He’s in Tune With Show-Biz History

Broadway composer-lyricist Jerry Herman--who wrote the songs for such classic musicals as “Mame,” “La Cage aux Folles” and “Hello, Dolly!”--has sold his Bel-Air home for about $6 million.

The 15,000-square-foot house, which Herman bought from producer David Wolper in 1993 and later redesigned and refurbished, has half a dozen bedrooms, a two-story projection room, an office suite and a memorabilia gallery.

Herman purchased a one-story, 8,000-square-foot house on nearly two acres in Beverly Hills for about its $4.9-million asking price. The home, behind gates, has a separate guest house, a studio and city-to-ocean views. It was built in 1962 by actor Laurence Harvey, and was later owned by Totie Fields and Joan Collins.

“It has a terrific show-biz background. I’m going to have fun with it,” Herman said by phone from a condo in Maui, Hawaii, where he was spending the holidays.

“Every decade or so I just have to do a design project. That was my business before the business I’m in. I love creating a new home, a new color scheme, a new everything. The time has come to do it again,” he said.

Since he left home as a teenager, Herman, in his 60s, has redesigned 29 houses. “Some of them I did as a business in Key West, but I probably lived in 20 of them,” he said.

He plans to turn his new home into a contemporary villa.

“The Bel-Air home was awfully big for one person, but my new one is the perfect size. It will hold all the things I love, and it has ample office space. I need that because I run my business from my home,” the Tony- and Grammy-winning songwriter said.

Herman’s “Mack & Mabel” will appear on Broadway in the spring in a version of the November revival that was part of the Reprise! series at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. The Broadway production is expected to feature the L.A. cast, including Jane Krakowski of “Ally McBeal.”

In March, the Jerry Herman Legacy Series, initiated by Herman and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers to present America’s music-theater heritage to young audiences, will kick off in Northern California.

Raymond Bekeris of John Bruce Nelson & Associates handled both sides of Herman’s sale to a local business executive. Leah Steuer of Prudential John Aaroe represented the seller and Herman in the house that he purchased.

Producer-writer-director Bill Robinson, who has worked with actress-director Diane Keaton for the last eight years and helped establish their production company, Blue Relief, is selling his Lake Hollywood home for $1.2 million.

He is buying a smaller home in the Outpost Estates area of the Hollywood Hills in the high $800,000 range.

Robinson, who started working with Keaton right out of college, co-wrote the book “It’s All Your Fault: How to Make It as a Hollywood Assistant” (A Fireside Original/Simon & Schuster Trade Paperbacks, $12). (A book signing will be held Jan. 6 at Book Soup in West Hollywood.)

Since working as Keaton’s assistant, Robinson became executive producer of the movie “Hanging Up” (2000), which Keaton directed and in which she co-starred. Robinson also worked with Keaton on “First Wives Club” (1996) and “Unstrung Heroes” (1995). He recently sold his screenplay “Burning Down the House” to Hollywood Pictures, and he is an executive producer along with Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg and Linda Ellerbee in the upcoming HBO series, “The History of the Women’s Movement.”

Robinson is scaling down in house size because he isn’t at home as much, now that he is also starting to direct. The two-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot house he purchased was owned by designer Milo Baglioni, who completed what has been described as “a hip renovation” with an open floor plan. The house was built in the ‘50s.

Robinson is selling his four-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot house, built in the ‘60s near Lake Hollywood, to Gary Janetti, a writer and co-executive producer of Bette Midler’s sitcom “Bette.” Janetti also was a writer of the animated Fox series “Family Guy” (1998-2000). The house has walls of glass, a pool and lake views.

Speaking of Diane Keaton. . . . The actress-director has been renting in the L.A. area since selling her Beverly Hills home to Madonna for $6.5 million in June.

Keaton, who is known to have impeccable taste in decor and architecture, has restored many houses, including the Spanish-style one that Madonna bought.

That house was not on the market, according to local Realtors, but Keaton was persuaded to sell. Now she is finding it a challenge to find another house to buy and refurbish.

Kevin Conroy, a Shakespearean actor probably best known as the voice of Batman in the animated TV series, has purchased a compound in the $800,000 range, built in the ‘40s in the Miracle Mile area, from designer Brian Little.

The home, which Little restored and expanded, has two bedrooms plus a den, pool and English garden.

Little, who in 1991 rented a home that he owned to Elton John for $75,000 a month, recently completed L.A.-area homes for actress Christina Ricci and former NFL star David Kopay.

Little just bought a home for himself in the Windsor Square area for about its $1-million asking price.

Timothy Enright of the Enright Co. represented Little in the sale of his Miracle Mile home and the purchase of his Windsor Square property. Mary Cover and Karen Williams of Prudential California Realty represented Conroy in his purchase; Linda Morrow of Coldwell Banker had the listing on the house Little bought.

A newly built, five-bedroom home in the Pelican Crest area of Newport Coast has been sold to a Newport Beach entrepreneur for about its $7-million asking price.

Designed by architect David Martin, who spent 17 years with the office of legendary architect I.M. Pei, the 6,800-square-foot house, on two levels and half an acre, has more than a dozen 40- to 50-year-old olive trees in its frontyard and a city-to-Catalina Island view.

The house also has two outdoor fireplaces, one on a covered terrace off the master suite. The grounds have a pool, spa and rose garden.

It was sold by owner-builder John McMonigle, who is also a partner at Strada Properties, a newly formed Orange County real estate brokerage company. The selling agents were Susan and Darcy Scanlan of the same firm.

Did you miss Thursday’s Hot Property column in Southern California Living? Want to see previous columns on celebrity real estate transactions? Visit http://arstechnica.netblogpro.com/hotproperty for more Hot Properties.

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Bill Robinson and Diane Keaton