Clapton unplugs Venice residency

Eric Clapton has put his Venice beach house on the market at just under $1.5 million.

The legendary British rocker decided to sell his home of four years because he needs more space for his growing family.

The ocean-view house, designed by Arata Isozaki and built in 1986, has one bedroom and two bathrooms in about 2,100 square feet.

The living room has a 30-foot cathedral ceiling, skylights and floor-to-ceiling windows, which open onto a Japanese bamboo garden. The master bedroom has a 20-foot cathedral ceiling. The house is a few steps from the beach.

Clapton also has homes in England and Antigua, West Indies. He has two homes in France.

He, Sting, Sarah McLachlan and Barbra Streisand recently donated songs to a new compilation to raise funds for Save the Children. The set is due out Tuesday from Atlantic Records.

Clapton, in his 50s, is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The rock-blues guitarist and lead vocalist is a multiple Grammy-winning songwriter, and he has worked on the scores of many movies, including the three “Lethal Weapon” films. Clapton was also musical director of “Concert for George,” the film tribute to George Harrison, his late Beatle friend.

Jaki Carroll of Troop Real Estate, Westlake Village, has the listing.

Malibu home is his latest production

Producer Brad Grey, chairman of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, has purchased a Malibu home for slightly more than $10 million, and he is refurbishing it.

The Cape Cod-style home has five bedrooms, eight bathrooms and three fireplaces in about 5,700 square feet. The master suite has his and hers bathrooms. A guest suite has a sitting room. The home has stone and wood floors, high ceilings and French doors.

The house, built in the late ‘80s, is on the sand and has a courtyard with a pool and a spa. The two-story home also has ocean views from both floors.

Grey, 45, has been executive producer of such TV shows as “The Sopranos,” “The Steve Harvey Show” and “Just Shoot Me.” He is also known as a talent manager, and he recently formed a movie production company with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

In April, he received the 2003 David Niven Award from Project ALS, a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease. Grey was honored for founding the Samuel and Dorothy Levin Fund at Project ALS. Grey’s grandfather, Samuel Levin, died of ALS in 1983.

Osbourne selling to go home again

Kelly Osbourne, daughter of rocker Ozzy Osbourne and costar with her family on MTV’s reality series “The Osbournes,” has put a Beverly Hills home she bought in March back on the market, this time at about $1.6 million.

She purchased the Spanish-style house, built in the 1920s, for close to its $1.2-million asking price. She did some refurbishing but never moved into the house.

Her mother, Sharon, recently signed a new contract with MTV for “The Osbournes,” and Kelly, 19, plans to continue living in the family’s Beverly Hills home while doing the show.

The house she is selling has three bedrooms and five bathrooms in about 2,800 square feet. The master suite has a sitting room and a loft, 1 1/2 bathrooms and a patio.

Joe Babajian and Kyle Grasso of Prudential John Aaroe, Beverly Hills, have the listing.

Moving is a fact of her new life

Nancy McKeon, who stars as a police inspector on the Lifetime drama “The Division,” has sold her Studio City home for close to its asking price of $999,000. McKeon played Jo in the ‘80s comedy series “The Facts of Life.”

The actress, in her mid-30s, recently got married, remodeled the two-bedroom home and relocated. The traditional-style home has a kitchen with stone counters, a den with skylights, an outdoor fireplace and a pool with a waterfall.

McKeon had purchased the home, where she lived for about a year, as a fixer-upper. The 2,000-square-foot house was built in 1941.

Cathy Greenly of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, had the listing, and Randal Smith of Keller Williams represented the buyer.

Hepburn estate for sale at $12 million

The Katharine Hepburn estate in Fenwick, Conn., where she died in June at 96, has come on the market at $12 million.

The house, in an area of Old Saybrook, was built for Hepburn in 1939, following a hurricane that flattened her family’s original home on the property. The three-story, white-brick home has nine bedrooms, eight bathrooms and five fireplaces in 8,000 square feet.

The house is on 3 acres and has more than 600 feet of waterfront on Long Island Sound. It also has its own beach and pond. Two long jetties add protection for boats and swimmers. Hepburn swam there daily, even during the winter.

She lived in various places when she was working on films in Hollywood. She rented at the Sunset Plaza Apartments, designed by architect Paul Williams. The 25-unit complex, built about a block north of Sunset Strip in 1938, was bulldozed in 1987.

She also rented the Aviary of the John Barrymore estate, on a hill overlooking actress Candice Bergen’s childhood home in the Beverly Hills area.

At another time, Hepburn rented silent-film director Fred Niblo’s Wallace Neff-designed house in the Beverly Hills area. The house, built in 1927, is now owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Hepburn and Spencer Tracy regularly stayed together in a John Woolf-designed guest cottage of a Sunset Strip-area estate belonging to the late director George Cukor, according to Jeff Hyland, an architectural historian and a Realtor at Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills.

Hepburn’s New York City townhouse is also on the market at $4.9 million.

Colette Harron at the Mitchel Agency in Essex, Conn., has the Fenwick listing.

Actor Buscemi adds on in the hills

Actor-director Steve Buscemi has purchased land near his Hollywood Hills home of nearly nine years for $200,000. His plans are unknown, but the lot has city views and room for a house and a pool.

The actor, in his 40s, played Romero in “Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams” (2002) and in “Spy Kids 3-D; Game Over” (2003). He’s a favorite of the filmmaking Coen brothers, playing Donny in “The Big Lebowski” (1998) and Carl Showalter in “Fargo” (1996). He also costarred with Adam Sandler, playing Crazy Eyes in the movie “Mr. Deeds” (2002). The same year, he directed episodes of the HBO series “Baseball Wives” and “The Sopranos.”

Architect will help restore home

Architect Pierre Koenig’s Gantert House in Hollywood Hills has been sold for close to its $950,000 asking price, and the 77-year-old Modernist architect plans to help in its restoration.

The three-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot house, which has city-to-ocean views and walls of glass, was built in 1981.

Koenig, known for his clean lines and glass-and-steel structures, is one of the few architects still living who participated in the Case Study House program sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine.

The program, founded in 1945, enabled such Modernist architects as Koenig, Richard Neutra and Charles and Ray Eames to build innovative, low-cost houses with industrial materials. The Gantert House was not designed as a Case Study House.

The buyer was Billy Rose, who represented himself through the Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills. Barry Sloane of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, had the listing.

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