In Search of the Next Best Thing
Madonna has put her Hollywood Hills home on the market at $4.2 million.
The singer-actress, 41, has owned the home since 1996, a few months before her first child was born.
Madonna, who also has been living in London, is expecting her second child in September with Guy Ritchie, British director of the movie “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.”
Designed by architect Wallace Neff and built in the 1920s, Madonna’s Hollywood Hills home is Mediterranean in style and has three bedrooms in about 5,000 square feet plus a two-bedroom cottage. The home is on two acres.
Madonna most recently co-starred with Rupert Everett in “The Next Best Thing.” She also performed her rendition of Don McLean’s rock ‘n’ roll classic “American Pie” in the movie, released in March.
She also has co-starred in such films as “Evita” (1996), “Body of Evidence” (1993), “A League of Their Own” (1992) and “Dick Tracy” (1990).
She has won a number of Grammy Awards, including one for best song written for motion picture, television or other visual media. She shared that award, for “Beautiful Stranger” from “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” (1999), with William Orbit.
Madonna entered into a recording distribution agreement in 1997 for her Maverick Records label with Lawrence Bender and Quentin Tarantino’s A Band Apart Records.
Barry Peele of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
Judge Joseph A. Wapner, the Superior Court judge who ruled “The People’s Court” TV show for 12 years starting in 1981, and his wife, Mickey, are buying a four-bedroom condo in Century City for $1.45 million. Escrow is due to close Tuesday.
The couple, in their 70s, are also selling their Bel-Air home of 35 years. The asking price is just under $1.2 million.
“We’re moving to be closer to our children and friends on the Westside,” she said.
A heart attack survivor, Mickey Wapner wrote the book “Women at Risk of Heart Attack” (Pangloss Press, 1997, $20). Proceeds from the book go toward researching female stress and heart disease.
Judge Wapner’s “Animal Court,” which premiered in 1998, is shown on cable TV.
Built in 1962, the Wapners’ 4,000-square-foot Bel-Air home has three bedrooms, a den, a family room-library and two fireplaces. The house also has a 38-by-16-foot pool, a spa and a garden.
Sid Kibrick of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
Ken Roberts has listed his Mandeville Canyon ranch, owned during the ‘60s by late actor Robert Taylor, at $29 million.
Roberts, who sold KROQ-FM for $45 million in 1986 and a couple of smaller radio stations a few months ago, has long used the ranch for such philanthropic events as the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS fund-raiser, scheduled to be held there today, and a benefit for the American Cancer Society, on July 16.
Roberts has had the ranch on the market before, most recently at $35 million in 1990. He has owned the 112-acre Brentwood estate “since June 20, 1975,” he said, “and I just keep on improving it.” He’s in no rush to sell, he says, “but if I get my price, fine.”
Known as the Ranch, the property has seven buildings with 70 rooms in 20,000 square feet. The main, nearly 12,000-square-foot house has six bedrooms, a staff wing with three apartments, a guest wing, four fireplaces, a wine cellar, screening room, game room and den.
The home also has a pool, cabana, tennis court, 4,000-square-foot office complex, 3,100-square-foot guest-house complex, a two-stall stable and grounds.
Asher Dann and Kathy Villa of Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills North office, have the listing.
A two-bedroom Bel-Air home owned for more than 10 years by real estate mogul Jon Douglas before he gave it to his son, Jon Douglas Jr., has been sold for close to its $595,000 asking price.
The elder Douglas headed the nation’s third-largest real estate brokerage before selling it to Coldwell Banker in 1997.
He lived in the 1,600-square-foot house and then used it as a rental before giving it to his son, who just purchased a Mediterranean-style home in the Beverly Hills area for about $900,000.
Jon Douglas Jr., 29, is in mortgage financing.
His new home has three bedrooms and a maid’s quarters in about 2,600 square feet.
Jason Froehlich of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., Santa Monica, represented Douglas Jr. in his sale and purchase. Mauricio Umansky of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, had the listing on the house he purchased. Susan Stark of Coldwell Banker, Brentwood Court, represented the buyer of his Bel-Air home.
There have been seven house sales at more than $10 million each on the Westside so far this year, in contrast with three for the same period of 1999.
However, there have been 31 home sales in the $5-million-plus category this year, compared with 34 last year, and there have been 154 in the $2.5-million-plus range this year, with 169 for the first five months of 1999.
The figures are compiled by Cecelia Waeschle of Coldwell Banker Previews’ Beverly Hills South office.
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