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Groovy, Baby! A Home Score

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Times Staff Writer

Actor-writer Mike Myers and his actress-writer wife, Robin Ruzan, have purchased a two-bedroom Cape Cod-style house in the Beverly Hills area for more than its asking price of about $2 million.

“There was a feeding frenzy,” said a Westside Realtor not involved in the deal.

Built in the ‘20s, the gated and walled house, surrounded by mature greenery, was updated and has light interiors and dark, hardwood floors.

The two-story house also has a formal dining room, family room, office and bonus room. The park-like grounds have a pool, spa and patios.

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Myers, 37, recently settled out of court on lawsuits involving his plans to star in a movie based on his “Saturday Night Live” TV character Dieter. Myers left the project after expressing displeasure with the final script. Universal sued for breach of contract; Myers countersued.

Myers, who shared an Emmy for outstanding writing on “SNL” in the late 1980s, made his feature movie debut as an actor and co-writer for “Wayne’s World” (1992), based on characters created for “SNL.” He wrote and starred in “Austin Powers II: The Spy Who Shagged Me” (1999), the sequel to “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” (1997), in which he starred.

This year, the Canadian-born, Chicago-trained comic lent his voice to the title character of the upcoming animated feature “Shrek,” replacing the late Chris Farley. The movie is due out in May.

Rosanne Howard and Paul Lester of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, represented the buyer; Joe Babajian of Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills, had the listing, sources said.

Producer-writer Jessica Klein, who purchased Nicolas Cage’s Los Feliz Oaks house with Isaac Levenbrown, has sold her former house in the same area.

The two-bedroom 1,900-square-foot house had been listed at $775,000. Cage’s five-bedroom 5,300-square-foot house was on the market at $1.5 million.

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Klein, co-creator and executive producer of the NBC series “Just Deal,” is a former writer and executive producer of the Fox hit “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Levenbrown is the owner of Rail Productions, which designs and installs multimedia visual systems.

Klein decided to sell her former house because she needed larger quarters with her wedding this month to Levenbrown. He has three children; she has one. Klein and Levenbrown loved the area and wanted to stay there.

George and Eileen Moreno, estates directors for Fred Sands Realtors in Los Feliz, represented both sides in the sale of Klein’s former house. They also represented Klein and Levenbrown in buying Cage’s house.

Arthur Silver, co-executive producer and writer of the TV series “Unhappily Ever After” (1994-1999), and his wife, Kimberly, have sold their Malibu house for $15 million, including furnishings.

The couple had owned the property since 1997. They had extensively refurbished it, real estate sources said.

Arthur Silver was an executive producer and writer of the series “Married . . . With Children” (1988-1993). During the ‘70s and early ‘80s, he was a writer on “Laverne and Shirley” and “Happy Days.”

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The 12,000-square-foot house, on 1.5 acres, was sold to a dot-com executive through a trust.

Actor Steve Inwood, who most recently played the evil character Moreno as a series regular on the ABC daytime series “General Hospital,” and his investment manager wife, Susan, have purchased a weekend retreat for about $400,000 in La Quinta.

Inwood played opposite John Travolta in the movie “Staying Alive” (1983), and he portrayed New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the movie “Prince of the City” (1981). Inwood also has appeared on many TV series including “Dellaventura” and “Murder, She Wrote.”

Susan Inwood, who earned post-graduate investment-management certification from Wharton Business School, advises celebrity clients, endowments and foundations through Salomon Smith Barney, where she is a senior vice president.

The couple bought a newly built 2,100-square-foot house on a view lot at PGA West. They bought the property mostly for its unobstructed golf course and mountain views. They are adding 1,700 square feet of travertine marble flooring, a 40-foot-long pool and a spa.

The Inwoods’ primary residence is a 3,400-square-foot Craftsman-style house in Westwood, which they bought and restored in 1995.

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Jack Bryant, sales manager for Steven Walker Homes, represented the builder in the La Quinta purchase.

Hollywood photographer Mario Casilli has sold his 1915 Mediterranean-style villa in Altadena for $1.5 million.

Casilli began his career photographing such legends as Clark Gable in “Run Silent, Run Deep” (1958) and Kirk Douglas in “Spartacus” (1960). Since then, he has taken photos of some of the most famous people in Hollywood. Among them: Elizabeth Taylor, Carol Burnett and Angie Dickinson.

His photos of Playboy 1980 Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten, taken a week before her death in 1980, were published this year by Playboy magazine, where his photos of the young Brooke Shields also once appeared.

Casilli’s 7,000-square-foot house has long been a film location. Among the movies shot there was “The Four Seasons” (1981), starring Alan Alda. A number of silent films were also shot in the gardens.

The five-bedroom house has a two-story black and white marbled entry hall with a domed ceiling and a circular stairway, a musicians’ balcony, mahogany-paneled living and dining rooms, a mahogany-paneled elevator, four fireplaces, a butler’s pantry, a dumbwaiter, a breakfast room, a cabana, a spa, five fountains, a lily pond and mountain views.

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Casilli had owned the house since 1984, and he had done considerable refurbishing. He and his wife, Gwen, moved to another historic building, which they also renovated.

Victoria Coultas and Katherine Bornfeld of DBL, Pasadena, handled the sale.

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Did you miss Thursday’s Hot Property column in Southern California Living? Want to see previous columns on celebrity real estate transactions? Visit https://www.latimes.com/hotproperty on the Internet for more Hot Properties.

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