Seeing less of pop diva in Malibu
Grammy winner Janet Jackson, who guest stars as herself in an episode of the NBC sitcom “Will & Grace” next month, has sold her Malibu home for about $9 million.
The new owners were reported to be Kelly Wearstler, a designer of hotels and nightspots, and her husband, Brad Korzen, chief executive of the Kor Group, a real estate investment, development and management firm.
The house has about 70 feet of beach frontage, and there are panoramic views from the beachfront deck. The master suite, which also overlooks the Pacific, has a fireplace and a sitting room. There are five bedrooms in the 5,600-square-foot house, built in the 1960s. The home also has a media room and a gym.
Wearstler probably will redecorate the house, said sources familiar with her work. She is known for her classic interior designs at such trendy places as the Viceroy hotel in Santa Monica and Body English, the new club on the lobby level of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Wearstler also has decorated the homes of such stars as Ben Stiller and wrote the design book “Modern Glamour.”
Jackson will mark her first TV acting appearance in two decades when she appears on “Will & Grace.” She last appeared as Cleo Hewitt on NBC’s “Fame” (1984-85).
Better known for her singing, dancing and songwriting, the pop diva is, at 38, the youngest member of the musical Jackson family. In 1997, she released “The Velvet Rope,” a collection of songs, as part of an $80-million deal with Virgin Records. In 2001, she had the hit “All for You.” Since February, she has been trying to put to rest the Super Bowl incident, in which her breast was exposed during a halftime-show duet with singer Justin Timberlake.
Stephen Resnick and Katie Bentzen were the Realtors involved in the transaction, neighbors reported.
Screen villain leaving his villa
Rick Yune, who played a villainous North Korean military man in the James Bond movie “Die Another Day” (2002) and portrayed the leader of a Vietnamese gang in “The Fast and the Furious” (2001), has listed his Hollywood Hills home at just under $1.4 million.
Yune, who turns 33 today, is selling his home because he plans to buy a larger one in the area. He has owned the Spanish-style home for 1 1/2 years.
The house has three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in about 3,000 square feet. The villa, built in 1997, also has partial city and ocean views.
Yune has been announced as the star of the upcoming action-adventure film “Run.”
David Kramer of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, has the listing with Joan Yarfitz of Coldwell Banker, Sunset Strip.
Stylish mansion was Price’s haunt
A Holmby Hills home once owned by actor Vincent Price has been sold for close to its $16-million asking price.
The seller is former NBC executive Scott Sassa, who in June became chief executive of the Northern California-based social networking website Friendster, which connects people through networks of friends instead of through random searches.
The buyer is Peter Sperling, according to public records. Sperling, in his early 40s, is the son of the founder of the Arizona-based University of Phoenix.
Price, who died at 82 in 1993, lived in the house during the ‘60s. The actor was also an art historian, gourmet cook and author of art books, including “I Like What I Know.”
The house was like Price: dramatic and stylish, real estate agents said. The estate, on 1.8 acres behind gates, has eight bedrooms and 10 1/2 bathrooms in 10,600 square feet and was built in 1927. It also has a pool, cabana, tennis court, gym and guesthouse.
Sassa, 45, had owned the home since 1999. Besides heading West Coast operations for NBC at one point, he has been credited with starting Fox’s cable network and developing Turner Broadcasting System’s cable channels.
Stephen Shapiro and Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
Soap star makes
a clean getaway
Thorsten Kaye, a star of the daytime drama “All My Children,” has sold his Woodland Hills home for slightly more than $1 million, and he purchased a house in Connecticut for about $1 million.
Kaye, 38, and his girlfriend, actress Susan Haskell, also have an apartment in Manhattan. The couple, who met on the set of “One Life to Live,” moved to the East Coast for his work on “All My Children.”
The Woodland Hills home, built in 1954, has five bedrooms and three bathrooms in about 3,200 square feet. The house has a fireplace in the living room, a fireplace in the master suite and a backyard with multiple decks for entertaining; a pool, a spa and a tiki hut with a refrigerator and an outdoor shower.
Moya Rimp of Nourmand & Associates had the listing.
A rewrite on a Silver Lake home
A Mediterranean-style home built in 1926 by silent screen star Antonio Moreno in the Silver Lake area has been sold for slightly more than $1.4 million. The asking price was $1.3 million.
The sellers, TV writers William and Cynthia Royce, bought the property in 1994 and renovated the home, which has views of the lake, the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Park Observatory. The Royces remodeled the kitchen and two of the three bathrooms, and they restored the rooms, installing period fixtures, Deco sconces, imported handmade tiles and French Normandy pavers.
The couple also turned the walled and gated, weed-infested grounds into an oasis with a fountain, gazebo and koi pond.
The Royces, who wrote for “Murder, She Wrote” and “Columbo,” are moving with their 2-year-old daughter to France, where they plan to restore a 200-year-old hunting lodge built for royalty. The couple hope to chronicle their adventures in a book titled “The French & I.”
Ken Molina of Prudential John Aaroe, Pacific Design Center, had the listing.
To see previous columns on celebrity transactions visit latimes.com/hotproperty.
