Hot Property newsletter: L.A.’s celebrity hoods get in on the action

Toluca Lake, Calabasas and Pacific Palisades all earn their places on a map to the stars’ homes in this week’s collection. We start out, however, with a mansion owned by a comedian in the Westside hot spot of Bel-Air.

Our Home of the Week is a onetime bungalow in Mar Vista that was transformed into a modern four-bedroom showplace. A roof overhang creates a canopy for outdoor living areas, while indoor rooms are lined with a combination of walnut and poured-concrete floors. The asking price for the nearly 3,100-square-foot house is $3.995 million.

Once you’re done reading about these deals, visit and like our Facebook page, where you can find Hot Property stories and updates throughout the week.

— Neal Leitereg, Jack Flemming and Lauren Beale

A $5.5-million profit is no joke

Emmy-winning comedian Kathy Griffin has put her gated Mediterranean mansion in Bel-Air on the market for $15.995 million. That’s about $5.5 million more than she paid for it four years ago.

The 13,377-square-foot home features such grand living spaces as a 1,100-square-foot bedroom suite overlooking the surrounding mountains. There’s also a bonus room, a wine cellar, a movie theater, an elevator and seven other bedrooms.

A covered patio lines the backside of the home, opening to a pavilion with a lounge, a dining area and an infinity-edge pool.

Griffin, 59, won a pair of Emmys for her Bravo reality show “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.” Her 20 stand-up specials dating back to the 1990s include 2019’s “A Hell of a Story.”

Packing up the Emmys

Three-time Emmy-winning actress Patricia Heaton and her husband, actor-producer David Hunt, have sold a Toluca Lake home they owned in a trust for $7.5 million.

The Mediterranean-style two-story was built in 1998 and updated during the couple’s stay. There are five bedrooms and seven bathrooms in about 7,650 square feet.

The three-quarter-acre lot has a glass-tiled swimming pool and spa, a built-in barbecue/bar and a pool house.

Heaton, 62, is known for her long-running matriarchal roles on the sitcoms “Everybody Loves Raymond” (1996-2005) and “The Middle” (2009-2018). Hunt, 66, gained fame as an actor in the “Dirty Harry” film series as well as the British period drama “The Black Velvet Gown.”

Truman actor sells his white house

Actor Gary Sinise of “Forrest Gump” and “Truman” fame has sold his Calabasas farmhouse of 12 years for $3.675 million.

The nearly half-acre East Coast-inspired estate includes a white two-story home, a swimming pool, a koi pond and a detached studio. The 5,336-square-foot floor plan features a living room, a formal dining room, a climate-controlled music room, a playroom and five bedrooms.

A flagstone courtyard, trellis-topped patio and outdoor lounge with a fireplace complete the property.

Sinise, 65, won a Golden Globe for his role in 1995’s “Truman” and an Emmy for his role in the miniseries “George Wallace.” Other credits include “Of Mice and Men,” “Apollo 13” and “Forrest Gump.”

Actress parts with spare home

Gina Rodriguez of “Jane the Virgin” fame has sold a home in Westchester for $1.81 million. No, the neighborhood is not losing her. She bought another place in the area about a year ago.

The exterior of the home she sold is sheathed in white shingles. Inside, white walls and beamed ceilings top hardwood floors.

The farmhouse-inspired bungalow of 1,900 square feet has three bedrooms. A two-car garage was converted to entertainment space.

Rodriguez, 36, appeared in “Army Wives” and “The Bold and the Beautiful” before starring as Jane Villanueva in the satirical comedy series “Jane the Virgin” starting in 2014.

Well, they’re waiting!

A secluded Pacific Palisades estate once owned by Ted Knight is up for grabs at $5.495 million.

The late actor, who starred in the movie “Caddyshack” and the classic TV series “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” bought the home in 1981 for $985,000. Following his death in 1986, the place sold for $2.06 million.

Spanning 1.3 acres, the gated property contains a 6,100-square-foot home, a tennis court and a swimming pool with a spa. There are five bedrooms and six bathrooms.

Knight won two Emmys for his role as newscaster Ted Baxter on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which ran from 1970 to 1977. From 1980 to 1987, he starred in the sitcom “Too Close for Comfort.”

From the archives

Thirty years ago, box office star Tom Cruise closed sale on a home in Pacific Palisades before jetting off to Australia to meet the parents of then-girlfriend and “Days of Thunder” co-star Nicole Kidman. Hot Property reported at the time that Cruise paid about $4.7 million for the home — a gated Colonial-style home that had been recently refurbished. Cruise and Kidman eventually married that year and divorced in 2001. As part of the divorce, the 6,200-square-foot house was deeded to Kidman, who sold it the following year for $10.25 million.

It was 20 years ago when Nicolas Cage unloaded his home in the Hollywood Hills as he moved into a Bel-Air house he had purchased the year before for $7 million. While the Hollywood Hills deal was rather uneventful, Cage’s Bel-Air home would provide real estate fodder a decade later when the actor lost it to foreclosure. The 1940s Tudor, which had been decorated in a style one real estate agent called “frat-house bordello,” failed to sell at auction in 2010 and was later sold by Citibank to a limited liability company for $10.5 million.

Ten years ago, the Hollywood Hills home of celebrity and fashion photographer Mark Liddell came into focus with an asking price of $3.25 million. The listing was just the start for Liddell, who is known for his 2009 book “Exposed: 10 Years in Hollywood.” The serial remodeler has since renovated and sold a handful of other homes in the Hollywood Hills and Los Feliz neighborhoods.

What we’re reading

Are there any limits to what type of space can be turned into a home? Dwell took readers into a minimalist retreat in Spain that was excavated from an abandoned stone quarry. Set on the Mediterranean island of Menorca, the onetime sandstone mine-turned-house may not have everything, but it does have lounging areas, a pool and a kitchen sink. For the curious, there’s a virtual tour.

U.S. Sen. and Democratic vice presidential pick Kamala Harris’ real estate portfolio got the once-over in a video at Realtor.com. She and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, own a primary home with a swimming pool in Brentwood, a 1,000-square-foot loft in San Francisco and a two-bedroom, 1,700-square-foot condo in Washington, D.C.

Hot Property housekeeping

It feels like just yesterday when Neal strolled through the lobby of the old Los Angeles Times building on his first day. But as they say, all good things must come to an end. After close to seven years of covering the who’s who of real estate for Hot Property, he is bidding the section a fond farewell. He’ll miss the exhilarating thrill of tracking down the Royals in Montecito and dishing housing news on L.A.’s biggest sports stars, but most of all, he’ll miss the wonderful people he’s met along the way. To the readers, sources and colleagues who make this section great, he offers a whole-hearted thank you.

It’s not the end for Hot Property, however. Jack will continue to keep you up to date on the latest star-studded deals and trophy estates. Feel free to drop an idea or tip in his inbox.