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It seems his timing is as sharp as ever

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Times Staff Writer

Call it the Wallace Neff factor. Homes designed by the Southern California architect, who died in 1982 at age 87, are catching the attention of a new generation of Hollywood house hunters.

Enter comic Bob Newhart and his wife, Virginia, who hope to capitalize on the architect’s renewed popularity.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. March 19, 2006 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday March 19, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 79 words Type of Material: Correction
Michael Milken -- The Hot Property column in Real Estate on March 12 said Michael Milken purchased a condominium in the Sierra Towers building off the Sunset Strip. The unit was purchased by his daughter, Bari Milken. It also said Michael Milken had supported cancer research since 1993 and subsequently created the Milken Institute. Milken has supported cancer and other types of medical research since the 1970s. His Santa Monica think tank, the Milken Institute, began operating in 1991.

With five bedrooms and 6 1/2 bathrooms in nearly 9,200 square feet, their 1.3-acre Neff-designed estate may be too big for a twosome. The couple bought it for $4.2 million in 1990. Now they are asking $22 million.

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The Newharts’ home, built in the ‘40s, has been restored and is in a prime location, old Bel-Air. Country French in style and situated behind gates, the estate includes a main house with five fireplaces, which are in the step-down living room, family room, formal dining room, kitchen and breakfast room. Terraces overlook the lawns, gardens and pool.

There is an executive office suite with a separate entrance and a pool house with an outdoor kitchen and a guest apartment on the second floor.

Newhart may miss the office space when he sells. It comes in handy when writing a memoir, and his is expected to be published in the fall. It will be his first book, but he has continued to write and perform new material for stand-up.

The winner of multiple Grammy Awards appears on the hit series “Desperate Housewives” in the recurring role of Morty Flickman.

The Newharts aren’t the only ones parting with a Neff home. Also selling are Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, whose Beverly Hills house has been listed at just under $25 million. Other notables who have owned Neffs include Madonna, Jenna Elfman and Rupert Murdoch.

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Former junk bond king tries tower

Michael Milken, the junk-bond king who served a stretch in prison for his role in a financial scandal during the 1980s, has purchased a one-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot unit in the 32-story Sierra Towers just off Sunset Strip.

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He bought the unit in an all-cash deal that closed escrow last week. Russell Filice of Sotheby’s International Realty, who lives in the building and handles many of the sales, had been privately showing the condo at an asking price of $1.65 million.

Milken served fewer than two years of his 10-year sentence, and since being released in 1993 has survived prostate cancer and supported cancer research. Since then, he also created the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica think tank, and is active in a number of charities.

Like Cher, who recently bought a condo in the building, Milken has homes elsewhere.

Milken, former head of Drexel Burnham Lambert’s high-yield bond department, will be 60 on July 4. Many of the other new owners in the high-rise, built in 1964, are young, entertainment-industry figures. Among Milken’s neighbors will be actors Matthew Perry and Lindsay Lohan.

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Bel-Air’s nice, but Vegas has the edge

Reagan Silber, a principal in the Edge Group, has sold his Bel-Air home for $25 million. The Edge Group is planning to build a $2.5-billion hotel-condo-casino complex in Las Vegas. It will include the W Las Vegas Hotel and 3,000 hotel and residential units.

Silber remodeled the home after buying it in 2001 for $6 million. The contemporary estate has “staggering, unobstructed city-to-ocean views,” the Multiple Listing Service states, and has “a world-class gym,” an 80-foot-long infinity pool, outdoor living room and media room.

Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency had the listing. Joyce Flaherty of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, represented the buyer.

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‘20s mansion fit for a film star

The Beverly Hills house built in 1928 for Broadway and film actress Ruth Chatterton and her husband, British actor Ralph Forbes, recently sold for $6.4 million. Chatterton made her movie debut that year in the silent film “Sins of the Fathers.”

The Mediterranean-style home has a solarium, a second-story entry hall with a gold-leaf ceiling, two maids’ rooms, a master-bedroom suite with a sitting room, and a basement, which is unusual in Southern California. The house has six bedrooms and five bathrooms in nearly 6,000 square feet.

Chatterton and Forbes were divorced in 1932, and each went on to marry two more times. Chatterton became a bestselling novelist and a licensed pilot before she died in 1961 at age 67.

Josh Flagg shared the listing with Raymond Bekeris, both with John Bruce Nelson & Associates. Bekeris represented the buyer.

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A resume extra: house flipper

Michael Corbett, host and producer of “Mansions and Millionaires” on “Extra,” is taking on a different role now that he sold a Palm Springs house he renovated and then put on the market for $1 million.

He’s still on “Extra,” but now Corbett is also giving seminars on flipping homes, and he is marketing his book, “Find It, Fix It, Flip It.”

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His most recent experience in flipping real estate was with the 1959 Palm Springs house. The 2,700-square-foot house sold the day it was listed, he said. His next restoration project is a 1924 Spanish-style four-plex in the Wilshire district.

Corbett, 49, started out as an actor on the daytime dramas “Search for Tomorrow” and “The Young and the Restless.”

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