Desperate for a little more space
Actress Joely Fisher will soon have more kids to keep track of than Felicity Huffman’s working-mother character, Lynette, on the hit ABC show “Desperate Housewives.”
Fisher, who plays Lynette’s high-powered ad agency boss, is moving with her husband, visual effects director Chris Duddy, from their romantic Westside house to an Encino family compound, which they bought for close to its $3.5-million asking price.
The pair, married 10 years, are expecting their second daughter in February. Duddy has two sons from a previous marriage.
The Encino home is bigger and newer than the couple’s Westside house. The seller, Vance Design Group, took the 1955 Encino residence down to its studs and redid almost everything.
The gated, one-story home has five bedrooms and 6 1/2 bathrooms in 5,400 square feet. The compound is described as Zen Craftsman in style. It has walls of glass and natural materials including stone and wood on the floors and other large surfaces.
The home is on nearly an acre at the end of a private road. But Fisher, 38, is no recluse. She loves to throw a party and is already planning several. Her new home was made for entertaining as well as meditating. Among its strictly for fun features are a pool house, lagoon pool, sports court, media room and detached home theater.
A stone, circular driveway wraps around the compound, which is landscaped with specimen trees, and the master bedroom has its own yard. The compound also has views of the Encino hills.
Fisher is one of two daughters -- Tricia being the other -- of singer-actress Connie Stevens and singer Eddie Fisher, and is a half-sister of Carrie and Todd Fisher, whose mother is Debbie Reynolds.
Jory Burton of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, represented Fisher and Duddy in buying the Encino property, and John Breidt with Re/Max on the Boulevard represented the seller.
No more leasing for Ms. Lansing
Model-turned-mogul Sherry Lansing, the first woman to head a major movie studio when she became president of production at 20th Century Fox in 1980, has purchased a Bel-Air home for close to its $15-million asking price.
For years after they were married in 1991, Lansing and her husband, Oscar-winning director William Friedkin (“The French Connection,” 1971), leased exclusive homes instead of buying them.
Their new home has seven bedrooms and 8 1/2 bathrooms in 10,000-plus square feet. The gated estate, built in 1990, is on a 5-acre promontory with city and canyon views. The grounds feature a pool, spa, tennis court and tennis pavilion.
Lansing, 61, started her Hollywood career as a model in soap and shampoo ads. She was also a schoolteacher and an actor before turning to the business of filmmaking. She stepped down as Paramount Motion Picture Group chairwoman in March. Since then, she has became a leader on the state’s stem cell oversight board.
Brentwood, for the musically attuned
Music executive Anthony Cordova and his wife, Diane, have sold their Westwood townhouse for slightly more than its $1.2-million asking price.
The three-story unit has two bedrooms and three bathrooms in just under 2,000 square feet. It was built in the early 1980s and has a skylight, 13-foot ceilings and three fireplaces.
The couple also purchased a one-bedroom 1,350-square-foot condo in Brentwood. It was renovated by David Dalton, who redesigned the townhouse the Cordovas sold.
Cordova, 38, is a partner in Ted Field’s Radar Entertainment Group. Don Heller and Ashley Durbin of Prudential, John Aaroe, Brentwood, represented the couple.
Hotelier finds a vacancy in Venice
Rick Butler, the owner of the Hotel California in Santa Monica and the Savoy Hotel in San Francisco, has purchased a home in Venice for close to $2.2 million.
The seller was Rob Cohen, director of the movie “Stealth” (2005) and executive producer of “The Witches of Eastwick” (1987).
The Craftsman home has three bedrooms and three bathrooms in 2,300 square feet. There are wood decks and railings, built-in bookcases and tropical gardens.
Cohen, 56, sold so he could spend more time in his Malibu home.
Tony Yollin of Re/Max All Cities, Venice, had the listing.
Malibu waterfront fills the bill.com
Matthew Coffin, founder of LowerMyBills.com, and his wife, Natasha Esch, who established her own interior design firm, have purchased a Malibu home for slightly more than $10 million.
The couple, in their mid-30s, bought a contemporary-style house that has an open floor plan. The home, built in 1975, has 60 feet of ocean frontage.
There are four bedrooms and five bathrooms in 4,300 square feet, including two master-bedroom suites on the sea side of the house. The home also has a detached guesthouse and a sheltered patio with a fountain.
LowerMyBills.com, an online lead generator in the mortgage business, was purchased in May by Experion Information Solutions Inc., the credit bureau, for $330 million plus $50 million more over the next two years, depending on the website’s performance.
Stephen Resnick of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, represented Coffin and Esch in buying their home.
In the Apple with lots of fun money
Christian Slater has sold his Brentwood home for $5,375,000. It was listed at about $5.7 million. The actor bought the traditional three years ago for about $4.5 million.
The house has five bedrooms in 6,500 square feet. Slater, 36, sold it because he moved back to his hometown, New York City.
To see previous columns visit latimes.com/hotproperty.
