Dropping anchor in Venice

Did Mira Sorvino get her Venices mixed up? The 37-year-old Oscar-winning actress was in Italy last week at the naming of Carnival Cruise Lines’ new ship Carnival Liberty when news came that she had bought a home for $1.7 million in Venice -- that’s our Venice, not theirs.

Sorvino’s new residence is Craftsman in style and has three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in slightly more than 2,400 square feet. The house, built in 2003, also has a bonus room, French doors and a landscaped backyard.

Her property is not on a canal but is in a neighborhood of homes owned by Julia Roberts, Anjelica Huston, Dennis Hopper and other stars.

Sorvino is moving from the Hollywood Hills, where she and her husband, actor-writer Christopher Backus, lived after their wedding in Capri about a year ago.

The actress, who is of Italian descent and whose father is actor-singer Paul Sorvino, attended the ship’s naming in her position as the Carnival Liberty’s “godmother.” A ship’s godmother is a woman of distinction whose name will be forever linked with the vessel, according to the cruise line. Sorvino is Harvard-educated and won an Oscar for best supporting actress in Woody Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite” (1995). The actress also has been an ambassador for Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women program.

She appeared on TV’s “Will & Grace” during the sitcom’s sixth season, playing the alcoholic ex-girlfriend of Grace’s husband, Leo, portrayed by Harry Connick Jr.

Sorvino costars with Gabriel Byrne in the movie “Leningrad,” being filmed in St. Petersburg, Russia, and she costars with Pierce Brosnan and Burt Reynolds in the upcoming comedy “Instant Karma.”

Laura Meckling and Patricia Kish of Venice Properties had the listing.

Vail home doesn’t fit his single role

Ian Ziering, who played well-to-do jock-turned-newspaper-publisher Steve Sanders in the TV series “Beverly Hills, 90210” and appears in the Tony Scott-directed film “Domino,” due out in October, has a home near Vail, Colo., listed for $2.5 million.

“I built it for my family,” he said, “but then I got divorced.” The five-bedroom, 5,500-square-foot house on 5.5 acres is too large for a bachelor, even one who likes to ski as much as he does, he said.

The strapping blond actor calls his log-and-stone home “eco-spiritual.” He said, “What I wanted was a house that seems to grow out of the ground.” Wood from an 1875 barn was used in construction. Bushes cover the roof. Behind the house, there is an aspen forest and a meadow. The property sits at an elevation of 9,500 feet.

“Building the house was a creative release for me,” he said. “I was there, working the cranes.”

The home, built in 2002, was designed by Roto Architects. It also has a natural-rock hot tub, a mudroom, radiant heated floors and a three-car garage with a dog wash.

Ziering, who also has a home in the Hollywood Hills, listed his Colorado mountain retreat with Kathy Iverson at Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate in Vail.

Bel-Air buy-up plans are revealed

Steve Bing, a multimillionaire film producer, has sold nine vacant Bel-Air lots, including the site of comic actor Red Buttons’ former home, to a developer for close to $75 million.

Bing had purchased the neighboring properties, across the street from the Hotel Bel-Air, over the last few years. Some lots had houses when Bing bought them.

The buyer, Heritage Development, plans to close the street and build a private, gated community called the Park at Stone Canyon. The project will have around-the-clock security guard service and will be “architecturally controlled” -- meaning no McMansions or spec building here. The development team plans to work closely with the neighbors. Lots are expected to be one to three acres in size with asking prices of $8 million to $24 million.

Bing may have inherited his interest in real estate from his grandfather, New York property magnate Leo Bing. The younger Bing also produced such films as “Get Carter” (2000) and wrote the movie “Kangaroo Jack” (2003). Bing invested $80 million in the 2004 holiday movie “The Polar Express,” which grossed more than $250 million worldwide. The producer, father of actress-model Elizabeth Hurley’s 3-year-old son, has been linked with actress Nicole Kidman.

Kurt Rappaport and Stephen Shapiro of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, represented the developer in buying and will represent the developer in selling the lots.

Gehry sons will stay close to folks

Frank Gehry is securing final permits to build a home for himself and his wife, Berta, in Venice. He bought the half-acre site for $1.6 million in 2002.

Since then, the Disney Hall architect, in his mid-70s, has been getting to know the neighborhood, where his two sons just purchased a duplex. Alejandro and Samuel, both in their 20s, bought the 5,000-square-foot duplex for slightly less than $2 million. They plan to live and work there.

Alejandro is an oil painter; Samuel works in architecture and design. Several artists have used the duplex as studio space. The three-level duplex, with 18-to-20-foot ceilings downstairs, was built about nine years ago.

Lyle Plocher and Assaf Raz of Venice Properties had the duplex listing; Laura Meckling and Patty Kish of the same firm represented the buyers.

Jack V. Hoffmann, broker-owner of Venice Properties, represented Frank Gehry in buying the homesite.

A Lively addition to Venice scene

Eric Lively, a regular cast member of “The L Word,” has purchased a modern-style, early-’80s home in Venice for slightly more than $1.1 million.

The home was built by Tony Bill, Oscar-winning co-producer of “The Sting” (1973), starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Bill’s legendary Venice restaurant, 72 Market St., opened about the time the house was completed. Actor Dudley Moore was also an owner of the now-shuttered 72 Market St. Moore, by then a celebrated comic actor, often played the piano there during dinner.

Lively bought the two-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot house featuring soaring ceilings with open steel trusses, expansive glass block walls and polished concrete floors with a recessed pond in the living area. There are skylights in the master-bedroom loft and ocean views from the roof deck.

“The L Word,” on Showtime, is the first serial drama focused on the lives of lesbians.

Laura Meckling and Patricia Kish of Venice Properties handled both sides of the deal.