Viacom Chief Heads to Rocky’s Road

Sylvester Stallone has sold a Beverly Hills-area home next door to his residence to media mogul Sumner Redstone for close to $15 million, real estate industry sources said.

The sale marked the first time that Redstone, a native of Boston, has bought a California home. The chairman and chief executive of Viacom (the owner of MTV and Nickelodeon, which merged with Paramount in 1994 and later acquired Blockbuster) has for years been traveling to Los Angeles several times a month on business, but he has stayed mainly in hotels.

The home that the billionaire businessman bought had been owned by Stallone since September. The actor paid $16 million for it, then put it back on the market in December at $16.95 million.

When Stallone purchased the property, a spokesman for the actor said, he bought it as a place for his relatives to stay while visiting him.

Redstone bought the property after months of house hunting. He was in escrow to buy another home, but that deal fell through. Escrow on the home that Stallone sold to him closed last week. The house was vacant at the time of the sale, which did not include any furnishings.

Built in 1997, the 15,000-square-foot house has a master suite with two bathrooms, three additional bedrooms, a gym, a billiard room, a screening room, a two-story reading room, a 10-foot-long aquarium, an indoor pool with skylights, a 100-foot-long outdoor pool and a tennis court.

The gated estate is on more than two acres. The actor bought his house next door in 1998 for about $10 million, then expanded and refurbished it. His Italian-style villa has more than seven bedrooms in an estimated 20,000 square feet.

Stallone, 55, starred in the 2001 movies “D-Tox” and “Driven,” co-starring Burt Reynolds, and is due to co-star with Gabriel Byrne in the upcoming film “Shade.”

Redstone, 79, was named media person of the year earlier this month at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. The award recognized Redstone’s success in establishing Viacom as one of the world’s premier entertainment and media companies. Among its many entities, Viacom also owns CBS and UPN. “A Passion to Win,” Redstone’s memoir written with Peter Knobler, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2001.

Valerie Fitzgerald of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills North, had the listing, and Ernie Carswell of the same office represented Redstone in his purchase, sources said.

Former L.A. Clipper guard James Robinson has put his Ladera Heights home on the market at $925,000. He plans to buy a house in Palos Verdes or Pacific Palisades.

His Ladera Heights home has four bedrooms in 3,400 square feet. The contemporary-style house also has a media/game room, master suite with an office and a walk-in closet, a pool, a spa and a three-car garage.

The house was custom-built for Robinson in 1997.

Robinson, 31, has been playing basketball in Russia. After playing for the Clippers from 1997 to 1999, he rejoined the Minnesota Timberwolves, which he had played for from 1996 to 1997, for a brief time before going to Russia. He began his professional basketball career with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1993.

Kerri Jones of Re/Max, Beverly Hills, has the listing.

Composer Kurt Farquhar--who has written music for such TV series as “King of Queens” (1998), “The Parkers” (1999), “Soul Food” (2000) and “Girlfriends” (2001)--and his vocalist wife, Chelle, have purchased a newly built Mediterranean-style home near Caltech in Pasadena for about its $2.9-million asking price.

The home has four bedrooms and five bathrooms in slightly more than 5,000 square feet. Mur Sol Construction Co. built the home for the Farquhars.

Pat Lile of Coldwell Banker, Pasadena, represented the couple in buying.

A Newport Coast home built for a member of a Middle Eastern royal family who lived there for only a week has come on the market at $11.5 million.

The ocean-view house, completed last fall on Pelican Hill near a home owned by L.A. Laker star Kobe Bryant, has seven bedrooms in 15,000 square feet.

It has a commercial-sized kitchen with two dishwashers, two refrigerators and an eight-burner stove. The home also has a sweeping staircase, a butler’s pantry and a game room, which leads to an infinity pool, a spa and a gym. The game room houses a saltwater aquarium, a grand piano, a pool table and a big-screen TV. An elevator serves all four levels of the house.

Marian Phillippi and Coleen Brennan at Prudential California Realty in Corona del Mar have the listing.

Micheline Lerner, a former wife of the late Oscar-winning lyricist and playwright Alan Jay Lerner, has listed her Holmby Hills home at $5 million.

At the age of 20 before she married the lyricist, Micheline Lerner was one of the youngest lawyers in France. While married to her, Alan Jay Lerner wrote some of his most famous lyrics as the legendary musical-theater partner of composer Frederick (Fritz) Loewe. The two wrote songs for shows such as “My Fair Lady,” “Camelot” and “Gigi.”

The Lerners were divorced in the ‘60s, when she bought the Regency-style house, designed by the late John Woolf. Built in 1939, it has four bedrooms and maid’s quarters plus a library/screening room in about 4,500 square feet. The home, on about 1.5 acres behind gates, also has a pool and city views.

Alan Jay Lerner, scion of the Lerner Shops fortune, was married eight times before he died at age 67 in 1986. Micheline Lerner, his fourth wife, is the mother of his only son, Michael.

Raymond Bekeris of John Bruce Nelson & Associates has the listing.

Brooke Knapp, who has set and broken more than 100 world aviation speed records, including the fastest speed around the world in a civilian jet aircraft--a Gulfstream III--sold a Bel-Air home she had owned since 1973 for about $3 million.

Knapp sold the country ranch-style home, on slightly more than 1.6 acres adjacent to the Bel-Air Golf Course, to Paul L. Kessler, co-founder and director of the Los Angeles Film School, and his attorney wife, Diana.

Knapp’s former property includes a 4,300-plus-square-foot home with a two-story master suite, a gym, three additional bedrooms, four bathrooms, a guest house, a pool and a spa.

Knapp lived in the home initially, then for years maintained it as an income property. Though Knapp is a Realtor, she was not involved in the deal except as the seller.

Drew Mandile, Knapp’s partner at Sotheby’s International Realty in Beverly Hills, handled both sides of the transaction.

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