Parting of the Ways, Hollywood Style
Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche, who parted ways in August, have put their Ojai home on the market at $2.75 million.
DeGeneres co-starred this year with Sharon Stone as a lesbian couple trying to have a child in the Heche-directed segment of HBO’s “If These Walls Could Talk 2.” The comedian-actor, 42, won an Emmy for co-writing an episode of her ABC sitcom, “Ellen” (1994-98).
Heche, in Toronto shooting the movie “John Q” with Denzel Washington, co-starred in the 1998 remake of “Psycho” and played the female lead opposite Harrison Ford in “Six Days, Seven Nights” (1998). The actress-director, 31, also appeared as a presidential advisor in “Wag the Dog” (1997) and won a Daytime Emmy as an actress in “Another World” (1990-91).
The couple had been together for 3 1/2 years. After their split, Heche was briefly hospitalized when she was found wandering and dazed near Fresno. Her car had run out of gas, and she suffered from sunstroke, according to a friend.
DeGeneres and Heche bought the Ojai property at the end of 1998. They also have a pied-a-terre in the Hollywood Hills, which they bought for $1.7 million in June 1999.
Their Ojai home is on about 10 acres with working avocado and citrus orchards, flower gardens, rolling lawns, a pool and many oaks. The 4,000-square-foot house, which has four bedrooms including two master suites, was built in the 1940s but has been substantially renovated.
Before DeGeneres and Heche purchased the home, it was used for a photo layout with Martha Stewart. The house, which resembles a French farmhouse, is white with beamed ceilings and porches. The home is privately situated with views of the mountains and orchards but not of neighboring properties.
Barry Sloane, who specializes in historic and architecturally significant properties at Sotheby’s International Real Estate in Beverly Hills, and Joseph LaPiana, of the same office, are co-listing the property with Larry Wilde of Coldwell Banker Properties Shoppe, Ojai.
The Malibu retreat of the late Walter Matthau and his wife, Carol, has been sold for its full $5.5-million asking price. The home, which the Matthaus had owned since 1987, was on the market for only two weeks before it was sold to a software developer from out of state.
The Oscar-winning actor, who appeared this year in the Diane Keaton-directed comedy “Hanging Up,” died July 1 at 79.
The Matthaus maintained their primary residence in Pacific Palisades.
The Malibu home, on the beach, has four bedrooms plus maid’s quarters in about 4,200 square feet. Built in 1963, the traditional-style house also has a master suite with a fireplace and a deck.
Valerie Fitzgerald of Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills South, had the listing and Toni Watson of Pritchett-Rapf Realtors, Malibu, represented the buyers.
Businessman Essam Khashoggi, founder and chairman of EarthShell Corp., has sold his 38-acre home in Santa Barbara for close to its $38-million asking price. The buyer was identified as the Gael Trust.
EarthShell makes food packaging from biodegradable materials. Khashoggi is the younger brother of Adnan Khashoggi, a former Saudi arms dealer.
The 38-acre oceanfront property was part of a 52-acre site that Essam Khashoggi had subdivided. He built a new home for himself and his family on the other 14 acres.
The property has an 18,000-square-foot compound on it, with a 10-bedroom main house designed by George Washington Smith and built in 1926. The site also has a five-bedroom guest office-staff quarters, a tennis court, pool, pool pavilion, stable, softball field, lake and 1,250 square feet of ocean frontage.
Randy Solakian of Coldwell Banker Previews, Montecito, had the listing; Rich Meaney of Coast Newport Properties, Newport Beach, represented the buyer.
Gary Winnick, founder of the telecommunications company Global Crossing, has struck a deal with David H. Murdock, Castle & Cook’s chief executive, to acquire Murdock’s Bel-Air home “through a complex exchange involving land and a certain number of furnishings, chandeliers and antiques, with a total value in the $60-million range,” a source close to the transaction said.
The deal, one of the biggest if not the biggest in the country for a single-family home, is expected to close later this month or in early October. No Realtors are participating in the purchase.
Initial reports that Winnick is buying the home for $95 million, including a $25-million trade of real estate, were denied; however, Winnick is expected to include his five-acre Bel-Air property in the deal.
Four acres of Winnick’s property had been the site of a 12,000-square-foot Paul Williams-designed home owned for years by the late Henry Salvatori, a confidant of Ronald Reagan.
Winnick, 51, tore down the Salvatori house late last year, and in April he bought a 6,700-square-foot house on an acre next door. Winnick had planned to raze the second house and build a 30,000-square-foot home on his five acres but decided, instead, to negotiate with Murdock, sources said.
Murdock’s house, previously owned by the late hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, is on nine acres adjacent to Bel-Air Country Club. The main house, about 18,000 square feet, was built in the 1930s. The home also has a pool pavilion/projection room with a guest bedroom, a two-bedroom guest house, a doghouse with fountain and garden, a tennis court and a pool.
Murdock, who is in his mid-70s and developed Sherwood Country Club in the Thousand Oaks area, paid $12.5 million for the house in 1980--at the time a record high for a single-family home sale in L.A.
Murdock, who had sought to buy Castle & Cook since March of this year, succeeded in collecting enough shares of the L.A.-based real estate company in July to acquire it for $615 million. The company’s primary holding is the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
Record producer Ross Robinson, who recently inked a multiyear worldwide deal with Virgin Records America to release and promote products from his I Am label, has purchased a Venice home at $2.35 million, a high for the area.
Robinson, 32, forged the post-metal sound of rock big sellers like Korn and Limp Bizkit. Robinson also has produced such acts as Deftones and Slipknot.
He bought a three-bedroom 4,500-square-foot house with an ocean view. Built in 1997, the four-level house also has a loft, office and master bath with steam shower.
Robinson’s Realtor, Charley Brown III of Coldwell Banker in Santa Monica, had been a personal manager and independent record-label owner for 15 years before getting into real estate. Tina and Ian Hale, also with Coldwell Banker, had the listing.
Antony Hoffman, director of actor Val Kilmer’s upcoming sci-fi thriller “Red Planet,” has purchased a Hollywood Hills home for about $1.5 million.
“Red Planet,” which marks Hoffman’s feature-film directorial debut, is due to be released in November. Hoffman has been a director of TV commercials.
His new home, described as “a mid-century modern,” has four bedrooms in about 3,300 square feet. The refurbished house also has a pool.
Ed Fitz of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
Madison Offenhauser of Coldwell Banker’s Beverly Hills north office represented the buyer.
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The late Walter Matthau, Essam Khashoggi, Gary Winnick and David H. Murdock.
