Hollywood Home Fit for a Princess
Cameron Diaz, who is the voice of Princess Fiona in the animated movie “Shrek,” has purchased a walled and gated home in the Hollywood area. The asking price was about $1.5 million.
Diaz had been looking to buy for many months, Westside Realtors said. She had been living in West Hollywood.
Built in the 1940s, her new home has three bedrooms in 2,500 square feet. The house also has a pool, spa and city and garden views.
Diaz, 28, co-stars with newcomer Jordana Brewster in the low-budget movie “The Invisible Circus” but has appeared in such blockbusters as “Charlie’s Angels” (2000), “Any Given Sunday” (1999), “There’s Something About Mary” (1998), “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997) and “The Mask” (1994).
She appears in the upcoming films “Gangs of New York,” with Leonardo DiCaprio, and “Vanilla Sky,” with Tom Cruise.
Diaz reportedly made $15 million for doing “Charlie’s Angels.”
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Emmy-winning actress Estelle Getty, best known as Beatrice Arthur’s feisty mother, Sophia, in the NBC sitcom “The Golden Girls” (1985-92), has purchased a Hollywood condo for close to its $324,000 asking price. Getty, 77, had been living in a larger home that she owned in the Sunset Plaza area.
She bought a two-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot condo on one level with city views. The four-story building was constructed in 1960, but Getty’s unit was totally remodeled.
The actress, who appeared in the children’s movie “Stuart Little” (1999) as Grandma Estelle and reprised her role as Sophia in the NBC sitcom “Empty Nest” (1993-95), announced last year that she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Getty, who appeared in “Tootsie” (1982), also played Cher’s mother in “Mask” (1984).
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Veteran actor Jackie Cooper, the first child star to be nominated for a best actor Oscar (“Skippy,” 1931), and his wife, Barbara, have sold their Beverly Hills-area home of 22 years for about $1.2 million to attorney Peter Ostroff.
The Country French-style house has five bedrooms and four baths in about 3,400 square feet. Built in 1971, the home also has a pool, decks, balconies and a detached guest house.
The Coopers bought a condo on the Wilshire Corridor.
The actor, 78, played Perry White in all four “Superman” movies (1978-1987). A child star who also made good as an adult actor, he went from “Our Gang” comedies to “The Champ” (1931) to many later TV and movie roles and two Emmy Awards as a director for such shows as “MASH” (1973-74). He announced his retirement in 1989.
Ostroff, in his 50s, is head of litigation at the downtown L.A. law firm of Sidley & Austin. In 1997, he helped then-police Chief Willie L. Williams win a $375,000 severance package from the city when Williams had only a month left on his contract. Williams then dropped a $3-million wrongful termination suit.
Valerie Friedman of Prudential John Aaroe, Beverly Hills, represented Ostroff in his home purchase. Sue Ann Simon and Heather Saginor of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
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Samantha Kluge, style editor of Glamour magazine and daughter of billionaire Metromedia founder John Kluge, and her husband, singer-songwriter Richie Birkenhead, have listed their Hollywood Hills home of two years at just under $1.6 million.
“We bought a one-bedroom penthouse with a wraparound terrace in New York that I just finished refurbishing, so we will be more bicoastal,” she said. And she is redoing a house in Bel-Air. “It won’t be done until September. So we rented a house in Santa Monica for the summer,” she said.
Kluge enjoys restoring and remodeling houses. “My mother and my father love to renovate homes,” she said. “When I was growing up, we moved every two years.”
The Hollywood Hills home was her first in California, but it was her sixth home purchase. “I first bought a cookie-cutter place in SoHo, which doubled in value in a year,” she said. “So this is a hobby but with a lot of returns.”
Kluge, 31, and her husband, 36, wanted more space. So they bought the Bel-Air home with a guest house, now being turned into a recording studio.
Birkenhead, former front man for the band Into Another, just finished his first recording, “Lonely Splendor,” with his new band, the Formula. He also produces for other artists.
He had been using the turret in their Hollywood Hills home as a studio. Built in 1931, the nearly 1,500-square-foot, English-style cottage has two bedrooms, two baths and three fireplaces.
“We have three dogs, so we built a large, enclosed grassy area,” she said. The gated home is on terraced grounds with city views.
Kluge also designed the furnishings, which are available at extra cost.
Richard Ehrlich of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
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A Palm Springs estate owned at various times by Alvin Childress, who played Amos in “Amos & Andy,” and “Jazz Singer” star Al Jolson, has come on the market at $2.8 million.
Built in 1934, the two-acre gated compound was first owned by Childress. He sold the property to Jolson in the 1940s. Jolson owned the home for about eight years.
Harry Serlis, a former director of the Robert Mondavi winery and a leader of California’s wine industry, was a later owner. He customized a wine cellar on the property.
The compound has a two-bedroom main house, a two-bedroom guest house, an artist’s studio, caretaker’s quarters, a pool and a spa.
The property has park-like grounds surrounded by more than 300 15-foot ficus trees. There is also a trellised rose garden, and the site is landscaped for a putting green.
Lauren Luria and Cindy DeTiege of Fred Sands Desert Realty, Palm Springs, have the listing.
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Want to see previous columns on celebrity real estate transactions? See https://www.latimes.com/hotproperty for more Hot Properties.
