Singer Scales Down in Malibu
Olivia Newton-John, who returned to the pop world last year with her album “Back With a Heart,” has sold her Malibu home for $6.3 million and purchased a smaller Malibu home, behind gates, for less than $2 million, real estate sources say.
Newton-John, 50, first put the home on the market in 1996 at $7.5 million, saying she wanted to spend more time on her Australian farm with her family.
A crusader against breast cancer after being diagnosed with it in 1992, Newton-John and her then-husband, actor Matt Lattanzi, wanted an environmentally conscious home when they had the house built in 1993. Nontoxic building materials plus air-filtering and water-purification systems were utilized. The Santa Fe-style house, which has seven bedrooms in 9,400 square feet, is on 1.5 acres with a lap pool, spa, 12-seat theater, gym and golf-cart pathway to 150 feet of beach.
The home that Newton-John bought has five bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths in about 4,400 square feet. Built in 1975, the English country-style house has a fireplace, gardens and a pool. The asking price was about $2.5 million.
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Julia Roberts, who co-stars in the upcoming “Notting Hill” with Hugh Grant and in “Runaway Bride” with Richard Gere, is buying a $2.95-million co-op in Greenwich Village.
The three-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot unit has stained-glass windows dating back to 1903, when the building was built, and a stainless-steel, industrial-type kitchen. Roberts’ nine-room unit is on the ninth floor.
Roberts, 31, has been living nearby in a two-bedroom penthouse, which she bought in 1993, New York sources say. Roberts’ Shoelace Productions is based in New York.
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Sandy Gallin, the Hollywood manager-producer who recently became chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas-based Mirage Entertainment and Sports, has sold a 3.2-acre, Bel-Air site for $10 million.
Gallin managed the careers of Dolly Parton, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Pryor and Mariah Carey. He produced such movies as “Father of the Bride.”
Robert Tuttle, White House personnel director under President Reagan, bought Gallin’s land.
Gallin--who loves to buy, fix up and sell houses--has owned 21 in the L.A. area. During the last 18 months, he has sold more than $32 million in residential real estate on the Westside, said his Realtor, June Scott, who has his recently refurbished Las Vegas home listed at $6.5 million with June Scott Estates, a Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas company in Beverly Hills.
Hot Property is published Thursdays in SoCal Living and Sundays in Real Estate. Ryon may be reached by e-mail at ruth.ryon@latimes.com.
