Less neon but more splash
Las Vegas comedian Rita Rudner plans to wear plenty of sunscreen at her new getaway in Laguna Beach.
“In fact, I’m going to tape the bottles to my body,” she said.
Rudner and her husband, producer Martin Bergman, purchased a 5,500-square-foot retreat for close to its asking price of $6.3 million.
The two-level house, completed in 2004, has five bedrooms and five bathrooms and sits on the sand, facing the ocean. There is a lot of glass in the home, which is behind gates. Even the kitchen has an ocean view.
The couple’s primary residence will continue to be their 6,000-square-foot penthouse that overlooks the Las Vegas Strip, where Rudner will end a five-year run at New York-New York Hotel & Casino in June. She will begin a headlining stint in October at Harrah’s Las Vegas.
Her latest novel, “Turning the Tables,” will be published in August by Shaye Areheart Books, an imprint of Crown.
Bergman, who produces Rudner’s show, helped write the book. It is Rudner’s fourth and her second novel. The pair also is collaborating on a musical.
Bob Wolff of Re/Max Real Estate Services represented the seller, and Jenny Jester of Prudential California Realty represented Rudner and Bergman. Both offices are in Monarch Beach.
Carnac couldn’t have seen $42 mil
Johnny Carson’s Malibu home is about to go on the market at close to $42 million.
The former “Tonight Show” host, who died in 2005 at age 79, owned the home on Pt. Dume since late 1984, when he bought it furnished for nearly its $9.5-million asking price.
A record high for a home sold then in the area, with a $2.9-million sale running second, Carson’s purchase was the lead item in the first Hot Property column, published on Nov. 25, 1984.
Carson’s widow, Alexis, is trustee of the John W. Carson Trust, which is now selling the property.
The home, on slightly more than 4 acres, includes a 7,100-square-foot main house built in 1980 on a bluff overlooking Paradise Cove, and a parcel behind the main house with a 2,700-square-foot guesthouse, built in 1988, and a tennis court.
Carson was such an avid tennis player that when he sold his former home in Carbon Beach to John McEnroe in 1985, part of the deal was for the tennis great to give the NBC talk-show host a tennis lesson. The only problem was that neither Carson nor McEnroe owned a court at the time.
Hoteliers pay above rack rate
Kelly Wearstler, designer of such hotels as the Viceroy Santa Monica, and her husband, Brad Korzen, chief executive of the Kor Group, which owns the Viceroy, have leased a Beverly Hills house for six months at $35,000 a month with three one-month options.
The couple is staying in the home while their new residence, also in Beverly Hills, is being refurbished.
Their new home, which they bought last summer for about $28 million, had belonged to Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the producer of most of the James Bond films. Broccoli died in 1996 at age 87; his widow, Dana, died in 2004.
The house, which belonged in the ‘30s to actor William Powell, was built in 1928 for silent movie star Hobart Bosworth. Actress Diane Keaton leased it for four years.
Susan Smith and Avrille Krom, both with Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, handled the Wearstler/Korzen lease.
Screenwriter picks a Venice setting
Screenwriter-producer Matt Cirulnick and his fiancee, Swedish model Suzanne Arvidsson, are buying a Venice home with a guesthouse. The selling price was about $1.5 million.
The 1924 home, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,600 square feet, was rebuilt during the last year and has mosaic tile, brushed-glass tile, custom sconces, Canadian maple floors, new kitchens and bathrooms, and a restored fireplace.
Cirulnick’s TV credits include UPN’s “South Beach.”
He and Arvidsson were represented in their home purchase by Jory Burton of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills.
The play is the thing for thespians
Actress Anita Barone and her husband, actor Matthew Glave, are hoping to trade the Hollywood Hills for the San Fernando Valley.
They have put their Hollywood Hills home on the market at close to $1.1 million, and they plan to buy a Valley home with a yard for their children.
The couple is selling a gated 1926 Spanish-style home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms in 2,200 square feet.
There is a pathway that leads to an entry to the living room, with its fireplace and iron sconces. French doors open to a patio. The kitchen has a vintage stove and tiled floors. The master bedroom has a skylit spa and access to an office in the attic.
Barone played Jeff Foxworthy’s wife on ABC’s “The Jeff Foxworthy Show” in the mid-’90s, and in 2000, she played Michael Chiklis’ wife in the NBC sitcom “Daddio.” Glave appeared in “Rock Star” (2001) and “The Wedding Singer” (1998). His TV credits include “E-Ring” and “The West Wing.”
Jory Burton of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, has the listing.