That Mona Lisa smile in Malibu
Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts and her husband, cameraman Danny Moder, are in the early stages of creating a Malibu compound with spectacular ocean views and a private beach.
The couple purchased an older home on an acre-plus Malibu bluff late last year for $6.4 million. Now they have bought adjoining land, bringing their estimated costs before construction to more than $20 million.
There are plans to build a house on one of the vacant parcels, and the house purchased last year is expected to be razed or remodeled. It was built in the ‘60s and has four bedrooms in about 3,400 square feet.
Roberts and Moder have been living in Venice since just after they were married in July 2002. They bought a $1.3-million house there in August 2002 and last year built a pool on a lot they purchased next door.
Roberts, 36, won a best actress Academy Award for playing the title role in “Erin Brockovich” (2000). The actress, who made her breakthrough leading performance in “Pretty Woman” (1990), portrays a free-spirited college teacher in the recently released “Mona Lisa Smile.”
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Coppola lists her home offices
Oscar-winning filmmaker Sofia Coppola has put the Hollywood Hills home that she and her family have been using as offices on the market at $950,000.
Coppola, who this year won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for “Lost in Translation” and who became the first American woman to be nominated for a best director Oscar for her work on the film, lived in the home in the late ‘90s.
The L.A. offices for American Zoetrope moved into the house about a year ago. American Zoetrope was founded and is headed by Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia’s father, and has produced such films as “American Graffiti,” “The Godfather” trilogy and “Apocalypse Now.”
The Country English-style house, built in 1923, also is reported to have been the home of William Wellman, who directed “Wings” (1927), the first film to win an Academy Award for best picture. The home has three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in about 1,800 square feet. The house, with treetop views in Whitley Heights, a national historic district in the Hollywood area, also has a living room with beamed ceiling, a bay window with built-in seating, a fireplace, an updated kitchen, a convertible den, tiled bathrooms and a bedroom with a fireplace and private bathroom. The third floor could be turned into a guest apartment.
The home sale is being handled by American Zoetrope.
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New reality in Whitley Heights
Ann E. Meek, supervising producer of the MTV hit “Newlyweds,” starring Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, has purchased a Country English-style home in Whitley Heights for its $679,000 asking price.
Meek, who was a supervising producer of “The Osbournes” television show, bought a house with two bedrooms and one bath in slightly more than 1,500 square feet.
The house also has a fireplace, leaded-glass windows, hardwood floors and dormer windows.
It was built in 1923 but has a newer kitchen.
Edward Tinney of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills North, represented Meek in her purchase, and Paul Kellogg of the same office had the listing.
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A Paul Williams house resurfaces
For the first time in 40 years, a Paul Williams-designed, Colonial-style home in Bel-Air has come on the market. The asking price is $13.5 million.
The home has seven bedrooms and 6 1/2 bathrooms in nearly 7,900 square feet. It sits on close to 2.4 acres. The gated compound was built in 1942. While previewing the property, the listing agents discovered a set of Williams’ original plans in the basement. The home has been owned by three families.
Mark Wollman and Jeff Hyland of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, have the listing.
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L.A., New York and back again
Stephanie Miller, comedian and talk-show host, has settled into a Los Feliz home she bought for close to its $1.6-million asking price.
Miller, host of the comedy game show “I’ve Got a Secret” on the Oxygen Network, recently moved back to L.A. from New York, where she had relocated in 2000 after leaving KABC-AM as a syndicated radio show host.
While working in New York as a morning host of the magazine show “Pure Oxygen,” she bought a house on a lake called Blueberry Pond, 37 miles from Manhattan. She sold that house, on 8.5 acres with a beach, for about its $1.8-million asking price.
Now she’s living in her four-bedroom, 1924 French Normandy-style home on two lots leading into the hiking trails of Griffith Park. The location is handy for her because she has three dogs: a St. Bernard, a Great Pyrenees and a Newfoundland. The 4,500-square-foot home also has a Batchelder tile fireplace, a pool, several patios and a garden.
Kathy Fisher of Coldwell Banker, Brentwood East, represented Miller in her Los Feliz purchase, and Lynne Beavers of Lynne Beavers & Associates had the listing.
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To see previous columns on celebrity transactions visit latimes.com/hotproperty.
