Waiting room for the Smiths
Actor Will Smith and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith have settled into a San Fernando Valley home they bought recently for about $3.6 million as a temporary residence while building a home on their 100-acre ranch in the Malibu-Santa Monica Mountains area.
The couple, executive producers of the new UPN sitcom “All of Us,” had been living in another house in the Valley, but that house was apparently too small for their needs.
Their new temporary home is nearly 7,500 square feet on 4.5 acres with an outdoor kitchen and a pizza oven. The home also has six bedrooms and 6 1/2 bathrooms, including a guesthouse, media room, wine cellar, barn, pool and park-like grounds.
The Smiths have had picnics on the grounds of their ranch but haven’t lived there. They bought the ranch in 1999 for $7.5 million. At the time, it had an 8,800-square-foot main house, several guesthouses, a tennis court and stables. They plan to tear down the house and build one about three times its size, area real estate sources said.
The Smiths were married in 1997. “All of Us” is based loosely on their family life. The couple will make appearances on the show.
Pinkett Smith, 32, co-starred in the movie “The Matrix: Reloaded” and teamed on-screen with her husband in the biopic “Ali” (2001). Earlier, she co-starred on “The Cosby Show” spinoff “A Different World” (1991-93).
A Grammy-winning rapper, Smith, 35, went from starring in the NBC sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” (1990-96) to co-starring in such movies as “Men in Black” (1997), “The Legend of Bagger Vance” (2000), “Men in Black II” (2002) and “Bad Boys 2.” He played Cassius Clay-Muhammad Ali in “Ali.”
Hoop dreams in Santa Monica
Basketball star Mark Jackson, a free agent who played last season with the Utah Jazz, and his wife, Desiree, a singer, have purchased a Santa Monica townhouse for just under $1.2 million.
The couple bought a newly built Mediterranean-style condo with three bedrooms in nearly 2,200 square feet. The home also has a loft, a roof deck with a spa tub, a patio and a bedroom suite with a cathedral ceiling.
Jackson, 38, has played with the L.A. Clippers, New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers. He ranks second among the NBA’s all-time assist leaders, after John Stockton. Jackson is considered a Hall of Fame prospect.
Elaine Golden-Gealer and Les Steinberg of Coldwell Banker, Santa Monica, had the listing.
Host meets home in Hollywood
Dani Behr, host of the unscripted TV show “Boy Meets Boy” on Bravo and the syndicated series “Extra,” has purchased a Hollywood Hills home for about $900,000.
She bought a contemporary-style four-bedroom 2,300-square-foot home, built in the mid-’60s.
Behr, 33, is due to appear on a British version of “Sex and the City,” called “Denial.” She is expected to return to her native London in January to film the eight-part series, which will be shown in the U.S. next summer.
Carl Romeo of DBL Realtors, had the listing, and G. Clayton Vernon of Coldwell Banker represented Behr in buying, sources said.
Automotive fleet needs more room
Michael Hammer, grandson of the late industrialist and millionaire art collector Armand Hammer, has sold his Brentwood Park home for close to its $7-million asking price.
The house, built in 1991, has eight bedrooms and 13 bathrooms in nearly 16,000 square feet. The home also has a movie theater, darkroom, wine-tasting room, guesthouse and library.
Hammer, chairman of the Armand Hammer Foundation, sold the home because he wanted more room for cars, although the house, on half an acre, can accommodate a limo.
Armand Hammer, founder of Occidental Petroleum, died in 1990 at 92. His grandson, now in his late 40s, resigned about a year later as corporate secretary and vice president of Occidental Petroleum to devote himself to charitable institutions.
Joy Hudson of Nelson Shelton represented the buyers, and Paul Pekar of Coldwell Banker had the listing, sources said.
Post-and-beam classic listed
Don Bacigalupi, who resigned in August as director of the San Diego Museum of Art, has listed his classic post-and-beam home in the Point Loma area of San Diego at just under $1.4 million.
Bacigalupi, 43, is leaving San Diego to become director of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio.
His home, built in the mid-’60s, has four bedrooms and three bathrooms in slightly more than 3,200 square feet. It has high ceilings and walls of glass overlooking a pool. Elizabeth Courtier of Willis Allen Co., La Jolla, has the listing.
There’s Johnny: Investors to sell
Johnny Carson’s childhood home in Norfolk, Neb., has come on the market with an opening bid of $159,000.
The pre-Leno “Tonight Show” host, a longtime resident of Malibu, lived in the Nebraska home from 1933 until the mid-1940s, according to its current co-owner, Jim Pruett of Brandon, S.D.
Pruett and his partner, Rick Runge, bought the five-bedroom 1,500-square-foot house early this year and restored it to the period when Carson lived there, starting at age 8. In the garage, you can see where Johnny and his brother wrote their names, Pruett said. The front porch was Carson’s first stage. Carson’s father installed the fireplace.
Pruett tried to sell the house over EBay in May, but the highest bid was just a few thousand dollars more than Pruett and Runge paid for it, so they’re trying again.
