Actress Milla Jovovich sells her Beverly Hills home
Newlywed actress and model Milla Jovovich, the weapon-toting glammando from the “Resident Evil” films, has sold a Beverly Hills Post Office-area home for $2.75 million.
Although she lived in the John Woolf-designed, Hollywood Regency-style home for a couple of years after her 2001 purchase, the Ukraine-born cover girl with the striking eyes more recently had been renting it out.
The 3,582-square-foot home, with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, sits on about 1.2 acres at the end of a cul-de-sac. The master bedroom suite has a sitting room, a two-sided fireplace, dual bathrooms and spacious walk-in closets. At the back of the house, glass doors face a clover-shaped pool with a spa and provide canyon and city views.
Jovovich, 33, and director-writer Paul W.S. Anderson, 44, were married last month in an outdoor ceremony at another home she owns in the Los Angeles area.
Anderson, a director, producer and writer for the “Resident Evil” sci-fi thriller films, met Jovovich when they worked on the first of the series together. She battled zombies as Alice in the 2002, 2004 and 2007 movies and will reprise her character in “Resident Evil: Afterlife” (2010). She has the female leads in “A Perfect Getaway” (2009) and “The Fourth Kind,” due out in November.
The international spokesmodel for L’Oreal had her first major role in “Return of the Blue Lagoon” (1991) and also starred in “The Fifth Element” (1997) and “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc” (1999).
When she isn’t busy saving the world from the “undead,” Jovovich is also a singer and fashion designer.
The house she sold, built in 1975, came on the market in February at $3,299,000. Public records show she paid $1.8 million for it.
The listing agent was Galina Blackman of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills. Judy Cycon and Ed Solorzano, both with Prudential California Realty, Beverly Hills, represented the buyer.
On the road to its next owner
Still referred to as the Bing Crosby Estate, a Toluca Lake home that has had a succession of Hollywood owners is listed at $10 million.
The singer and actor lived on the property from 1936 until early January 1943, when the 20-room house there was gutted in a Christmas tree fire, according to L.A. Times news reports. The damage to the structure and its contents was estimated at $200,000, and the family’s cocker spaniel, a complete collection of Crosby’s recordings, his golf trophies and his pipe collection were lost.
Crosby, who was golfing at the time of the fire, said he felt fortunate that his wife, Dixie Lee, and their four sons escaped injury.
His film stand-in Leo Lynn and his brother Larry Crosby helped sift through the ruins and found $2,000 in the pocket of one of Bing Crosby’s coats.
The rebuilt Southern Colonial that stands on the site today has six bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms and five fireplaces in 7,132 square feet. There is a living room with marble fireplace, a billiards room and a den with a wet bar.
The 2 acres of gated grounds include rose gardens, fruit trees, a tennis court with grandstands, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a 2 1/2 -bathroom cabana with changing rooms, sitting area and a kitchen, and a two-bedroom, two-bathroom guesthouse with a kitchen.
The estate was a childhood home of Micky Dolenz, the Monkees drummer and singer.
Subsequent owners included actor Andy Griffith in the 1980s and actor Jerry Van Dyke and his wife, Shirley, who sold the home in 1997 for $1.93 million, according to public records.
Crosby won a best actor Oscar for “Going My Way” (1944) and was paired with Bob Hope in the “Road” movies from 1940 to 1962.
His recording of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” featured in the movie “Holiday Inn,” became a No. 1 hit in late 1942 and stayed there for 11 weeks.
The listing agents are Shirley Duenckel and Jon Molin of Ramsey-Shilling Associates, Toluca Lake.
Ex-Raven is going to fly the coop
Former Baltimore Ravens cornerback Chris McAlister has listed his Beverly Hills Post Office area home at $7.9 million.
The gated, French Normandy-style estate with five bedrooms and seven bathrooms in 9,375 square feet has been his home during the off-season. He plans to move to Maryland.
The house, built in 1990, has a two-bathroom master suite, a two-level living room and four fireplaces. There is a koi pond, a putting green and a swimming pool with a spa.
The view from the three-quarter-acre lot was his favorite feature of the house, McAlister said. “I could see Catalina from the front of the house and the entire Valley from the back.”
McAlister, 32, played college football at the University of Arizona and was selected by the Ravens in the 1999 NFL Draft. He won a Super Bowl ring with the team in 2001. The Ravens released McAlister in February. He has been rehabbing from knee surgery.
As for his career plans, he said, “I will be playing again.”
The listing agent is Kofi Natei Nartey of Sotalot Realty Group, Los Angeles.
Siblings over-bid to cinch the deal
Actor Mark Saul and his sister, costume designer Deanna Saul, have purchased a duplex in Silver Lake for $585,000.
The 5,200-square-foot property, which sits on a street with million-dollar homes, came on the market in late July at $495,000 and closed in early September.
Each unit has one bedroom and one bathroom for a total of about 1,600 square feet of living space. There are lake and city views.
Mark, 24, has appeared as intern Steve in more than two dozen episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” (2007-09) and in various roles on “All That” (1997-2005). Deanna, about five years his senior, has worked in the costume and wardrobe departments of a dozen TV shows.
Mark is a first-time homebuyer, and Deanna previously owned a condo. The pair say they are looking forward to living upstairs/downstairs to each other, according to Brent Watson of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, who had the listing and also represented the Sauls.
Although originally built in 1939, the duplex has a late ‘60s vibe. They are planning a major updating and renovation to give it a modern feel, Watson said.
