‘Pulp’ Hit Man Targets Home

SAMUEL L. JACKSON, who stars as Bruce Willis’ sidekick in “Die Hard With a Vengeance” and co-starred with John Travolta in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” and his wife, actress LaTonya Richardson, have purchased an Encino home for $1.1 million.

Jackson, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role as the Bible-quoting hit man in “Pulp Fiction,” also co-starred in the recently released “Losing Isaiah,” with Jessica Lange, and “Kiss of Death,” with David Caruso and Nicolas Cage. Jackson is due to co-star next in “The Great White Hype,” with Jeff Goldblum, and John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill,” with Sandra Bullock.

Born and raised in the South, Jackson, 46, was temporarily suspended from college in the late ‘60s for taking part in a sit-in demanding a course in black studies. Later he performed in Yale and Seattle repertory theaters.

The Jacksons and their teen-age daughter were renting in Encino but needed more space, a source said.

The couple bought a Tudor-style, 4,500-square-foot home with three bedrooms, an office, playroom and maid’s/guest quarters. The gated estate, built in 1981, had been listed at $1.25 million.

Michael and Tauheedah Pourmirza of Fred Sands Realtors, Sherman Oaks, represented the Jacksons in the purchase, and Alfie and Myrna Shanfeld of Jon Douglas Realtors, Encino, had the listing.

Academy award-winning actress LORETTA YOUNG has put her Beverly Hills home of 30 years on the market at just under $1.2 million.

Young, 82, appeared in nearly 100 films and won an Oscar in 1947 for her role in “The Farmer’s Daughter,” but she is probably best remembered for her TV shows of the 1950s and 1960s. When Young won the first of three Emmy Awards for the shows in 1953, she became the first female actor to win both an Oscar and an Emmy.

“She wants to sell her house in Beverly Hills because she isn’t using it as much anymore,” said Nelda Linsk of Coldwell Banker Eadie Adams Realty in Palm Springs, who shares the listing with Dennis Fernow of Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills.

“She and her husband love it in Palm Springs, where they bought a house last year, and they stay here as long as they can in the heat before they go somewhere else that is cool,” Linsk said.

Young and her husband, Oscar-winning costume designer Jean Louis, 87, were married in 1993. The two met more than 50 years ago. He won his Oscar for “The Solid Gold Cadillac” (1956), starring Judy Holliday and Paul Douglas.

Young’s Beverly Hills home is French Regency in style. Built in 1962, it is about 3,500 square feet in size and has two guest bedrooms, each with a bath and sitting room; a large master bedroom with a sitting room, dressing room and office, and a two-story front entrance with a European hand-crafted bronze staircase.

NINA BLANCHARD, who discovered Cheryl Tiegs and Rene Russo before signing over her L.A. modeling agency of 34 years to New York-based Ford Models in March, has purchased a Hollywood Hills home for nearly its $675,000 asking price.

Blanchard has co-written a novel with Peter Barsocchini about the modeling business entitled “The Look,” due out in October. She also has been planning to go into the personal management business.

Blanchard had been renting since her house was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake. Her new home has three bedrooms in 3,000 square feet. It was built in the ‘50s but has been “nicely maintained,” a source said.

Carl Romeo and Rod Ostrom represented Blanchard, and Bill Parks of John Aaroe & Associates represented the sellers, a local couple.

Real estate mogul FRED SANDS, who is getting a divorce from Cindy--his wife of 15 years--has sold his Bel-Air residence, which he built three years ago, for about $5.3 million, sources say. It is said to be the highest sale so far this year in Bel-Air.

The buyer, a prominent L.A. businessman involved in a couple of pharmaceutical companies, is also buying the house next door for $2 million because it has a tennis court, sources say.

Sands’ home is a bit more than 8,000 square feet in size and is on an acre with a sculpture garden. The house has been described as being “very modern . . . with French limestone throughout.”

Sands was represented by Joe Babajian and Linda May of Sands’ Estates Directors Office, Beverly Hills, and the buyer was represented by Margie Oswald-Sherman and Joyce Rey of Prudential Rodeo Realty, Beverly Hills.