Talking Up Her Big Move
ROSEANNE, who will host a syndicated TV talk show starting in September, has purchased a nine-bedroom home in the Beverly Hills area for close to its $7.9-million asking price, sources say.
The Emmy-winning star of the sitcom “Roseanne,” which aired on ABC from 1988 until mid-1997, had been living in another Beverly Hills house that she rented after selling her Brentwood home last May.
She had been living in the rental with her husband and former bodyguard, Ben Thomas, from whom she filed for divorce in January. She has a 2-year-old son and four grown children.
Roseanne’s talk show will be produced by King World, which also has optioned the adult animated series “Family Values,” created by Roseanne and her daughters, Jessica and Jennifer Pentland.
Roseanne bought an 11,000-square-foot, traditional-style home on nearly three acres, behind gates, with a guest house.
The original owner of the house, built in 1987, was a British lord who paid more than $7 million for the house in 1989 and then spent $3 million in remodeling and additions.
He sold the house for about $9 million, including furnishings, in 1995 to a corporation, which sold the house to Roseanne, sources have said.
Barbara Robinson of DBL Realtors, Beverly Hills, and Nick Segal of the same firm’s Sunset office represented Roseanne in her purchase, and Don Ellis of John Aaroe & Associates had the listing.
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BRAD GARRETT, who co-stars on the CBS sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” as Ray Romano’s older brother, has listed his Sunset Strip-area home at just under $1.3 million.
Garrett, 38, bought the Tuscany-style villa with fountains and a pool five months ago, but now he wants a larger house and is looking in the Hancock Park area, a source said.
The 6-foot, 8-inch comic has appeared in guest roles on “Roseanne,” “Mad About You” and “Seinfeld,” on which he played an obsessive mechanic who stole Jerry’s Saab to teach him a lesson about poor auto maintenance.
Garrett did the voices of Fatso in the movie “Casper” (1995) and Dim, the rhinoceros beetle, in the upcoming animated movie “A Bug’s Life,” featuring David Hyde Pierce, Kevin Spacey and Phyllis Diller.
Garrett, 38, also appeared in the recently released movie “Suicide Kings” and was a regular on the 1995-96 NBC sitcom “The Pursuit of Happiness.”
Built in 1996, the 4,200-square-foot home that Garrett put on the market has a master suite with a fireplace and sitting area, a roof-top terrace with city views, a guest suite with separate entrance and a spa.
Douglas Ogden of Sotheby’s, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
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Chicago financier SAM ZELL, whose Equity Office Properties is the country’s biggest owner of office space, has purchased a Malibu home for close to $13 million, sources say.
The home was built in 1983 and was designed by the late architect John Lautner, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentices. The 12,000-square-foot house, with about 400 feet of beach frontage, has four family bedrooms, a guest house and a staff wing with kitchen and dining areas. The home, on 1.2 acres, also has a gym, wine cellar and pool.
Starting in the late 1960s, Zell, 56, and his late partner, Robert H. Lurie, assembled a billion-dollar empire from once-distressed properties and businesses.
In the early 1990s, Zell was named chairman of Carter Hawley Hale Stores (owner of the Broadway and other California chains); he orchestrated the stores’ sale to Federated for stock plus the assumption of $1 billion in debt.
Today, the self-made tycoon is chairman of at least seven companies dealing in office properties, apartments and mobile-home parks. His empire includes radio stations, cruise ships, an insurance company and a wiring company.
Since his Equity Office Properties went public last summer, the company, a real estate investment trust, has been in the process of buying about $5 billion in office buildings.
Zell bought his Malibu home from a former business executive represented by Jack Pritchett of Pritchett/Rapf & Associates, Malibu, sources said.
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Record industry veteran IRVING AZOFF, former chief of MCA Records and longtime manager of the Eagles, has sold his house on Carbon Beach in Malibu for $3 million, sources say.
The buyers were a local couple who recently sold their larger home in Malibu Colony.
Azoff, in his late 40s, now heads Revolution/Giant Records. Revolution has had success with such acts as Big Head Todd & the Monsters and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. In April, Azoff announced that the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson will release his first solo album of new material in a decade for Giant.
Azoff decided to sell his beach house because it is too small for his family since he and his wife recently had their fourth child. The Azoffs also have a home on the Westside that they just remodeled.
Built in 1956 and recently remodeled, the 2,600-square-foot Malibu house has three bedrooms plus guest quarters, a few steps from the sand.
The house was listed with June Scott of June Scott Estates, a Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., in Beverly Hills.
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A Bel-Air house once owned by actor Tony Curtis, Sonny and Cher and Hustler Magazine Publisher Larry Flynt is on the market again, this time for $7.9 million.
The lipstick-red heart-shaped bathtub Sonny installed for Cher is gone, but the house has such other features as seven bedrooms, a gym and a wood-paneled library.
Built in 1929, the 9,000-square-foot-plus house is on about an acre of park-like grounds with a koi pond, fountains and a pool.
A candy manufacturer and his wife have owned the home since 1992. They listed the house with Victoria Lockwood of Fred Sands Estates, Directors Office, in Beverly Hills.
