‘Crocodile’ Star Snaps Up Home

LINDA KOZLOWSKI, who co-starred with Paul Hogan in the “Crocodile Dundee� movies, has purchased a house in the Hollywood Hills.

Sellers were CRAIG NELSON, star of the new ABC-TV program “Coach,� who also played the father in the “Poltergeist� movies, and his wife, Doria. The Nelsons had lived in the house for four years when they decided to move to Malibu.

Kozlowski paid the Nelsons about $725,000, and the Nelsons bought a 2-acre estate for nearly its $1.5-million asking price.

Kozlowski’s new house was described as “light and airy, with a lot of French doors and windows, but very private.� It is behind gates in the Sunset Plaza area above the Sunset Strip. Built in 1957, it was updated recently and has four bedrooms and a lagoon-like swimming pool with a black bottom and a spa.

Kozlowski apparently bought the house sight unseen, except in photos; she was in Australia when her business manager negotiated the deal.

“She had seen the area enough to know that the house was a fabulous buy,� said Ronna Brand, the Beverly Hills real estate broker who represented the Nelsons in their sale and purchase. She also represented them when they bought the Sunset Plaza house.

The Nelsons bought in Malibu, “because Craig had visions of fairways when he saw the property there. He is such a golf fanatic,� she explained.

“And it is the perfect house for them, because ever since I’ve known Doria, she has taught tai chi chuen (a Chinese system of meditation and self defense). She’s even producing a documentary (film) on it. The Malibu house was built for the previous owners using feng shui, the Chinese technique for arranging a floor plan.�

British rock-star GEORGE MICHAEL’S new, three-bedroom home in Santa Barbara, which is believed to be his first home in California, is modern with 5,669 square feet on 5 acres with a swimming pool and tennis court. He paid about $3 million for it and a half-acre next door, which he bought for added privacy.

Brooks Barton of Coldwell Banker was involved in that transaction as well as the sale of 5,669 acres of Oregon timberland for another Brit--SIR JAMES GOLDSMITH, the corporate raider. Goldsmith sold the land to a Chicago industrialist for an estimated $5 million. Southern California real estate sources say Goldsmith has been looking for a house in the Los Angeles area for some time.

Still up Santa Barbara way, the house of the late actor RONALD COLMAN, is back on the market for $5.5 million, says Paul O’Keeffe of Gibb Realty, who has the listing.

The 1941 country house was sold in 1987 to a psychologist and his wife, who turned it into a Mediterranean villa. Investor Jon Sorrell, who sold the place to the psychologist, designed and supervised construction, preserving Colman’s gated entrance to a driveway framed by olive trees.

The Montecito Inn, opened by CHARLIE CHAPLIN and ROSCOE (FATTY) ARBUCKLE in 1929, has been sold for $6.45 million.

New owners are De Wayne and Kathy Copus, a Montecito couple who have managed the recently renovated 52-room hotel since last December.

“We sold three apartment complexes of theirs, and then they bought the Inn,� said Jim Slaught, a commercial broker with the Beaver-Free realty firm, who handled the sale. Jim Taylor, a developer of shopping centers all over California, and Rob Barrett, owner of the Pineapple Beach Club in Antigua, were the sellers.

Real-life designer GAIL CLARIDGE, who recently appeared on “Designing Women,� is getting ready to air her own TV show, on a cable network. “It will be like ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ but will focus entirely on decorating, featuring celebrities’ homes and interviews of other designers,� she said from her Northridge offices.

Claridge just sold her Tarzana estate, with a house she restored and named “Cranberry Knoll,� for $2.9 million, minus 2.2 acres. She subdivided the 3.5-acre property and now has the remaining parcel for sale at $1.7 million.

The buyer, a stockbroker, was represented by Chris Summer of Mike Glickman Realty. Claridge was represented by Jim Pascuci of Merrill Lynch and Cecelia Waeschle and Joyce Rey of Rodeo Realty.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Will director STEVEN SPIELBERG and his actress wife, AMY IRVING, sell their remodeled and expanded Pacific Palisades dream house now that they plan to get a divorce? “No, not that I’m aware of,� Rob Friedman, their spokesman, said after the divorce announcement last Tuesday.

The house, which is featured in the May issue of Architectural Digest, was purchased by the Spielbergs in ‘85, but they didn’t move into it until January, 1988, because of the extensive work, which included doubling its size--to 20,000 square feet.

Among other famous former owners who also remodeled the house, built at the turn of the century, were actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and singer Bobby Vinton. Cary Grant and Barbara Hutton rented the house from Fairbanks, and David O. Selznick purportedly lived there while producing “Gone With the Wind.�

Talk about hot property--If you think home prices are astronomical here, get this: Beverly Hills realtor Stephen Shapiro returned the other day from Australia, where he had gone for the opening of a Hard Rock Cafe, and he said, “Little old houses on the beach in Sydney are going for (U.S.) $5 million to $20 million each.�