No Doubt About Los Feliz House
Glam-rocker GWEN STEFANI, lead singer for the band No Doubt, has purchased a Los Feliz home built in the 1920s for just under $1.4 million, sources say.
Stefani, 28, has been likened to a young Madonna in appearance and style. The platinum blond, who wears bright red lipstick and often wears an Indian bindi decoration on her forehead, sometimes dashes up stacks of amplifiers during her band’s frenetic act.
No Doubt rose to fame in 1995 with the album “Tragic Kingdom,” which has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and produced such hit singles as “Just a Girl,” performed by Stefani for the movie “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion” (1997), and “Don’t Speak,” an MTV Video Music Award winner for best group video in the fall.
A top concert draw, the alternative-rock band has been nominated for a couple of Grammy Awards and was among the acts showcased at the 1997 Grammy telecast.
Stefani, who grew up in Anaheim, was recruited into the band by her older brother Eric, who co-founded it in 1986. He also has co-written many of the songs but quit the band in 1994 to concentrate on being an animator for “The Simpsons” and other projects.
The Los Feliz house has five bedrooms in 5,000 square feet and is Mediterranean in style. It has stenciled beam ceilings and a courtyard, sources say. Built in 1928, the house, on half an acre, has been renovated over the years but is said to need more work.
Stefani bought the house earlier this year and is expected to do major refurbishing.
Jodi Hodges of Fred Sands’ Los Feliz office and Dorothy Carter of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., Sunset Strip, had the listing, and Danny Carson at Progressive Properties in Los Feliz represented Stefani in the purchase, other sources said.
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GIL BELLOWS, who plays the ex-boyfriend of the title character in Fox’s smash hit “Ally McBeal,” and his wife, actress RYA KIHLSTEDT, have purchased a Hollywood home for close to its $729,000 asking price, sources say.
Bellows, 30, plays Billy Thomas, a lawyer in the same law firm as McBeal, played by Calista Flockhart. Last week, the series received an unprecedented four nominations from the Television Critics Assn. for awards to be announced in July.
Born in Vancouver, B.C., Bellows made his American TV debut in 1991 as a guest on “Law & Order.”
He also has co-starred in the movies “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) and “Miami Rhapsody” (1995), playing his first romantic film lead as Sarah Jessica Parker’s fiance.
Kihlstedt plays the much younger love interest of Maximilian Schell in the recently released disaster movie “Deep Impact,” starring Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman and Tea Leoni. She appeared as a thief named Alice in “Home Alone 3” (1997).
The couple bought a Spanish-style home in the Beachwood Canyon area. Built in the 1920s, the three-bedroom, 3,100-square-foot home has vaulted, stenciled beamed ceilings; a guest house; a pool; and canyon views.
Rick Llanos with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Hancock Park represented the couple in their purchase.
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SHARON STONE, who starred most recently in the movie “Sphere” with Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson, has re-listed her former home off Mulholland Drive, this time at $795,000. It was on the market in 1995 at $850,000.
Stone, who was married in February and lives elsewhere, was in Cannes in May for the world premiere of the movie “The Mighty,” in which she plays the mother of a young handicapped genius. The movie is due to be released in October.
Stone, 40, has owned the home since 1989, before she starred in the movie “Basic Instinct” (1992) and became one of Hollywood’s hottest actresses.
The ranch-style home has one bedroom, a small office and vaulted ceilings in about 1,900 square feet. Built in 1955, the house has been updated recently. It is on a cul-de-sac and has unobstructed Valley and mountain views.
Marilyn Watson of Celebrity Properties, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
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A Rancho Mirage house that FRANK SINATRA bought for his mother, Dolly, in 1970 has come on the market at $950,000. The singer-actor sold the house in 1977, a few months after his mother was killed, at age 82, in a plane crash.
The house is on the 17th fairway of the Tamarisk Country Club, next door to a 2.5-acre compound owned for many years by the late singer until he sold it in 1995.
DOLLY SINATRA’s former home was newly built when her son bought it, and it was remodeled in 1991. The 5,700-square-foot home has four bedroom suites, a media/game room and a great room with a wet bar, dining area and fireplace.
The gated home also has private, golf-cart access to the fairways. The Eva Welsh Co., Rancho Mirage, has the listing.
Five Westside Los Angeles homes have sold for more than $10 million each so far this year, compared with only two double-digit sales in the same area for all of 1997.
This comes from Cecelia Waeschle, a real estate broker with Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., who has tracked high-end sales on the Westside since 1987. Her statistics include Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
Of the five $10-million-plus sales this year, the highest was close to $18 million, including some furnishings, for the longtime Bel-Air home of the late HENRY SALVATORI, a close confidant to three U.S. presidents, including Ronald Reagan. The 12,000-square-foot house is on four acres.
There also have been 120 Westside sales already this year at more than $2.5 million each, Waeschle said, and of these, 27 were sales at more than $5 million each. Last year to date, she counted only 57 sales at more than $2.5 million each, and of those, 20 were at more than $5 million each.
In Malibu, there have been 18 sales of homes at more than $2.5 million each this year, and there were 10 for the same period in 1997, she said.
In the Beverly Hills Post Office area, there have been 16 $2.5-million-plus home sales this year and nine through May of 1997, she noted.
Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Brentwood and the Palisades had about the same number of high-end sales for the first part of 1997 and 1998, she said, but Brentwood has had some incidents this year of buyers closing escrow and then selling a few weeks later at a profit.
Three weeks ago, a 4,500-square-foot Brentwood home sold for $2.75 million; the buyer just sold it again for $3.6 million, Waeschle said.
