‘Mac’ moving to a new base in Malibu
Catherine Bell, who co-stars in the CBS courtroom-military series “JAG” as Marine Lt. Col. Sarah “Mac” MacKenzie, and her husband, actor-producer Adam Beason, have purchased a Malibu home for just under $2 million.
The couple bought a five-bedroom, 4,800-square-foot home on slightly more than 2 acres in the hills. The one-story home, built in 2000, has 6.5 bathrooms plus an infinity pool and Santa Monica Bay and coastline views.
The home also has plenty of parking for the couple’s dozen or so motorcycles. In 1999, when the pair was living in a three-story, contemporary-style home in Sherman Oaks, they were reported to enjoy moto-cross racing, water skiing and snowboarding.
They were married in May 1994, on the second anniversary of their first date. They met on the set of the 1992 film “Death Becomes Her,” when Bell was Isabella Rossellini’s body double and Beason was a production assistant.
Bell, 34, just finished shooting her first feature film, “Bruce Almighty,” a comedy starring Jim Carrey as a TV reporter who rages against God, played by Morgan Freeman. Bell plays a fellow newscaster in the comedy, which is due out in May.
Jeff Chertow of Pritchett-Rapf & Associates, Malibu, represented Bell and Beason in buying, area sources said.
Buster’s place
brings top dollar
A Beverly Hills mansion built in 1926 for comic actor Buster Keaton has been sold for close to its $20-million asking price.
The buyers are Bill Guthy, co-founder of a TV direct-marketing company, and his wife, Victoria Jackson, a makeup artist and infomercial beauty queen, according to sources not involved in the deal.
The 14-bedroom, 16,000-square-foot home was sold by developers John Bercsi and Christopher Bedrosian, who spent 2 1/2 years restoring and refurbishing the property after buying it from the estate of actress-turned-talk show host Pamela Mason.
Mason lived there from the late ‘40s, when she bought the property with her then-husband actor James Mason, until she died at 80 in 1996. Cary Grant and his then-wife, heiress Barbara Hutton, owned the home in the early ‘40s.
The 1.5-acre gated site includes a main house with a 50-foot-long living room, a 42-foot-long kitchen and an up-to-date screening room, where Keaton watched silent films and played billiards with such stars as Tom Mix and Harold Lloyd. The estate also has a guesthouse, cabana, 60-foot-long pool, gym, tennis court, tennis pavilion, three-bedroom staff quarters and a 500-foot-long drive lined with olive trees.
The buyers, in their 40s, have other homes in the L.A. and Santa Barbara areas.
Jackson, who already was marketing her own cosmetics line for the mass market, joined with actor Rob Lowe and his wife, makeup artist Sheryl Berkhoff, in 2001 to launch Lola, an upscale line of color, skin and fragrance products.
Jackson also wrote “Make Up Your Life” (Cliff Street Books), which she subtitled, “Every Woman’s Guide to the Power of Makeup.”
Guthy co-founded Guthy-Renker, which makes infomercials, in 1988. The company has produced infomercials for such personalities as Tony Robbins and Victoria Principal as well as Jackson.
Kurt Rappaport and Loren Judd of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
Finding a way to
cut the commute
Dr. Bruce Hensel, the Emmy-winning medical-health-science editor-reporter for NBC’s Channel 4 News, has listed his three-bedroom, Pacific Palisades home at close to $3.5 million.
Hensel, who has owned the home for 16 years, is thinking about moving to the Hollywood Hills to be closer to the NBC news studios in Burbank.
His Palisades home was built in 1951 by Robert Byrd, known for designing and building homes with views of natural surroundings. On a rock promontory, Hensel’s 3,400-square-foot house has panoramic ocean views. The rustic home also has a game or media room, a great room with soaring ceilings, guest quarters, an updated kitchen, a stone patio with a built-in barbecue, an infinity pool and lush landscaping, including a garden path leading to a gazebo.
Randy Freeman of Prudential California, John Aaroe division, in Pacific Palisades has the listing.
No more mornings
in Valley Village
Stephen Tobolowsky, who co-stars in “Morning’s at Seven” at the Ahmanson Theatre through Jan. 26, has listed his Spanish-style 1928 house in Valley Village at $549,950.
Tobolowsky, a character actor, bought another home several years ago, and since then he has used the Valley Village house as a place for his friends to stay.
The house has two bedrooms plus a guest room, a studio/office, a sauna and three bathrooms. Tobolowsky restored the house and updated its kitchen.
The actor, 51, may be best known for his role as an officious insurance salesman in the comedy film “Groundhog Day” (1993).
Lou Woolf at Coldwell Banker Previews, Sherman Oaks, has the listing.
Laker home has
its own court
L.A. Laker forward Devean George has purchased a three-bedroom, 3,200-square-foot home behind gates in Manhattan Beach for close to its $1.3 million asking price and has sold his nearby two-bedroom, 1,600-square-foot home for $575,000.
The home he bought has a spa with a waterfall and a small basketball court. The home he sold was remodeled.
In his third NBA season, George has become a regular in Phil Jackson’s lineup.
Last July, at 24, he signed a new contract to earn $13.5 million in the next three seasons.
Phyllis Cohen-Edwards of Shorewood Realtors, Manhattan Beach, represented George in buying and selling.
To see previous columns on celebrity transactions visit www.latimes.com/hotproperty.
