He Nabs Home in San Marino

L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, who is marrying his longtime girlfriend, Carol Chiang, this weekend, has purchased a San Marino house, where the newlyweds plan to live, for $750,000.

After a small wedding ceremony, Baca and Chiang, as well as several Baca aides, will travel to Taiwan on Sheriff’s Department business. The trip, paid for by the Taiwanese government, has been described as part of Baca’s continuing work to stop criminals, even in Asia, from targeting victims in L.A. County.

During Baca’s campaign last year to unseat former Sheriff Sherman Block, Chiang helped arrange a fund-raiser for Baca in Rancho Palos Verdes, where she owns a house, and she helped him win support among the county’s large Asian American community.

Baca, 57, became the first Latino to hold the post when he was sworn in as sheriff in December. Block, whose name remained on the ballot although he died at 74 a few days before the election, had been sheriff since 1982.

Baca, a 33-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, was born in East Los Angeles.

The San Marino house has three bedrooms and two baths in about 2,500 square feet, according to public records. It was built in 1928.

Pamela Anderson Lee, who stars in the syndicated action series “VIP,” has put her Malibu condo on the market at $395,000. It was her first home in Malibu, and she bought it before she married rocker Tommy Lee, from whom she filed for divorce early last year.

In April, the couple put their house in the hills of Malibu on the market at $1.55 million. Earlier this month, they announced plans to reconcile. The 7,400-square-foot house is still for sale, however, because the Lees, who have two young sons, want to move to a more “child friendly” home with fewer stairs, a source said.

The former “Baywatch” star, 31, also remodeled and redecorated her condo without children in mind after she bought it in 1994. Described as “charming and romantic” with private beach rights, the condo has two bedrooms, a loft and 1 1/2 baths in about 1,500 square feet.

The condo also has a shower that resembles a waterfall, an indoor spa, a wet bar and hardwood floors embedded with small pieces of abalone shells. The condo is in a contemporary walled development built in 1980.

Danny Nathanson of Prudential-John Aaroe & Associates, Beverly Hills, has both listings.

Producer-director-writer Kenny Griswold, whose movie “Net Worth” had a pre-release screening in April, has purchased a Hollywood Hills home for slightly more than its $2.7-million asking price.

The home was built in 1923 by the late Charles Edward Toberman, who developed Grauman’s Chinese and Egyptian theaters as well as the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

The eight-bedroom 9,800-square-foot home, built as Toberman’s personal residence, also has billiard and screening rooms, an indoor pool and a tennis court.

Griswold, in his early 40s, plans a yearlong renovation. He also maintains a home in Park City, Utah.

Rande Gray and Robert Erickson of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co. in Brentwood represented Griswold in his Hollywood home purchase.

Lisa Hutchins, Toberman’s great-granddaughter, had the listing with Coldwell Banker Previews, Hancock Park.

A Brentwood home leased at various times by such celebrities as Eddie Murphy, Roseanne, Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson has been sold for about $4 million in cash.

The eight-bedroom 11,000-square-foot house, on a 2.9-acre knoll, was purchased by an international art collector.

Built in 1984, the French traditional-style house has 32-foot-high ceilings, a step-down bar, a library, gym, sauna, billiard room, guest apartment, two maid’s rooms and a guest house. The grounds have a tennis court, pool, waterfall and spa with city views.

Bob Hurwitz, president of the Hurwitz-James Co. in Brentwood, represented the seller, a local bank owner; Rodrigo Iglesias, Coldwell Banker Previews in Brentwood, represented the buyer.

A Beverly Hills house built in 1949 for film director Jean Renoir, son of Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, has been sold for close to its asking price of about $1.8 million.

The director, who won an honorary Oscar in 1974, lived in the home until he died at 84 in 1979. Among his movies was the compelling antiwar film “The Grand Illusion” (1937).

The house was sold in 1991 by the estate of Renoir’s widow, Dido Freire Renoir, who had died about a year earlier.

A UCLA physicist and his wife bought the house then, and they have now sold it to a music industry executive and his wife, an artist. The couple is from New York.

The 3,000-plus-square-foot house has high ceilings, two bedrooms, a maid’s room and an office. The villa, which also has city and ocean views, was restored by the sellers.

Richard Klug of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, handled both sides of the transaction.

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