Liz Falls for Beach ‘Fixer’

ELIZABETH TAYLOR is in escrow to buy a five-bedroom home in a gate-guarded community near Laguna Beach for $5 million, sources say.

The home has about 100 feet of beachfront and 6,000 square feet of interior living space. The Oscar-winning actress and AIDS fund-raiser is buying the 12-room home from a woman who moved to Carmel.

The house that Taylor, 61, is buying was built in 1969, and it has been called “a fixer,” leading to speculation that it will be a renovation project for Taylor’s husband, Larry Fortensky.

Fortensky was employed as a construction driver and member of Teamsters Local 420 in Los Angeles when, at age 39, he became Taylor’s seventh husband. Since their marriage, two years ago this October, the couple has been living in her gated Bel-Air home.

The Laguna-area house is one of two in the community that are being sold in the $5-million range. The other property, a rehabbed compound owned by a real estate developer, just closed escrow at slightly more than $5 million. The buyer is an investment company executive.

Another house, which is said to be in need of refurbishing and is in a nearby gated development, is in escrow at close to its $6.2-million asking price, sources say. The seller was identified as a Maxwell Coffee heir.

Former Beach Boy BRIAN WILSON has purchased a Malibu home that he has leased since 1987.

The seller, who has owned the home since 1975, remodeled and expanded it in 1980, then leased the home to Wilson, who just exercised his lease-option, sources say.

The house, a 3,000-square-foot hideaway on a private street, has been the reclusive songwriter’s main residence, though he has several other homes.

The Malibu home has four bedrooms, a hot tub, fireplace and deck, which overlooks the beach. The house, which is on an extra wide lot, sold for $850,000.

Wilson was represented in his purchase by Elaine Hunt of Prudential California Realty, Malibu.

DAVID TWOHY, who co-wrote the screenplay for the Harrison Ford movie version of “The Fugitive,” and Twohy’s wife, Deborah Sandy, have bought a newly built, oceanfront condo in Santa Monica for just under $1 million, sources say. Asking price for the 3,000-square-foot unit was $1,295,000.

The Twohys, who also maintain a 2,500-square-foot home at Big Bear, are newlyweds. A psychology major at UCLA, she was formerly director of development for Arnold Kopelson Productions, producer of “The Fugitive.”

David Twohy eventually plans to sell his bachelor pad of five years, a 1,500-square-foot condo in Santa Monica. Adam Blumenstein of Jon Douglas Co., Santa Monica, represented the Twohys in buying their oceanfront condo.

A Malibu home built in the 1930s for GEORGE (BUDDY) DESYLVA--who wrote songs for such Broadway musicals as “Ziegfeld Follies” and collaborated on songs with Al Jolson, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin--has been sold for $6.4 million, sources say.

The seven-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot-plus home, which has a tennis court, has been described as “the first real house in the Colony.” “When it was built, the other houses were just beaverboard on the sand,” a longtime resident of the area said.

“The buyer is a businessman from Spain who has a horse ranch in Chile,” another source said. The sellers are Harry and Kathy Sloan, who are moving with their young daughter, Whitney, to Aspen, where they are building a house, he added.

HARRY SLOAN, a show-biz lawyer who became a major B-movie producer in the 1980s before selling his New World films, is now the king of local TV in Scandinavia, where he took his 3-year-old broadcasting system public earlier this year. Kathy Sloan is a lawyer and a screenwriter.

The Sloans were represented by Carol Rapf of Jim Rapf & Associates, Malibu, and the buyer was represented by Michele Hall of Jon Douglas Co., Brentwood, and Bobette and Jim Halverson, both of Jon Douglas Co., Malibu.

A Hollywood house owned for years by movie mogul SAMUEL GOLDWYN has come on the market at $1,295,000. The house is next door to the former Ozzie and Harriet Nelson home, which appeared weekly in the Nelson family’s sitcom from 1952 to 1966.

The Goldwyn house was built for the film magnate in 1916 and is in need of restoration, sources say. The nearly 6,500-square-foot house has a grand staircase; guest house, pool and inside spa. The sellers raised four children there and have owned the home for 16 years.

Goldwyn, who died at age 91 in 1974, moved from the residence about 30 years ago, sources say. The home is listed with Joy Hudson of RE/MAX, Beverly Hills.

CLARIFICATION: Sean Herbert of Coldwell Banker-Gene Armstrong, Inglewood, was the co-selling agent in actor Damon Wayans’ purchase of a Beverly Hills-area home. The $2.5-million sale and other agents involved in the transaction were reported in the Aug. 22 Hot Property column.