Hold on, she’s out of NoHo
Carnie Wilson of the pop group Wilson Phillips and her husband, guitarist Rob Bonfiglio, have sold their North Hollywood house for $635,000 and purchased another San Fernando Valley home for just under $2 million.
Wilson, 36, is the elder daughter of singer-songwriter and Beach Boy legend Brian Wilson. Wilson Phillips, which in May released its first new CD in 12 years, includes Carnie Wilson’s sister, Wendy, and Chynna Phillips, daughter of John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas.
The North Hollywood home is Spanish in style and was built in 1932 but was recently restored. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms in about 2,500 square feet. A sitting room was converted into a closet and vanity. The master bedroom suite has a spa tub. The home also has a formal dining room, a granite kitchen and pantry, cathedral ceilings, three tiled patios and a 600-square-foot guesthouse.
The home that the couple bought has five bedrooms and five bathrooms in 5,500 square feet. The house, on nearly an acre of manicured grounds, is walled and gated with a circular drive. There are five fireplaces plus a media room, new kitchen and master suite, a pool, pool house and patios. The house was built about 1950.
“California,” the new CD, features songs from the ‘60s and ‘70s made famous by such West Coast-based artists as the Mamas & the Papas, the Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac. Wilson Phillips became a radio staple after the group formed in 1990. Among the band’s hits were “Hold On” and “Release Me.”
Carnie Wilson also was the subject of media attention when she lost about 160 pounds with the help of gastric bypass surgery in 1999. She gives seminars on weight loss and is writing a cookbook, due out next year.
Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford, mother of Carnie and Wendy Wilson, was the selling agent on the home that was purchased and had the listing on the North Hollywood house. She is with Coldwell Banker, Brentwood Court. Linda Zimmerman of Prudential California, John Aaroe, Pacific Design Center, represented the buyer of the North Hollywood house.
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Where birds and words flourished
The Mount Washington house of the late Los Angeles Times columnist Jack Smith has come on the market at about $1.1 million.
Smith, who wrote his urbane column most of the time from his home office, died in January 1996 at 79. His widow, Denise (Denny), died this April. She was 83.
The hilltop home has four bedrooms and three bathrooms in about 3,000 square feet. The living room opens onto a secluded backyard, where the columnist engaged in one of his favorite hobbies: bird watching. The traditional-style, one-story home, where the Smiths raised two sons, also has a pool and is on 1.2 acres.
The house, built in 1949, has undergone three remodels since Jack and Denny Smith purchased it in 1950 for $8,000. When they bought it, the house was a two-bedroom cracker box, according to Jacqueline Smith, the columnist’s daughter-in-law. “As my in-laws got richer, they added on one room after another,” she said.
Jack Smith often wrote about his daughter-in-law, who is French, in his column, which ran in The Times from 1958 until 1995 and was distributed worldwide. For most of his career, he wrote five columns a week, often about his house and family.
“When he wrote about me, I was still very French, and a lot here was new to me,” Jacqueline Smith said. He liked her observations. He also liked the English language and relished a good book.
“There are bookshelves in almost every room of the house,” she said. The only rooms without bookshelves are two bathrooms. Jack Smith, who joined The Times in 1953 as a general assignment reporter, wrote eight books, including “God and Mr. Gomez” (1974) and “Cats, Dogs and Other Strangers at My Door” (1984).
Jacqueline Smith has the listing at Coldwell Banker, Glendale.
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Home of celeb lawyer for sale
The longtime Toluca Lake home of late celebrity attorney Roland Rich Woolley has come on the market at $6 million.
Woolley, who died in 1979 at 88, made headlines during the 1930s and ‘40s as the attorney for such stars as Mary Astor, Van Heflin and Olivia de Havilland. Woolley’s daughter Mary Alice lived in the house until her death in late 2003. Her family had owned the property, which backs up to the late Bob Hope’s home, since 1939.
The French Normandy-style house, built in 1936, has three bedrooms and three bathrooms in about 3,400 square feet. The circular drive, behind gates, leads to 2-plus acres of park-like grounds with a streambed, a bridge, winding pathways, sitting areas, flowering hedges and rose gardens. Redwood and oak trees surround the house. The grounds are like a forest and are home to two deer, a fox and several raccoons.
The home was a gathering place for Woolley and his clients. Later in life, he became an oil tycoon. The Woolleys established a family-law student loan fund at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. The university became the owner of the property with the death of the attorney’s daughter.
Elizabeth Summers at Coldwell Banker, Studio City, has the listing.
