Home’s Just Her Style
Actress-director Diane Keaton has purchased a two-story Bel-Air home in the $6-million range. The asking price was $7.2 million.
Built in 1928, the refurbished classic Spanish-style home has six bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms in slightly more than 7,000 square feet.
The home, on nearly an acre with a hacienda-style courtyard, also has a large living room, a den-office, a screening room and a breakfast room. Most rooms open to a pool, spa, cabana and patios.
Designed by George Washington Smith, the house was described as being “typical Diane Keaton style.” Keaton loves Spanish-style houses built in the ‘20s and is known for restoring them in fine taste.
She has refurbished a number of L.A.-area homes, including one in Beverly Hills that she sold a couple of years ago to Madonna for $6.5 million. That house, Spanish in style, wasn’t listed when Madonna bought it.
Last September, Keaton bought a Laguna Beach house that was not on the market, either. The house, built in 1924, was purchased for about $1.7 million.
Keaton, who won a best actress Oscar for “Annie Hall” (1977), co-starred in the movies “Town & Country” (2001) and “Hanging Up” (2000), which she also directed. She has published several collections of her photographs.
Keaton, 56, most recently co-starred with Jennifer Jason Leigh in the TV movie “Crossed Over,” which aired on CBS in March. Keaton also was co-executive producer of the film.
Aileen Comora of Sotheby’s, Beverly Hills, represented Keaton in her purchase.
Actress Amy Smart, who co-starred in the movie “Rat Race” (2001), has purchased a Beverly Hills-area home for close to its asking price of $699,000.
Smart, 26, bought a country English-style home, behind gates, with two bedrooms in 2,000 square feet. Built in the ‘40s, the split-level house also has a pool, gardens and sun room with walls of glass.
Smart, who co-starred as James Van Der Beek’s girlfriend in the movie “Varsity Blues” (1999), had a recurring role on the WB’s “Felicity,” playing the love interest of Felicity’s former boyfriend, Noel.
In 2000, Smart had a featured role in the movie “Road Trip” and co-starred in the NBC miniseries “The ‘70s.”
Richard Ehrlich of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, represented the actress in buying; Yaffa and Michael Lerner of Lerner Realty Inc. had the listing, sources said.
Clothing designer Mossimo Giannulli has purchased a Bel-Air home for close to its asking price of $7.5 million.
Built in the early 1940s, the house, on nearly 1.5 acres, has four bedrooms in just under 5,000 square feet. The two-story colonial-style home also has a pool.
In December, Giannulli, 38, sold a 1-acre, Bel-Air site to actor Nicolas Cage. Giannulli had taken the site as partial payment in March 2001 for a Bel-Air home he sold to developer David Murdock, chief executive of Castle & Cook, for $11.5 million, sources said at the time.
Ray Cooper, a former president of Virgin Records in Los Angeles, and his wife, Philippa, have put their Brentwood home on the market at just under $2.5 million.
The couple, who had owned the home for two years, plan to move back to London. Before moving to L.A. in 1997, Cooper had been a joint managing director of Virgin’s record label in Britain, nurturing such acts as the Spice Girls.
Another Brentwood-area home that the Coopers owned is in escrow. It was listed at about $1.3 million.
The house they just listed has three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. The two-story house, with high ceilings and three fireplaces, is on more than an acre with a grassy yard and terraced gardens. Built in 1969, the house also has city views.
Leah Steuer of Prudential John Aaroe, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
Producer-director Will Zens, who has directed such movies as the Vietnam War film “To the Shores of Hell” (1966)--featuring Richard Arlen as a Marine general--has listed his Westlake Village home at $800,000.
Zens and his wife, Janis, have entertained many actors and other entertainers in the ranch-style home, which the couple has owned since it was built 25 years ago.
The producer-director designed the house and supervised its construction. When the house was completed, the couple and seven of their nine children lived there.
The five-bedroom, 2,800-square-foot home, which has an office and a den, is on an acre with city and mountain views. There are sweeping views from two front porches. Two rear patios are used for entertaining. A long driveway leads to the house. There is parking for more than 10 cars.
Country music stars such as Buck Owens, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard were featured in three of his films.
Among other movies that Zens directed were “Hot Summer in Barefoot County” (1974), “Truckin’ Man” (1975) and “The Fix” (1983).
Emmett Dalton of Dalton Realty in Thousand Oaks has the listing.
A Brentwood home owned for several years by Judy Garland has been sold by the family that purchased it from the actress in 1968. The most recent asking price was $4.85 million.
The Torielio family, which just sold the house, entertained such notables as Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Taylor and Edmund O’Brien in the five-bedroom, nearly 6,300-square-foot home, built in 1952. The Torielios turned the house into a French Regency-style villa.
The Torielios are related to Walter Guzzardi, an L.A. businessman who bought the El Rancho Vegas Hotel in Las Vegas in the 1940s.
Bonnie Levin and Gardy Weickert of Prudential California Realty, Brentwood, handled the deal.
