Parting With Palm Springs After 42 Years

Kirk Douglas, who has been in Reno filming the movie “Sundowning,” and his wife, Anne, have listed their Palm Springs home of 42 years at about $1.6 million, furnished.

“We want to buy something in Montecito so we’ll be closer to our grandchildren there,” Anne Douglas said.

The Oscar-winning actor, 81, and his wife live mainly in Beverly Hills, but they have owned their Palm Springs retreat since 1956, two years after it was built.

“We added on to the property and changed it around a lot over the years,” she said.

The 4,400-square-foot house, on nearly an acre, has dual master suites, two guest suites, a maid’s quarters, gym, steam room, sauna, guest house, tennis court, pool and spa. The home is in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood, where many movie industry people once lived.

“Now we have a number of writers there like Sidney Sheldon and, of course, Kirk Douglas,” she said. His 1997 children’s book, “The Broken Mirror,” will be reissued for the holidays, and his “Young Heroes” is due to be published next year.

Paul Shepard, who has his own realty firm in Palm Springs, has the listing.

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Cher, who co-stars in the upcoming movie “Tea With Mussolini,” expects to complete her new Malibu residence early next year. The Oscar-winning actress broke ground on it a year ago this month.

The 15,000-square-foot house, which designer Ron Wilson describes as “an Italian Renaissance-style villa,” will include five-plus bedrooms, a gym, projection and editing rooms, marble columns in the pool and Moorish-style doors and windows.

Cher, 52, and Wilson have worked together on a number of her homes, including her current Malibu residence, which has been on the market, most recently at just under $4 million.

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Sean Connery, who co-starred this year in the movie “The Avengers,” and his wife, Micheline, have listed their home in Marbella, Spain, at $9 million. They’ve owned the home since 1972. The couple sold their Century City condo a couple of years ago.

The Oscar-winning actor, 68, and his wife haven’t said where they will live, but there have been reports that they were looking in his native Scotland, where he and Sony Pictures have been talking about setting up a film studio.

Known as Casa Malibu, the Connerys’ Marbella home has a main house, three guest houses, a staff cottage and a summer house. The beachfront estate was built in the 1950s.

Hot Property is published Thursdays in SoCal Living and Sundays in Real Estate.