He Can’t Believe It’s Really His
Fabio, the Italian supermodel-actor who appears in the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and just-completed Miller Lite beer commercials, has purchased a Tarzana home for close to its $1.5-million asking price.
He bought the house, on slightly more than an acre, from actress Catherine Oxenberg and her husband, actor Casper Van Dien.
Fabio, 39, stars as the title voice in the animated movie “Thor: God of Thunder.” He has posed for hundreds of romance novel covers, has worked as a TV spokesman for Frosted Cheerios and has had a number of TV and movie roles. The 6-foot, 3-inch, 220-pound model also penned a book called “Fabio Fitness.”
Oxenberg, 37, was a series regular on “Dynasty” during the 1980s, and she later starred in two TV movies as the late Princess Diana and appeared in the 1999 movie “The Omega Code.” She is the daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.
Van Dien, 30, co-starred in the movies “Starship Troopers” (1997) and “Tarzan and the Lost City” (1998) and “The Omega Code.” This year, he had a featured role in “Titans,” a pilot for an NBC prime-time series.
Oxenberg and Van Dien, who married in May, moved to their Beverly Hills home, which they had on the market in August at about $1.3 million. Fabio had been renting in Beverly Hills.
His new home has six bedrooms and 6 1/2 baths in about 7,000 square feet. Built in 1991, the Mediterranean-style house also has two family rooms, a breakfast room, guest house, pool and spa. The master suite has a fireplace, spa-tub and steam-shower.
Jonathan Seltzer of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, represented Fabio in his purchase; Diana Lipari of Fred Sands’ Studio City office had the listing.
Limp Bizkit drummer John Otto and the band’s lead guitarist, Wes Borland, have joined the band’s front man, Fred Durst, in becoming homeowners.
The three were part of the original foursome formed in Florida in 1994 by Durst and his friend Sam Rivers on bass.
DJ Lethal rounded out the rap-metal quintet before they became crossover stars during the 1998 MTV-sponsored Family Values Tour, an extreme music showcase featuring the German band Rammstein and rap star Ice Cube.
Otto, 23, and Borland, 23, have purchased houses in the Los Feliz area for more than $1.3 million each. Durst, 28, bought a Beverly Hills-area home for about $1.4 million in October.
Otto bought a multilevel four-bedroom home with a pool. The 6,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style home was built in 1992.
Borland purchased a house about the same size with an apartment over the garage.
Bob Ross of Re/Max Beach Cities represented Otto and Borland in buying their houses; Debra Brzescinski of Prudential California Realty, Glendale, had the listing on Otto’s house, and Neal Baddin of Coldwell Banker, Sunset, had the listing on Borland’s new home.
Gary Winnick, founder of the telecommunications company Global Crossing, has purchased a Bel-Air home that is next-door to the four-acre former Henry Salvatori estate he bought in 1998 for $16.25 million.
Winnick, reported last year to be the richest person in Los Angeles, bought his second Bel-Air property for about $10 million.
Winnick, 51, tore down the 12,000-square-foot Paul Williams-designed home of the late Salvatori, a confidant of Ronald Reagan, and he is expected to raze the 6,700-square-foot house on the adjacent, one-acre-plus property. Built in the ‘30s, that house was owned for many years by actress Merle Oberon.
In place of the two houses, Winnick is planning to build one estate.
Raymond Bekeris of John Bruce Nelson & Associates represented both sides of the deal.
The most expensive single-family home sale in the L.A. area so far this year closed escrow early this month when Thomas O’Gara and his wife, Victoria, paid $12.5 million for a 15,000-square-foot Holmby Hills house.
O’Gara just gave up his ownership interest in Kroll-O’Gara Co., an Ohio-based security services company. Last fall, Kroll-O’Gara agreed to a $435-million buyout from an affiliate of the New York investment bank Blackstone Group and Jules Kroll, the security company’s chief executive.
Victoria O’Gara, a former model, was previously married to the late tycoon Lord Gordon “Gordy” White of Hull, a co-founder of Hanson Industries.
The Holmby Hills house, which has a screening room and a guest house as well as a tennis court, was sold by Barbara Cohen, widow of both actor Cary Grant and local businessman Richard Cohen.
The house was listed by Jeff Hyland and Maurice Umansky of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills.
The buyers were represented by Don Ellis and David Perry of Prudential-John Aaroe, Beverly Hills.
Fashion designer Marc Ware has sold his newly built Beverly Hills-area home. The asking price was listed as $11.9 million.
The nine-bedroom Mediterranean-style home is on a 10-acre promontory in the gated community of Beverly Park, overlooking Beverly Hills.
Valerie Fitzgerald of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, had the listing with Joe Babajian of Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills.
Paul Marciano, co-chairman and co-chief executive officer of fashion giant Guess Inc., has sold his home in gated Beverly Park for about $6 million.
The home, on two acres, has eight bedrooms in about 10,000 square feet.
Marciano bought a Beverly Hills home from the Sultan of Brunei for about $5.1 million about a year ago.
Joe Babajian and Mindy Williamson of Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
Suzanne Peterson of Coldwell Banker, Brentwood East, represented the buyers, a local businessman and his wife.
