Westside Condo Is Latest Release

Singer and songwriter PAUL ANKA, whose new CD of duets, “Body of Work,” will be released on Tuesday, has sold a Westside condo that he has owned since the late 1970s.

Anka and his wife, Anne, sold the condo for $595,000. It is situated in the gate-guarded community of Century Hills and has two bedrooms in about 2,500 square feet and a three-car garage. The community has tennis courts, pools and valet parking.

The Ankas have a longtime home in Beverly Hills, which they once put on the market but then decided not to sell.

They had a home in Las Vegas, where he performs several times a year, but that house was bulldozed in 1993 to make way for the entrance and parking lot of the 5,000-plus-room MGM Grand hotel and 33-acre theme park.

Anka, 57, concluded a 2 1/2-month world tour in July. He is expected to do about 300 concert dates by the end of the year. “A Body of Work” features duets with Celine Dion, Patti LaBelle and, through recording technology, Frank Sinatra, singing “My Way,” which Anka wrote.

Besides the song “Diana,” which he made a hit when he was a teenager, Anka wrote and popularized such standards as “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” and “You Are My Destiny.” He also wrote “She’s a Lady” for Tom Jones and “The Tonight Show” theme for Johnny Carson. As a songwriter, Anka has been credited with an estimated 900 titles.

Drew Mandile and Brooke Knapp of Sotheby’s International Realty in Beverly Hills represented the buyer of the Ankas’ condo, and Kathy Villa of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, had the listing.

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Media magnate RUPERT MURDOCH and his estranged wife, ANNA, have put their Beverly Hills-area home on the market at $19.5 million.

Anna Murdoch filed for divorce in July, seeking alimony and division of the couple’s property. The couple have been married for 31 years.

They purchased the Beverly Hills-area home in 1986 from the estate of Doris Stein, widow of the late Dr. Jules Stein, physician, philanthropist and founder of MCA Inc., now known as Universal Studios.

The Steins had owned the home since 1940. It was built in 1927 for Fred Niblo, who directed such silent movies as “The Mark of Zorro” (1920), starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and “Blood and Sand” (1922), starring Rudolph Valentino.

Designed by architect Wallace Neff, the Mediterranean-style house, on nearly seven acres with city views, has four family bedrooms, a guest bedroom and three staff bedrooms in 8,600-plus square feet. It also has a circular courtyard with a wishing well, a 600-foot-long driveway, formal gardens and a pool.

The Murdoch family owns 31% of the Australia-based News Corp. and its interests in U.S., British and Australian newspapers as well as the Los Angeles Dodgers, which the company bought in March, and 20th Century Fox film and TV studios. Rupert Murdoch, 67, is chairman of the company. Anna Murdoch, 53, is a director and a vice president of the firm. She is also a novelist.

The Murdochs, who have three grown children, also have homes in New York, London and Aspen, Colo.

David Mossler of Mossler, Deasy & Doe, Beverly Hills, has the Beverly Hills-area listing.

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Hockey star ROB BLAKE, who overcame injuries to lead the L.A. Kings to the playoffs earlier this year, has sold his Manhattan Beach home of about a year for $1.7 million and purchased another, nearby, at about $5 million.

Blake, 28, won the Norris Trophy (the NHL’s award for best defenseman) in June for his play over the 1997-98 season. A restricted free agent, he was unsigned by press deadline last week but had an offer from the Kings for a five-year $25-million contract.

He joined the NHL in 1990 and played an integral part in helping the Kings to make a surprising run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1993. He was injured while playing hockey but then participated in the World Championships, at which he was named top defenseman.

Originally from Ontario, Canada, Blake made the Canadian Olympic team and was selected as the top defenseman at this year’s Nagano Olympics.

He and his fiancee, Brandi Fleming, were married in June, and they recently moved into their larger home.

John Macaluso, who owns the clothing company California Concepts, bought Blake’s former 2,400-square-foot home, which has an ocean view.

Macaluso was represented in his purchase by Denise Fast of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., Marina del Rey; Blake was represented in his sale and purchase by Robyn Biener and Alicia Greene of South Bay Brokers, Manhattan Beach.

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Hip-hop mogul RUSSELL SIMMONS, founder and CEO of Rush Communications and co-founder of Def Jam Records, has listed his Beverly Hills home at just under $2.9 million. He has moved back to his native New York.

Simmons, 40, has owned the 5,000-square-foot-plus home since January 1997. Built in 1956, the four-bedroom house has a master suite with a steam room and a sauna, a living room with city-to-ocean views, a media room-guest suite, a breakfast room and a yard with a pool, spa, pond and waterfall. The home also has a gated motorcourt with parking for several cars.

Myra Nourmand and Jonah Wilson of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills, have the listing.

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A circular Woodland Hills house designed by the late Oklahoma architect BRUCE GOFF, who designed the pavilion for Japanese art at the L.A. County Museum of Art, has been sold for $285,000.

The 1,730-square-foot house, four stories high and 24 feet in diameter, was Goff’s last design before he died in 1982 and is the only example of his residential work on the West Coast. The house was built in 1988 by its former owner, Al Struckus, a retired Rocketdyne engineer.

Struckus lived in the house until he died, and the house was then put on the market. It took 2 1/2 years to sell because of its unusual design, sources said. The house was originally priced at $479,000.

The top floor is cantilevered over the other levels, and all of the floors look down on a fish pond. The stairwell is an art gallery with sitting spaces. The 6-foot-wide front door pivots on a ball bearing. There is multicolored mosaic and hand-crafted stained glass throughout the house.

The buyers were described as a young couple who work at the Getty Center.

Claudia Petroski of Fred Sands Realtors, Woodland Hills, had the listing; Crosby Doe of Mossler, Deasy & Doe, Beverly Hills, represented the buyers.

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A 30,000-square-foot Holmby Hills home is for sale at $15 million. Among its features are an indoor pool with fiber-optic lighting, a nightclub-media room, three elevators, a two-story library and an entry with a ceiling dome 22 feet in diameter.

JO ANNE WALLACE, owner of the house, oversaw its design and construction. After the house was completed about three years ago, she and her husband, STEVEN, were divorced. “Now she wants to buy a big place in Italy,” said listing agent Jonathan Seltzer of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills.

Steven Wallace, 55, was president and founder of L.A.-based Pacific Brokerage Services Inc., a national leader in online discount trading, when it was sold a year ago to Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh for more than $140 million.

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A Malibu home built for theater designer ANTHONY HEINSBERGEN SR. in 1931 and later owned for about 20 years by actor JOSEPH COTTEN and his wife, actress Patricia Medina, has been sold by its third owner, a retired executive, for about $2 million. The buyer was a local businessman.

The four-level house of more than 8,000 square feet is on a cliff and has an ocean view, hand-painted ceilings and an indoor pool.

Heinsbergen was renowned for his murals and gilded work, epitomizing the Art Deco style, in hundreds of the great movie palaces of the ‘20s and ‘30s. He also painted ceilings, domes and interiors of opulent civic buildings from Mexico City to Alaska.

Raymond Bekeris of John Bruce Nelson & Associates had the listing.