
After he bought the 25-year-old house for $460,000, he refurbished it, installing marble floors and Berber carpets. The three-bedroom, nearly 2,500-square-foot house is on the market at $480,000.
It has two fireplaces, a family room, patio and garden area. The split-level house, on a hill, also has city and marina views.
Michelle Cousar of Century 21 in Inglewood has the listing.
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WILLEM WIJNBERGEN, newly appointed managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has purchased an 8,000-square-foot home in Hancock Park for close to its $1.1-million asking price, sources say.
Built in 1925, the home has four bedrooms, three baths, a pool and a guest house.
Wijnbergen, 39, was managing director during the last five years of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He also has been a concert pianist, assistant conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and an executive at Procter & Gamble Co.
He succeeds Ernest Fleischmann with the L.A. Philharmonic. Fleischmann had been managing director of the orchestra since 1969; he will continue for two years as a consultant.
Wijnbergen and his wife have four children.
Carla Fagan of John Aaroe & Associates, Beverly Hills, represented Wijnbergen in his purchase.
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A Beverly Hills home built for comic actor BUSTER KEATON in 1925 and later owned by actor Cary Grant and actress Barbara Hutton has come on the market at $5.9 million.
The estate, on a little more than 1.5 acres, was most recently owned by actress-writer Pamela Mason, who died in 1996. She had owned the home since the late 1940s, when she and her then-husband, actor James Mason, bought it, sources have said.
Keaton lived in the house into the 1930s. It is close to the Beverly Hills Hotel and was near the homes of Keaton’s friends Charlie Chaplin and Tom Mix.
The home is at the end of a private drive and is concealed from the street. Mediterranean in style, the 10,000-square-foot home has five bedrooms plus maid’s quarters, a two-story guest house, tennis court and pool.
Steve Sherman of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
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A Beverly Hills house owned by Italian financier GIANCARLO PARRETTI before he became a fugitive last year has been sold to an investor from Hong Kong for $5 million, sources say.
Built in 1937, the eight-bedroom, 10-bath home is 11,000 square feet in size and is on two acres with a pool, tennis court, guest house and gym.
Hair-care expert Vidal Sassoon is said to have gutted and redesigned the house when he owned it, before Parretti.
Parretti, in his late 50s, fled to Italy a year ago, just days before he was scheduled to be sentenced for a perjury conviction related to the ownership of the MGM movie studio.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court also ruled that Parretti must pay $1.5 billion to a French company for loans on which he defaulted after he bought MGM in 1990.
