‘Goddess’ dropping domiciles

Roseanne Barr, who has been starring in the unscripted summer series “The Real Roseanne Show” on ABC, has listed her Palos Verdes Peninsula home of three years at $8.9 million.

“The Real Roseanne Show,” which began airing Aug. 6, focuses on Barr’s efforts to develop and sell “Domestic Goddess,” a cooking/lifestyle show centered on her search for spirituality. The ABC Family series, scheduled to debut Sept. 20, may be delayed a week or two due to surgery Barr elected to have this week.

Barr’s five-bedroom, 10,000-plus-square-foot house has been used in filming “The Real Roseanne Show.”

The ranch-style house, built in 1985 but updated and improved by Barr, has panoramic views of the coastline and the city. The nearly 3 acres of equestrian-zoned grounds have a pool with a waterfall; fruit trees; a gazebo and meandering pathways.

Inside the home are a gym, steam room and spa; soaring ceilings accented by an overhead working model train and tracks; a temperature-controlled wine cellar; an executive office; and a media center, game room and bar. The home also has a four-car garage and a motor court.

Barr listed her Lake Arrowhead ranch in March at $3.9 million, saying then that she wanted to move on after divorcing her former bodyguard, Ben Thomas. The 11-acre compound is now listed at $2.3 million.

Barr hasn’t decided where she will live when she sells her Palos Verdes home. She previously lived in Beverly Hills.

Barr, 50, one of the biggest TV stars of the 1980s and ‘90s, won a best-actress Emmy for her prime-time sitcom “Roseanne,” which aired on ABC from 1988 to 1997. She hosted “The Roseanne Show,” a syndicated talk show, from 1998 to 2000.

Gary Fleishman and Marsha Salsido of Coldwell Banker Palos Verdes/Beach Cities in Palos Verdes Estates have the South Bay listing. Nick La Carra of Coldwell Banker Sky Ridge Realty at Lake Arrowhead has the listing on the ranch.

Principal finds Malibu Cape Cod

Actress Victoria Principal and her husband, Dr. Harry Glassman, have purchased a Malibu home. The Cape Cod-style house was reported to have been bought for its $8.75-million asking price.

The home has five bedrooms and a two-bedroom guesthouse in 4,300 square feet. It was built in 1930 and recently refurbished. It has an open feeling with an oceanfront patio and spa.

Principal, in her 50s, was a series regular on “Dallas” (1978-87) and “Titans” (2000). She created a line of skin-care products and is the author of such self-help books as “The Living Principal: Looking and Feeling Your Best at Every Age.” Glassman is a plastic surgeon.

A Hollywood buy for a bestseller

Author Christopher Rice, son of novelist Anne Rice, and his partner, photographer Brian Orter, have purchased a penthouse in a West Hollywood high-rise condo building for its $1.5-million asking price.

The Italian contemporary-style penthouse has three bedrooms and a den in 3,000 square feet. The loft has city views and a three-story glass-and-steel staircase.

Anne Rice, 61, participated in financing the purchase but will continue to live in New Orleans. Her next novel, “Blood Canticle,” will mark the return of her vampire character Lestat when the book is published in October. Warner Bros. recently commissioned a musical, to be written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, about the vampire, first featured in Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles.”

Christopher Rice’s last novel was the New York Times bestseller “The Snow Garden.” His next novel, the Southern California murder mystery “Light Before Day,” is due out in 2004 from Miramax Books. He is in his early 20s.

Gregory J. Moesser of Prudential California-John Aaroe in Hancock Park represented the buyers, and Jean-Pierre Provo of Century 21-Better Homes in Santa Monica represented the seller.

Bringing reality to a historic home

Producer Chris Cowan has purchased a 1924 Los Feliz home for slightly more than $2 million.

Cowan, in his early 30s, is president of Rocket Science Laboratories. It produces such Fox TV series as “Joe Millionaire” and “Temptation Island,” which starts its third season on Aug. 28.

Cowan’s new home has five bedrooms and 6 1/2 bathrooms in 4,600 square feet. The gated, Mediterranean-style house was recently refurbished by the seller, builder Gary McCormick, but Cowan is already hard at work on it, trying to make it “more reflective of 1924 architectural styles and instincts,” he said.

The home also has an elevator, a vaulted ceiling, a pool, spa, patios and gardens.

Cowan co-founded Rocket Science Laboratories with Jean-Michel Michenaud. The team, which in July signed a two-year, seven-figure deal with Fox, has three new projects in development and is continuing to work on documentaries.

Before Cowan and Michenaud started producing the unscripted Fox shows, they were known for such Emmy-winning documentaries as “Images of Life: Photographs That Changed the World,” which aired on CBS.

Boni Enten Bryant of DBL, Los Feliz, represented Cowan in buying. Merry Prestidge and Manvel Tabakian of Coldwell Banker had the listing.

A shorter trip to the East Coast

Don and Marge Brinkley, parents of supermodel Christie Brinkley, have listed their oceanfront home in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, at slightly less than $1.9 million.

After having lived on the Big Island for 16 years, writer-producer Don Brinkley and his wife are now establishing their home in Beverly Hills so they can be closer to their daughter, son and five grandchildren. They are closer, but Christie Brinkley lives on the East Coast.

The house in Hawaii has two bedrooms, a den, an office, separate guest quarters and a private pool. The house, in a gated community, also has a common lap pool and tennis court.

Gayle Ching at Coldwell Banker’s Kailua-Kona office has the listing.

Norman Cousins’ peaceful legacy

The longtime Beverly Hills-area estate of the late writer-editor-philosopher Norman Cousins, who concluded that laughter is the best medicine, has been listed at just under $3 million.

The estate, on about 1.6 acres, includes a four-bedroom, 3,200-square-foot main house, a large one-bedroom guesthouse, a pool and a tennis court. The midcentury home was designed by Hal Levitt.

Cousins, who was editor of Saturday Review magazine and was awarded the U.N. Peace Medal in 1971, bought the main house in 1978. He added two parcels to the property, where he built the tennis court and the guesthouse/writing studio. The home is reached by way of a private drive.

Cousins was an adjunct professor at the UCLA School of Medicine when he died at 75 in 1990. His widow, Eleanor, died in 2001. Their family is selling the estate.

Barry Sloane of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, has the listing.

To see previous columns on celebrity transactions visit www.latimes.com/hotproperty.