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House and What Lies Beneath Sold

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Actress Michelle Pfeiffer and her husband, writer-producer David E. Kelley, have sold their Pacific Palisades home for $7.5 million, local Realtors said.

The couple purchased a Brentwood home for $15 million in June, but they continued to live on their Palisades property while refurbishing their new estate.

Built in the 1940s and designed by architect Paul Williams, their new home has about six bedrooms in 7,500 square feet and is on slightly more than two acres on one of the most desirable streets in the area.

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The home they just sold is on about three acres and has been described as a “rustic compound” with three buildings, including a main house with four bedrooms in 6,000 square feet.

Pfeiffer, 43, co-starred with Harrison Ford in the movie “What Lies Beneath” (2000), and she co-starred with Bruce Willis in “The Story of Us” (1999).

Kelley, 45, is the creator, a co-writer and producer of the hit TV series “Ally McBeal,” ’The Practice” and “Boston Public.”

Kelley, who has won multiple Emmy awards, signed a deal last year that was said to be worth as much as $300 million with Fox Broadcasting and Fox Television.

The couple has been married since 1993.

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Oprah Winfrey has been negotiating to buy a 40-plus-acre estate in the heart of Montecito for about $50 million, according to area Realtors.

The 10,000-to 15,000-square-foot house, with ocean and mountain views, has been undergoing major remodeling. The property wasn’t on the market, real estate sources said.

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Winfrey, 47, is arguably the most influential and richest person on TV. She has won multiple Daytime Emmy awards for her Chicago-based talk show, which she has owned and produced through her Harpo Productions since 1988. She launched the magazine O a year ago. .

Winfrey is a founder of Oxygen Media Inc., a New York-based Internet and cable-TV company that caters to women. Winfrey’s net worth has been estimated at $800 million by Forbes magazine.

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The Pacific Palisades home of the late Walter Matthau has been sold for about $5.5 million.

Built in 1934, the five-bedroom, 9,800-square-foot house is expected to be totally renovated.

The Oscar-winning actor’s widow, Carol, sold the couple’s Malibu retreat in September for about the same amount.

The actor, widely known for his many roles opposite Jack Lemmon in such movies as “The Odd Couple” (1968) and “Grumpy Old Men” (1993), died in July at 79.

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Velton Ray Bunch, a writer of music for the TV series “Nash Bridges,” has purchased the former Beverly Hills home of the late movie producer Joe Pasternak and his wife, Dorothy.

Bunch bought the estate, where the Pasternaks lived for many years, for slightly more than $1.5 million. He sold his former home in Toluca Lake for just under $1 million.

The Pasternaks’ home was built in 1921 and has a 3,000-square-foot main house plus a 1,500-square-foot guest house, which Bunch plans to use for recording purposes.

Bunch has scored music for many TV series including “The Pretender” and “Quantum Leap.” The multiple-Emmy nominee also wrote music for Dolly Parton’s TV specials and the CBS movie “Papa’s Angels,” starring Scott Bakula, which aired in December.

Joe Pasternak, who died at 89 in 1991, developed such musical prodigies as Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland and Gloria DeHaven, and he produced such movies as “Destry Rides Again” (1939), starring Jimmy Stewart, and “Anchors Aweigh” (1945), starring Frank Sinatra. The producer’s widow died more recently.

Steve Moore of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills North office, represented Bunch and the Pasternak estate.

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A former Palm Springs estate of the late Jack Benny and his wife, Mary Livingstone, has been sold for about $1.8 million.

Built in 1952 for Tom and Anita May of the May Co., the home was sold to the Bennys in 1964. They used it as their winter home until 1970.

The 5,700-square-foot compound, listed in August at about $2 million, has a two-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot main house, a guest house with four one-bedroom suites, each with its own entrance, and a two-bedroom caretaker’s house. The home, on nearly an acre, also has a pool, spa and tennis court as well as breezeways, courtyards and many patios.

The buyer is Palos Verdes-based Michael J. Kilroy, a single man in his 30s who has apartment complexes, office buildings and wireless data networks among his business holdings.

The seller, Andy Linsky, represented the buyer and himself. Linsky is with Alexander Real Estate in Palm Springs.

A Big Bear home on land formerly owned by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans will be sold at auction on Saturday. Built in 1991, the home has five bedrooms, a game room and a fitness center in 9,000 square feet.

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The late cowboy-film and recording stars lived on the land in a house, since torn down, from the 1940s until the late ‘50s, an auction spokesman said. The land, originally eight acres but now a third of an acre, was subdivided after Rogers and Evans sold it.

The auction, at 2 p.m. on the property at 39427 Silver Pine Court, will be conducted by the National Auction Group of Gadsden, Alabama. Registration starts at noon. There is no minimum bid.

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Want to see previous columns on celebrity real estate transactions? Visit https://www.latimes.com/hotproperty for more Hot Properties.

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