Guard Takes a Shot at Malibu

Indiana Pacers guard Reggie Miller, one of the NBA’s best shooters, has purchased a Malibu home for $5.3 million from former New York Yankees power hitter Danny Tartabull and his wife, Kellie.

Built in 1990, the three-story house, on nearly 1.3 acres, has seven bedrooms and nine baths in slightly more than 8,400 square feet.

The home also has what have been described as “breathtaking ocean views,” gated, landscaped grounds, a pool, gym, game room/media room and detached guest house. The 2,700-square-foot master suite has two conversation areas and a marble fireplace.

Tartabull, 38, and his wife had purchased the home for about $2.5 million in 1994, when he was in the second year of his five-year, $25.5-million contract with the Yankees.

In 1995, Tartabull, sidelined intermittently by rib-cage muscle problems, was traded to the Oakland Athletics. The often-injured, free-agent outfielder then took a pay cut to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies. He decided to retire after suffering a foot injury during the 1997 season. Last year he flirted with playing for the San Diego Padres, but the contract terms weren’t to his liking. He has had an Internet business for a couple of years.

Miller, 35, signed a three-year, $36-million deal with the Pacers last August, a few days after he filed for separation from his wife of eight years. The NBA All-Star, who grew up in Riverside, was the third-leading all-time scorer at UCLA, with 1,095 points, before the 1987 NBA draft, when he was a Pacers first-round pick. His sister, Cheryl, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, is in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

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Celebrity photographer Herb Ritts, who photographed Jennifer Lopez for this month’s issue of Vanity Fair and Catherine Zeta-Jones for an upcoming cover of Vogue, has listed his Hollywood Hills home at just under $1.6 million.

Ritts, who directed Lopez’s recent video, also put his two contiguous properties in the Santa Fe, N.M., area on the market. “They can be purchased together or separately,” he said.

One property is on 20 acres and has a teak main house, guest/pool house, a natural-rock pool, pine trees and 360-degree mountain views “from the city lights to the virgin forest,” he said. It’s priced at about $2.4 million. The other property is a 130-acre site with what he describes as “a chic cabin” and meadows. It’s for sale at about $1.9 million.

Ritts, in his late 40s, has owned the properties for 10 years, he said, “but now I would rather be in town here or in Malibu.”

He has long had a Malibu retreat, and he has owned his Hollywood Hills house for 25 years. “I just need a little more space,” he said. He is in escrow to buy a nearby house that is larger and has a bigger yard.

His Hollywood Hills house was built in 1925 and has three bedrooms, three baths and cathedral ceilings in 3,500 to 4,000 square feet. The contemporary American colonial also has a pool.

“It’s a great house, and I love it,” he said. “It’s very modern, although it has turrets. It’s all white and has great city views.” He shot Madonna’s “True Blue” album cover in his backyard, against a white wall in the garden.

Ann Eysenring of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, has the Hollywood Hills listing. Pat French of French & French in Santa Fe has the Santa Fe listings.

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Actor-director Donovan Leitch and supermodel-artist Kirsty Hume have purchased a Hollywood Hills home for about its $825,000 asking price. The couple, married in 1997, moved to L.A. from New York.

The house they bought has four bedrooms in about 2,500 square feet. Built in 1926, the Mediterranean-style villa has arched windows, high, coved ceilings, a fireplace and French doors. The gated home also has a grassy backyard with a patio and fruit trees.

Leitch, 32, directed “Last Party 2000,” a $1-million digital feature about the U.S. presidential campaign. He made a guest appearance last year as a photographer on the HBO hit “Sex and the City.” In 1999 he alternated with Ally Sheedy in the title role of the off-Broadway musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

He also formed the rock band Nancy Boy with Jason Nesmith and has served as the band’s frontman. Leitch is the son of ‘60s pop/folksinger Donovan, and he is the brother of actress Ione Skye.

Hume, 24, was known on the cover of fashion magazines for her thigh-length blond hair until last year, when she cut it in a tightly cropped bob. Besides modeling, she paints.

Richard Ehrlich of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, represented the couple in their purchase.

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Grammy Award-winning songwriter Diane Warren, whose hit single “There You’ll Be” was recorded by Faith Hill for the movie “Pearl Harbor,” has purchased a three-bedroom, beachfront home in Malibu and listed her two-bedroom Malibu condo.

The asking price of the modern-style, 2,100-square-foot home she purchased was about $1.9 million. The ocean-view condo is listed at about $1.1 million.

Warren, in her early 40s, also has a home in the Hollywood Hills that she purchased from multimedia mogul David Geffen for about $2.6 million in 1995.

A multiple-Oscar nominee, Warren wrote the song “Where the Dream Takes You,” recorded by Mya for the upcoming Disney animated feature-film “Atlantis.” Among Warren’s other current hit singles are “But I Do Love You,” performed by LeAnn Rimes, and “I Could Not Ask for More,” performed by Sara Evans.

With more than 80 Top 10 hit songs for such recording artists as Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand, Warren is being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday. Holly Davis of Coldwell Banker Previews, Pacific Palisades, had both sides of the transaction involving Warren’s purchase, and Davis has Warren’s listing.

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Emmy Award-winning writer-TV producer-novelist Gail Parent has put her Beverly Hills-area home on the market at just under $1.5 million.

Parent, who just finished writing the movie “Cadet Kelly” for the Disney Channel, is selling because she hopes to spend some time in New York while working on her novel “Sheila Levine Is Still Dead and Living in New York,” a sequel to her 1975 novel. Parent plans to maintain smaller quarters in L.A.

Her Beverly Hills-area home has four bedrooms in 2,500 square feet. The contemporary-style house, behind gates with city views, also has walls of glass, a master suite with a fireplace, and separate guest accommodations. The house, built in 1959, was recently renovated and has a pool.

Parent, who will appear in August as a guest on Tracey Ullman’s style show on the Oxygen Network, was supervising producer of Ullman’s HBO series “Tracey Takes On ... “ (1997-98). Earlier, Parent, in her 50s, was co-executive producer of “The Golden Girls” (1985) and was a writer in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s on “The Carol Burnett Show” (1972) and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” She also wrote the screenplay for the movie “The Main Event” (1979).

Joe Babajian and Judy Cycon of Prudential John Aaroe, Beverly Hills, have the listing.

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