Advertisement

Love Calls Her East

Share
TIMES STAFF WRITER

Actress Alexandra Wentworth, fiancee of ABC political commentator and former White House aide George Stephanopoulos, has listed her Sunset Strip-area home at $1.75 million.

“I’m selling the house and moving to New York because I’m getting married,” Wentworth said. The wedding is scheduled for Nov. 20 in New York.

Wentworth, 35, has owned her home for almost two years. She renovated the house, built in the ‘50s.

Advertisement

“I don’t want to sell it, but it’s too big to be a pied-a-terre ,” she said. “The upkeep would be too much.” The couple already purchased a three-bedroom home in the Gramercy Park area of New York City.

The home has four bedrooms and four and a quarter baths in slightly more than 4,000 square feet. The master suite has a fireplace, sitting room and city views. The Mediterranean-style home also has a pool, spa and guest house.

Wentworth co-stars with Whoopi Goldberg in the TNT movie “Call Me Claus,” due to air in December.

Wentworth went from improv comedy to being a regular in the TV series “In Living Color” (1992-94). She has been in such movies as “Jerry Maguire” (1996) and “The Real Blonde” (1997). She was a regular on the TV series “Felicity” (1998-99), and she has appeared many times on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”

She also wrote the humorous “WASP Cookbook” (Warner Treasures, 1997). “I’m going to write another book, but I’m waiting to move,” she said.

She met Stephanopoulos in early April. It will be a first marriage for both.

Her mother was a White House social secretary during the Reagan administration; her stepfather was an editor of the Sunday London Times; and her father was a reporter for the Washington Post.

Advertisement

“I grew up in politics, but I never thought I’d marry anybody in politics,” she said.

Stephanopoulos, 40, was considered Washington’s most eligible bachelor for almost a decade, until he proposed to Wentworth in June. He was a former aide to President Clinton.

Barry Sloane, who specializes in historic and architecturally significant properties at Sotheby’s International Realty in Beverly Hills, has Wentworth’s listing.

*

Oscar-winning singer-actress Shirley Jones and her husband, producer Marty Ingels, have sold their longtime Beverly Hills home for $2.5 million, and they have purchased an Encino home, behind gates, for $1.2 million, sources said.

Jones had lived in the Beverly Hills home for about 35 years; Ingels had lived there since marrying Jones in the late ‘70s.

When their Beverly Hills home sold, the couple moved temporarily to their Big Bear retreat until escrow closed on their new home in Encino.

“Shirley talked me into it,” Ingels said of the move, “but Encino is the Beverly Hills of the Valley, and we will be on a dead-end street with giant gates that open up to a private driveway.” The refurbished home, built in the ‘50s, also has five bedrooms, a gym and a large pool.

Advertisement

During recent remodeling of their former Beverly Hills home, built in 1954, the couple separated for a number of months, but they are together again.

Jones, now in her mid-60s, starred in such musical films as “Carousel” (1956), and she played the mother in the ‘70s sitcom “The Partridge Family.” She won an Oscar for best supporting actress in “Elmer Gantry” (1960).

Ingels is a comedian-turned-TV producer.

Dianne Merryl and Robert Bluman of Prudential John Aaroe, Encino, had the listing on the Encino home. Randy and Judy Hebert of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, Encino, represented Jones and Ingels in buying.

*

Publishing magnate Robert Petersen, who launched his automotive-and outdoor-magazine empire with Hot Rod more than 50 years ago, has put his San Luis Obispo County ranch on the market at $27.5 million.

Known as La Panza Ranch, the property, with 14,880 acres of deeded land plus 3,000 acres leased from the Bureau of Land Management, is one of the largest privately owned ranches in California.

Petersen, who just turned 75, has owned the ranch for about 10 years. He is selling it because he owns another ranch closer to his L.A.-area home.

Advertisement

He has been using the San Luis Obispo County ranch for raising cattle and growing grapes. He planted 260 acres in cabernet and syrah grapes, now being harvested for winemaking. Another 1,000 acres could be planted as vineyards.

The ranch also has such wildlife as elk, deer, wild pigs, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, wild turkey, duck and quail.

The San Juan River, on the eastern border of the ranch, provides water to all areas of the property, which can support 2,500 head of cattle.

There is a four-bedroom, 2,400-square-foot guest cabin, built in 1995, and a three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot home, built about 1900; it was recently restored. The ranch also has a bunkhouse, barn, helicopter pad and corrals.

During the 1800s, outlaws Frank and Jesse James took refuge on the ranch, then owned by their uncle, Drury James.

Petersen, the son of a mechanic, started Hot Rod when he was 21. Later, he published Teen, Motor Trend, Guns & Ammo and Skin Diver.

Advertisement

He sold his publishing company in 1996 for $450 million. Last year, he returned to publishing when he acquired Sports Afield magazine from the Hearst Corp. and moved its headquarters from New York to Los Angeles, home of the Petersen Automotive Museum. Petersen is the museum’s namesake benefactor.

John Battle and Duncan Lemmon share the listing at Lee & Associates’ Los Angeles North office in Sherman Oaks.

*

Carrie Quinn Dolin, who played first lady Laura Bush in the Comedy Central sitcom “That’s My Bush,” and her husband, screenwriter James Carey, have purchased a Mission Revival-style home in the West Adams area for about $400,000.

The recently married couple plan to refurbish the six-bedroom house, built in 1901. The 3,600-square-foot home has two sun porches, a maid’s quarters and a guest house.

Dolin also sits on the board of Los Angeles’ Attic Theatre Centre, where she has appeared in such shows as “The Vagina Monologues.” Carey and Peter Newman wrote the screenplay for the independent film “Hangman,” starring Dolin. The movie is in development.

Thomas Galbraith of Coldwell Banker, Hancock Park, represented the couple in buying the house; Natalie Neith of Coldwell Banker and Patricia Hodson of DBL Realtors shared the listing.

Advertisement

*

Olivia Hack, who stars on Lifetime’s “Any Day Now” as the young Mary Elizabeth or M.E. (Annie Potts’ character) in flashbacks, has become a first-time home buyer with her purchase of a Burbank house for $300,000.

Hack, 18, starred as Cindy Brady in “The Brady Bunch Movie” (1995) and “A Very Brady Sequel” (1996). She was also the voice of Rhonda on Nickelodeon’s “Hey Arnold” (1996).

The two-bedroom, two-bath home has a rose garden, brick walkway, gazebo-covered spa, pond and white picket fence.

Linda Barnes of Coldwell Banker, Burbank, was the selling agent.

*

The Brentwood home of the late Arnold and Lois Peyser, who co-wrote such TV series as “The Brady Bunch” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” has come on the market at just under $1.6 million.

Built in 1929, the Old World, Spanish-style home on three levels has five bedrooms in about 3,200 square feet.

The Peysers had owned the home for more than 40 years. He died at 80 in July. She died in 1994.

Advertisement

They co-wrote the TV series “My Three Sons,” and they shared a Writers Guild of America award in 1981 for their TV film “The Violation of Sarah McDavid,” starring Patty Duke.

The Peysers also regularly wrote episodes for such series as “My Favorite Martian,” “Gilligan’s Island” and “Mission: Impossible.”

Kay Pick of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, has the listing.

Advertisement