Leaving the hills, not ‘Hill’
Brittany Murphy, who co-stars in the movie “Uptown Girls,” has listed her Hollywood Hills home of nearly five years at $995,000.
Murphy is selling because she recently purchased singer Britney Spears’ larger and newer Westside home for about $4 million.
The house that is on the market has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and an office in 2,000 square feet. The Spanish-style home was built in 1928 but has an updated gourmet kitchen with Viking appliances, a master bathroom with a steam shower and sauna, and other upgrades.
The home also has high ceilings and a fireplace in the living room, French doors leading to a courtyard off the dining room, hardwood floors and city views.
Murphy, 25, has appeared in a number of sitcoms and movies over a dozen years but most recently was in Eminem’s film “8 Mile,” and she co-starred opposite Ashton Kutcher in the romantic comedy “Just Married.” She also was in “Clueless,” “Girl, Interrupted,” “Don’t Say a Word” and “Riding in Cars With Boys.”
She provides the voice for aspiring beautician Luanne on the Fox animated series “King of the Hill.” She also is the voice of a talking dog in the upcoming comedy “Good Boy!” and stars in the romantic comedy “Little Black Book,” which has been in production.
Murphy is expected to record her first music album in November.
Sara Berger of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
She sold Sinatra house her way
The Beverly Hills home of the late Frank Sinatra and his wife, Barbara, has been sold for close to its $7.9-million asking price.
The home was first listed in 2001 at $12.5 million, furnished. The reduced asking price did not include furnishings.
The Sinatras lived in the home for about 15 years. They owned it when he died at 82 in 1998. She bought a Westwood penthouse for $3 million in June 2001, shortly before listing the Beverly Hills home, just north of Sunset Boulevard.
The house, built in the ‘60s and totally rebuilt in the ‘80s, has 14 rooms in nearly 9,000 square feet. The Sinatras added a second floor.
The home, behind electric gates up a private drive, has an art gallery, a gym, a terrace with spa and fireplace, two master suites, two maids’ quarters, a pool and a three-car garage.
Jeff Hyland and Rick Hilton of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, had the listing, and Stephen Shapiro of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, represented the buyers, sources said.
This newswoman has a new focus
Bree Walker, a former newscaster at KCBS in Los Angeles and WCBS in New York, has put her Rancho Santa Fe home on the market at $2.1 million.
Walker, who has owned the home since 1998, plans to buy a condo in San Diego, where she was a TV newscaster at KGTV before coming to Los Angeles, and she expects to buy a larger home in L.A. to allow her to spend more time at her Crystal Spring Productions, which she runs with her production company partner and former husband, NBC and HBO sportscaster Jim Lampley, who will host NBC’s daytime Olympics coverage from Athens.
The Rancho Santa Fe home was built in 1973 but has been completely renovated. It’s on 2.2 acres with a fruit orchard, four streams, waterfalls and a koi pond. There is a gated entry and a long, private drive. The 4,000-square-foot house has 3 1/2 bathrooms and four bedrooms, including a master suite with a gym opening to a six-person hot tub. A lanai leads to a pool and spa.
Walker’s second home in Park City, Utah, is also on the market. The asking price is $1.9 million. The 8,000-square-foot house was built in 1997.
Crystal Spring’s newest project is working on a production of Thomas Hauser’s novel “Mark Twain Remembers.” Ron Harwood, who wrote the screenplay for “The Pianist,” is writing the “Mark Twain” adaptation, which is in development at DreamWorks.
Crystal Spring Productions in Los Angeles is handling the Rancho Santa Fe and Park City sales.
He’s shifting his frame of reference
Stephen Levy, a personal manager who has been representing some big-name actors for a dozen years and who formed Framework Entertainment with Peg Donegan and Maryellen Mulcahy in February, has sold his Hollywood Hills home for nearly its $1.6-million asking price.
He purchased another home in the same area from Oscar-nominated producer Walter Coblenz (“All the President’s Men,” 1976) and his wife, Rita.
Levy and his partner, film editor Bill Neil, bought the Coblenz home together. That house, built for the producer and his wife in 1987, had been on the market at just under $1.6 million.
The house Levy sold was built in 1959 and has four bedrooms in about 3,000 square feet. It also has walls of glass, a lagoon pool, a waterfall and an outdoor fireplace.
The house Levy and Neil bought has four bedrooms in about 5,200 square feet. It also has a pool, spa, deck and city views from every room.
Among the clients who have been affiliated with Framework Entertainment are Lucy Liu, John C. Reilly, Marcia Gay Harden and Aidan Quinn. Before joining Framework, Levy worked for Michael Ovitz at Artists Management Group.
Verna Cornelius of Prudential John Aaroe, Pacific Design Center, represented Levy and Neil in their transactions. Moya Rimp and Kelly Selcer of Nourmand & Associates represented the Coblenzes.
A handicapper bets on Vegas
Wayne Allyn Root, chairman and chief executive of the publicly traded sports handicapping company GWIN Inc. (creator of WinningEDGE.com), has left Malibu after living there for nearly 13 years, and he and his family have established their new home in the Las Vegas area.
His new five-bedroom, 6,000-square-foot house is on the fifth hole of a Henderson golf course. A similar house next door is listed at $3.75 million.
Root and his wife, Debra, sold their ocean-view home on an acre in a gated Malibu community through Coldwell Banker agents Chris Cortazzo and Susan Saul for just under $1.5 million. Doug Sinclair of Coldwell Banker handled the Las Vegas sale.
