Good Home Hunting
Ben Affleck, who stars as author Tom Clancy’s character Jack Ryan in the upcoming movie “The Sum of All Fears,” has purchased a Beverly Hills-area home for close to $3 million.
The actor purchased a compound on 2.5 acres. Built in the early 1920s, it includes a four-bedroom, two-bathroom main house plus a guest house, separate theater, tennis court and pool.
The gated estate is reached by way of a private drive.
Affleck’s former home in the Hollywood Hills was listed early last year at $2.3 million, but it was taken off the market. Affleck has owned that home since April 1999.
Affleck, 29, co-stars with Samuel L. Jackson in the thriller “Changing Lanes,” scheduled to be released April 12. “The Sum of All Fears,” based on Clancy’s novel of the same title, is expected to be released May 31.
Affleck, who shared a best screenplay Oscar with Matt Damon for “Good Will Hunting” (1997), was an executive producer this year of “Project Greenlight,” an HBO series about a scriptwriting contest he co-sponsored.
He was also an executive producer of “Stolen Summer,” the film that won the Project Greenlight competition.
Brett Lawyer of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills, represented Affleck in his Beverly Hills-area home purchase, said sources not involved in the deal.
Katey Sagal, who starred on the sitcom “Married ... With Children” and is the voice of the Cyclops-like alien Leela in the Fox animated series “Futurama,” and musician Jack White have listed their Encino home at $3.85 million.
The couple bought the home in 1997 from actress Kirstie Alley. At the time Sagal, an animal lover, agreed to allow two lemurs owned by Alley to remain on the property. Alley has a private zookeeper tend to them daily. The lemurs, Lucy and Ethel, may remain if the new homeowners allow it.
Built for entertainer Al Jolson in 1935, the East Coast traditional-style home on 2.26 acres behind gates has eight bedrooms and three fireplaces in nearly 8,400 square feet.
The estate also has a guest house, den, study, gym, pool, gazebo and koi pond.
Sagal, in her 40s, starred as Peg Bundy in “Married” for 11 seasons, ending in 1997. Earlier this year she played Hank Azaria’s boss on the NBC sitcom “Imagine That,” which has been canceled.
Nancy Adamson of Coldwell Banker, Brentwood, shares the listing with Robert Bluman and Dianne Merryl of Prudential John Aaroe, Encino.
PGA star Denis Watson and his wife, Susan Loggans, a personal-injury attorney, have purchased a Malibu Colony home for about its $6.95-million asking price. The couple also have a residence in Florida.
Built in 1993, the Malibu home has four bedrooms in 4,500 square feet. Situated behind gates, the Tuscan-style home has an office, gym, maid’s/guest quarters, master suite with a deck on the beach and a courtyard with a fountain.
The home, with 32 feet of beach frontage, also has ocean views from every room.
The house will be available to lease from June to August at $90,000 a month.
Watson, 46, teaches and plays PGA and Nike Tour events. His best season was in 1984 when he won three PGA Tour victories. Watson came close then to winning PGA player of the year honors.
Loggans, named one of the country’s top 15 trial attorneys by the National Law Journal in 1985, has appeared on such TV shows as “Oprah” and NBC’s “Today” show. She also has hosted her own syndicated radio talk show and weekly TV show on Fox News.
Chad Rogers of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, represented the buyers.
Actor John Stamos and his wife, actress-model Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, have listed a 3.23-acre parcel of land in Benedict Canyon, where they once planned to build, at just under $1.5 million.
The couple originally listed the land in December 2000 at about $2.2 million.
Since then, the couple have sold their home in the mountains of Malibu for about $2.25 million and moved to a 20-acre ranch that they owned in the L.A. area. They refurbished one house on the ranch and plan to build another.
Stamos, 38, starred on the ABC series “Thieves” and played Uncle Jesse on the ABC sitcom “Full House.” He made his Broadway debut in 1995, replacing Matthew Broderick in the revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
Romijn-Stamos, 29, is a former host of MTV’s “House of Style” and has appeared in such movies as “X-Men” (2000). She was cast as the female lead in the remake of “Rollerball.”
Joe Babajian of Prudential Estate Properties, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
Former MGM Chairman Frank Mancuso and his wife, Fay, have sold their Bel-Air home of 16 years for close to its $4.8-million asking price. The couple has been building a new home in Holmby Hills.
They sold their Bel-Air home to Christopher Browne, a New York financier, and his partner, Andrew Gordon, a New York designer.
The one-story home, on more than an acre on a promontory, has four bedrooms, including a library-office, and six bathrooms in 9,000 square feet. Designed by architect Edward Fickett when it was built in 1956, it was updated and enlarged later by designer Ted Grenzback.
The house has dual master suites, each with a bathroom, a dressing room and maid’s quarters.
Steve Frankel of Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills, represented the buyers.
Barbara Robinson of DBL, Beverly Hills, and Yves Mieszala of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills North, had the listing.
Kim Bieber, a producer of the upcoming comedy film “The Cat’s Meow,” has purchased one of the last houses designed by the late architect Rudolph Schindler.
Bieber, 32, bought the Hollywood Hills house for $931,000 and now plans to spend up to $300,000 restoring it, with the help of DesignARC Architects of Los Angeles. The house has been considerably altered since it was completed in 1952, a year before Schindler died.
“It’s not much like a Schindler now, but it will be when I’m finished,” Bieber said of the house, which is her first major restoration. Her last project was a 1909 hunting cabin in Beachwood Canyon. It had no bathroom or kitchen until she renovated the 1,000-square-foot building.
The Schindler house has four bedrooms and four bathrooms in 2,700 square feet now, but it will have only two bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,500 square feet when work is completed. There were two additions that “destroyed its integrity,” Bieber said.
“I don’t need 3,000 square feet,” she said. “I’m a single woman, and I’ll live in it when it’s finished.”
Bieber views it as an important project, “because people in L.A. should revere their homes,” especially the architectural ones, she said. “The Cat’s Meow,” based on a play Bieber produced in West Hollywood, is due out April 12. It was directed by Peter Bogdanovich and stars Kirsten Dunst, Eddie Izzard and Jennifer Tilly.
Konstantine Valissarakos, director of historic properties for DBL, Los Feliz, represented Bieber.
