‘Practice’ freshman casts off old home
James Spader, who joined the cast of the ABC series “The Practice” this fall, has sold his Beverly Hills-area home for close to its asking price of $3 million, area real estate sources say.
The house, built in 1940, has six bedrooms and six bathrooms in 4,800 square feet, behind gates. Traditional in style, the house also has a breakfast area, a den, a dining room, a library-study, a projection room and a covered patio.
Spader also had a home in Massachusetts.
The actor, 43, plays Alan Shore, an ethically challenged antitrust lawyer on “The Practice,” now in its eighth season. When ABC slashed its budget for “The Practice” earlier this year, its creator, David E. Kelley, fired most of the cast and hired some new actors, including Spader, who formerly appeared in such films as “Secretary,” “Stargate” and “sex, lies and videotape.” He played Daniel Ellsberg in FX’s “The Pentagon Papers,” airing in March.
James Nasser of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, had the listing, sources said.
Songbird’s nest: Wilshire Corridor
Singer Natalie Cole has purchased a condo in the Wilshire Corridor for $2 million.
Cole, who won multiple Grammy Awards for her “Unforgettable, With Love” album that was a tribute to her late father, singer Nat King Cole, bought a north-facing unit in a full-service high-rise. The condo has four bedrooms and four bathrooms in 3,600 square feet. The recently refurbished condo overlooks the hills of Westwood.
Cole, 53, had been living in the Beverly Hills area.
She appeared at the Universal Amphitheatre last Sunday and is scheduled to perform in Pennsylvania and Ohio in January. Besides her music career, blending jazz with pop on such albums as “Ask a Woman Who Knows,” Cole has appeared in a number of TV movie roles since 1992.
Joe Babajian and Michelle Ficarra of Prudential Estates, John Aaroe division in Beverly Hills, represented Cole in her purchase.
Newsman eyes Sherman Oaks
David Ono, a newscaster at KABC-TV, has put his Studio City home on the market for $1.45 million and plans to buy a Sherman Oaks home for about $2 million.
His Studio City home has two bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in 3,700 square feet. It also has a media room with a large-screen TV, large walls for displaying art, multiple balconies, a deck for entertaining and a grassy area. There are views of the San Fernando Valley. The house, on a gated street, was built in 1988 and was recently refurbished.
Ono, who has owned the house for three years, has made an offer to buy a Sherman Oaks home, contingent upon his selling in Studio City. The Sherman Oaks home is newly built, Mediterranean in style, and has 5,400 square feet, a pool and a spa.
The nine-time Emmy winner co-anchors “Eyewitness News.” He joined KABC in 1996.
Dee Nep of Coldwell Banker, Sherman Oaks, is representing Ono in both transactions.
Kings’ Sim rents in Manhattan Beach
Jon Sim of the L.A. Kings and his wife, Marla, have leased a two-bedroom, 2 1/2-bathroom townhouse overlooking a golf course in Manhattan Beach.
The couple leased the 1,583-square-foot townhouse at $3,300 a month for at least six months.
Sim, 26, is a left wing originally from Nova Scotia.
Phyllis Cohen-Edwards of Shorewood Realtors, Manhattan Beach, was the listing agent.
A piece of Pickfair on the market
A 1-acre Beverly Hills lot that was once part of the legendary Pickfair and is next door to a home built by the late actor Fred Astaire is on the market at just under $3 million.
The lot is now the site of a tennis court, built in recent years for Pickfair, once the home of actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. After the tennis court was built, a doctor purchased the lot and had plans to build a house there but changed his mind.
Jeff Hyland and Judy Feder share the listing at Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills.
Labor of love is lost to the fires
The James Hubbell compound was one of many homes burned in the fall fires, but it will be among the most difficult to rebuild.
The 71-year-old artist- designer built it by hand, starting in 1958, after he and his writer-poet wife, Anne, bought the 10-acre mountaintop land near the San Diego County town of Julian for $350 an acre. The walls were built from granite collected on the site.
Before the fire, there were half a dozen hand-crafted buildings in the compound decorated with sculptures, stained glass, mosaics and wrought iron.
Fire gutted the main house, a two-story studio and a cottage with master bedroom, bathroom and office. It was not insured.
The Hubbells need to rebuild to realize their plan to transfer the property to a foundation or trust to establish it as “a sanctuary of creativity, beauty and peace,” said Kyle Bergman, a spokesman for the Hubbells.
For more information, see www.hubbellandhubbell.com.
To see previous columns on celebrity transactions visit www.latimes.com/hotproperty.
