A Dramatic Make-Over, in Two Acts

Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr., who stars in the new movie “Snow Dogs,” and his wife, Sara, are doing a major renovation on a Pacific Palisades house they bought 18 months ago for close to its $3.5-million asking price.

The house was built in the ‘40s and is on nearly an acre with canyon views.

Architect David Applebaum, who has designed home alterations and additions for stars such as Bob Hope and Diane Keaton, is overseeing work on the 3,500-square-foot house, which has been expanded to 8,000 square feet.

Phase 1 is 80% completed, and Phase 2, which is nearly ready to get underway two years earlier than planned, will include a new swimming pool, four-car garage, boxing gym, screening room and roller-hockey court.

Phase 1 focused on the main house. From the front door, the actor and his wife wanted visitors to be able to see the kitchen. The intent was to make the house informal, warm and welcoming. The house has two staircases to maintain family privacy when the actor is in a meeting in the formal living room, which will double as his office. The ceiling there has been raised from 8 to 12 feet to make the room more spacious.

Off the kitchen is a garden room, wine closet and china pantry. The kitchen blends into a great room. The interior designer is Sean Miller.

The English Country-style house, with French influences, has a master suite with a balcony, a maid’s quarters and four family bedrooms. There is an upstairs sitting room with a fireplace and a guest room that could be a game room. The master bedroom also has a fireplace and two walk-in closets.

The house, which has a slate roof and copper dormers, is surrounded by a terraced colonnade which complements the park-like setting created by landscape designer Jay Griffith.

Gooding, 34, isn’t expected to move into his Palisades home until at least December, but is said to be delighted over a home he never could have imagined as a child. After his parents divorced when he was in fifth grade, he and his mother, brother and sister lived in a motel in suburban Orange County.

Gooding won a best supporting actor Oscar for his role as pro football star Rod Tidwell in the movie “Jerry Maguire” (1996). More recently, he appeared in “Men of Honor” (2000) and “Pearl Harbor” (2001).

“Snow Dogs,” released Friday, is about a father who reunites with his son during Alaska’s Iditarod dog-sled race.

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Laker star Kobe Bryant has purchased a Newport Beach home for about $4 million.

The Mediterranean-style house, which is behind private gates and is also in a guard-gated community, has a pool, spa, unobstructed city and ocean views, and a video surveillance and laser security system.

The basketball star, 23, and his wife, Vanessa, had been looking for an Orange County home to buy since August, when he backed out of escrow on a $13.5-million, 10-bedroom home on 9.5 acres with a lagoon, waterfalls and a half-scale replica of a pirate ship in Coto de Caza.

The basketball player’s wife went to school and has family in Orange County. The couple also has a Pacific Palisades home, which he bought in 1999 for $2.5 million.

Jordan Cohen, estate director for Re/Max Olson Brokerage, Westlake Village, represented the Lakers player in buying the Newport Beach home. Jeff Ewing of Coldwell Banker, Coast Newport Properties, represented the seller.

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Actor Wayne Rogers and his wife, Amy, bought a Westside condo and are selling their longtime Beverly Hills house.

Rogers, probably best known for his role as Capt. “Trapper John” McIntyre on the TV series “MASH” (1972-83), is selling his Beverly Hills home for close to its $2.95-million asking price. Escrow is due to close Wednesday.

He had owned the five-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot home that was built in 1923 for 30 years, but has been living primarily in Florida for the last two years.

He bought the condo for slightly more than $900,000. The two-bedroom, 2,600-square-foot unit built in 1981 has a den with a wet bar and greenbelt views.

The actor, who starred with Bo Derek in the June TV movie “Frozen With Fear,” is also a home builder and financier. He and his wife, a former producer of “Good Morning America,” also have homes in Utah, New York and Phoenix.

Deborah Moore of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, had the listing on the condo. Sidney Kibrick and Barbara Weisberg of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills, had the listing on the Beverly Hills house.

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Pia Zadora has sold her Malibu house for about $5 million and listed her Beverly Hills-area home at just under $7.5 million.

The actress-singer, 46, filed for divorce from her second husband, writer-director Jonathan Kaufer, 46, in November. She was previously married to multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis. When they were married, they bought Pickfair, the legendary Beverly Hills home of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks; Riklis refurbished the house, razing much of it because of termites.

Zadora’s Cape Cod-style Malibu home, with 40 feet of beach frontage and a grassy yard, had been on the market at just under $5.5 million. The remodeled home, with wide-plank pine floors, includes a four-bedroom main house plus a guest cottage. It was purchased by an L.A. businessman.

Zadora’s Beverly Hills-area home, with six bedrooms in about 10,000 square feet, also has a sunken tennis court, a pool with a spa and expansive lawns.

The house, on just under two acres, was built in 1988 but was redone five months ago to add environmental and hypoallergenic features. It has “bottled water quality” pool water, natural paint on the walls, an air-filtration system and pesticide-free landscaping and gardens. Zadora added a meditation room, a staff room, a laundry and a loft.

She retired from show business to concentrate on raising her family in 1996. A year earlier, she appeared on Broadway in the musical “Crazy for You.” She starred in the movie “Butterfly” (1981), produced by Riklis, and was the “Dubonnet Girl” in TV commercials when Riklis was owner of Dubonnet’s parent company. Zadora also performed in occasional concerts and made cameo appearances in such movies as “Troop Beverly Hills” (1989).

Katie Bentzen of Pritchett-Rapf in Malibu represented the buyer of the Malibu home; Matt Rapf of the same firm had the listing.

Barbara Robinson of DBL Beverly Hills has the Beverly Hills-area listing.

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LaMonte McLemore, a member of original Fifth Dimension and a photographer who has been shooting pictures of women for Jet magazine since 1959, has put his Encino home of more than 30 years on the market at just under $1.2 million.

McLemore listed the home, which he has owned since 1970, because he built a house in the Las Vegas area, where he hopes to retire. He and his wife, Mieko, were married in Las Vegas in 1995.

The house, in the Encino Hills, has five bedrooms, a maid’s room and an office/den in 6,500 square feet. Built in 1955, the home, on nearly an acre, is behind gates and has city views and a pool.

The home also has a family room with a Swedish fireplace, a master suite with a combination steam-sauna-spa-sun booth, and a 1,000-square-foot studio with a bath upstairs.

Dominique Cavelier and Carol Haddad, estate agents with Re/Max Center Calabasas have the listing.

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Former L.A. King Jozef Stumpel, who was traded in the fall to the Boston Bruins, has sold his townhouse in the Manhattan Beach gated community of Manhattan Village for $568,000. There were multiple bids.

The unit, where Stumpel lived for three years, has three bedrooms and 2.5 baths in 2,045 square feet. It is a corner unit off a lush greenbelt.

The buyer, a Manhattan Beach resident, was represented by Phyllis Cohen-Edwards at Shorewood Realtors, Manhattan Village.

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