Price of Gabor’s former home soars
LOS ANGELES — Zsa Zsa Gabor’s longtime Bel-Air estate has come on the market at $23.45 million US — more than twice what it sold for a year ago, $10.45 million, public records show.
The French Regency-style mansion, built in 1955, sits on a one-acre gated hilltop with views of downtown Los Angeles, Catalina Island and the ocean. It’s being offered with permitted plans for a new 24,020-square-foot mansion designed by Los Angelesbased company Harrison Design.
Fronted by a large motor court, the mustard-yellow house has about 6,400 square feet of living space and 28 rooms that include a circular foyer, scaled formal rooms, staff quarters, an office and a butler’s pantry off the kitchen. The living room features an antique French fireplace with a mirror surround.
Outside are a swimming pool, a gazebo and brick patios. A redcarpeted staircase leads up to a rooftop terrace.
Gabor, who died in 2016 at 99, bought the house in 1973 for $280,000.
Reclusive magnate Howard Hughes and Elvis Presley are among former residents. Guests of the home, according to Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, Gabor’s ninth husband, included Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Henry Kissinger and both former U.S. presidents Bush.
Gabor was the best-known of three acting and socialite sisters from Hungary. She had scores of television and film appearances, including a star turn in the 1952 film Moulin Rouge.
Episodes co-creators put penthouse on market
The lavish Century City penthouse of Jeffrey Klarik and David Crane, writers and producers who together co-created the Showtime series Episodes, has returned to market at $29.9 million, the same price it originally listed for two years ago.
Klarik and Crane purchased the residence at the Century building eight years ago for about $11.06 million and created an elaborate living space that evokes the Art Deco movement popularized during the 1920s and ’30s.
Handpicked antiques and period details pay homage to early ocean liners, including glass panels reclaimed from the Normandie. Other features include bronze and alabaster sconces by French artist Albert Cheuret, Belgian black marble floors and rosewood panelling. In the living room is a piano once owned by jazz bandleader Paul Whiteman.
The 5,320-square-foot penthouse, offered fully furnished, comprises seven rooms that include a centre hall, a library/study, a formal dining room, two bedrooms and three bathrooms. There are fireplaces in the master bedroom and living room.
An expansive terrace of about 600 square feet extends the living space outdoors. Views take in the city lights and mountains.
Klarik has writing and producing credits that include the shows Mad About You, Half & Half and The Class. Crane is known for his work on the long-running sitcom Friends as well as the spinoff series Joey and the show Veronica’s Closet.
The couple are selling the property because they now work primarily overseas.
Hollywood player sells Sunset Strip property
Producer-screenwriter Simon Kinberg, whose credits include the most recent X-Men films, has cut a deal above the Sunset Strip, selling an East Coast-inspired home for $7.87 million.
Split between the main home and a guesthouse are five bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms in 6,300 square feet. Out back, the two structures border a gated pool area with a lawn, infinity pool and spa.
Modern chandeliers and wideplank wood floors set a sophisticated tone in the foyer. Further in, a bright open floor plan encompasses a living room with a fireplace, an eat-in kitchen with marble and quartz countertops, a formal dining room and an indooroutdoor family room.
There are plenty of other amenities as well, including a wood-panelled wine room, a theatre and a second-story office. Also upstairs is the master suite, under beamed ceilings, which opens to balconies from the sitting area and bathroom.
Kinberg bought the property through a trust three years ago for $8.4 million, records show. The 2015 house was most recently listed for $8.4 million.
Kinberg, 44, grabbed an Oscar nomination for producing The Martian in 2015 and produced Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Jumper and Elysian. His directorial debut, Dark Phoenix, is set for release early next year.
Moving van backs up for Backstreet Boy
AJ McLean, of Backstreet Boys fame, has offered up his spot in Westlake Village. The asking price is $2.495 million, about $500,000 more than what he paid for the Mediterranean-style home three years ago. The property spans three-quarters of an acre in a gated community. Through the 2001 home’s arched entry, a formal foyer filled with wrought-iron rails opens to the common areas.
First-floor living spaces — which include a large living room with a fireplace, a chandelier topped dining room and a centre island kitchen — are lined with wood moulding.
A curved stairway with steps of Spanish tile leads upstairs, where there’s an indoor-outdoor bonus room with pocketing doors and a stone fireplace.
The second storey also holds the master suite, one of five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms in the 5,330-square-foot interior. It boasts a step-up tub and sitting room. The backyard, a grassy space populated with palms, is taken in from an upper balcony. In addition to a pool and spa, the grounds contain a fountain, a covered patio and a deck that offers mountain views.
McLean, 40, co-founded the Backstreet Boys in 1993, and the five-piece boy band went on to find worldwide success in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The group has hits that include Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, As Long as You Love Me and I Want It That Way.
Dodgers’ Puig hopes to catch a sale
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig has let go of a base in the San Fernando Valley, selling his gated home in Sherman Oaks for $1.98 million.
The Mediterranean-villa-style home, built in 2003, has six bedrooms and six bathrooms within its more than 4,600 square feet of living space.
Among features are high ceilings, stone floors and a two-storey entry with a sweeping wroughtiron staircase. Open-plan living and dining rooms share a wet bar.
A second-floor balcony and ample patio space extend the living space outdoors, where the grounds hold a built-in barbecue and a swimming pool with a spa. Lush landscaping and privacy hedges fill out the 7,800-squarefoot lot.
Puig bought the place through a trust four years ago for $1.8 million, records show.