Pop star puts Los Feliz house in her pocket

Singer-actress Mandy Moore purchased a Mediterranean-style home in the Los Feliz area just before the holidays for slightly more than $1.7 million, real estate sources said.

The 18-year-old pop star bought a refurbished 1927 house with five bedrooms and about four bathrooms in nearly 4,800 square feet. The home also has terraces, courtyards, a library/study and a family room.

Moore, who grew up in Florida, gained notice when performing “The Star-Spangled Banner� at an Orlando sports event. Producers who heard her then suggested she cut a demo. Her first album, “So Real,� was released in December 1999. “Candy,� the first hit single off the album, went gold.

She subsequently hosted her own MTV music and chat series, released the album “In My Pocket,� voiced a bear cub in the movie “Dr. Dolittle 2� (2001), appeared in “The Princess Diaries� (2001) and had her first leading role in the movie “A Walk to Remember� (2002).

She also co-starred with Elijah Wood in the movie “Try Seventeen,� shown last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Mall builder anchors in Malibu

Herb Simon, billionaire builder with his brother, Melvin, of such shopping complexes as the gigantic Mall of America in Minnesota, has purchased a Malibu home on 60 feet of beachfront for about $13 million.

Simon, 68, bought a five-bedroom, nearly 7,000-square-foot home on one of the priciest beaches in the area. The recently remodeled house, built in 1998, also has 6.5 bathrooms, huge decks, a media room, a master suite, two offices, four fireplaces and a grassy yard.

The Simon brothers built their first shopping venture, a strip mall in Bloomington, Ind., in 1960. By 2000 they were co-chairmen of Simon Property Group, the largest mall operator in the country, and had become co-owners of the Indiana Pacers.

The Simons’ company, based in Indianapolis, owns or has interests in more than 250 properties, including regional malls, community shopping centers, and specialty and mixed-used properties in more than 30 states. The company also has held interest in five shopping centers in Europe.

In December, the company launched a takeover attempt of Taubman Centers Inc., with an offer worth just under $4 billion. Taubman Centers owns or manages 30 malls.

Her ocean view is as good as it gets

Laura Ziskin, co-producer of the movie “Spider-Man,� has purchased a Malibu home with ocean views for its full $5.2-million asking price.

The Country English-style home has four bedrooms in 2,500 square feet. The home, built in 1930, was recently remodeled. It has blond hardwood floors and new kitchen appliances.

The master suite has a deck, a fireplace and a bathroom featuring a steam shower.

The home also has a tearoom and a separate guest or staff quarters. It is wired throughout for a built-in entertainment system.

Observers who saw the house described it as “absolutely gorgeous� and noted that Ziskin got an excellent buy.

Last year, Ziskin was the first woman to solely produce an Oscar telecast. Among her many projects, she was executive producer of the movies “As Good as It Gets� (1997) and “Pretty Woman� (1990).

One of her upcoming producing projects is a WB Network pilot tentatively titled “Tarzan.� Ziskin, 52, also hired New York playwright Coleman Hough to write a screenplay about the late newspaper publisher Katharine Graham.

He jumped for Palos Verdes vistas

Ronnie Lester, an assistant general manager of the L.A. Lakers, purchased a Manhattan Beach home last fall for slightly more than $1.3 million.

Lester, who played for the Chicago Bulls and the Lakers before he became a Lakers scout and was named last year to his current position, bought a Mediterranean-style home with five bedrooms and four bathrooms in 4,100 square feet.

The house also has stainless steel kitchen appliances, a spa tub, a 20-foot-long wall of glass and vistas of the Palos Verdes hills.

Ed Kaminsky of Shorewood Realtors, Manhattan Beach, represented Lester in his purchase.

A desert estate for the party hearty

Movie mogul Jack L. Warner’s former Palm Springs getaway has come back on the market, this time at just under $3 million. It was listed in March 2001 at $3.2 million.

Author-screenwriter Steve Shagan (“Primal Fear,� “Save the Tiger�) and his wife, Betty, are selling the 1.5-acre estate, which includes a guesthouse where he has done much of his writing.

The Shagans bought the property in 1989 from Warner’s widow, Ann. The studio chief died at 86 in 1978.

The estate, with its 3,600-square-foot, three-bedroom main house, was built in 1958. The Shagans spent two years on renovations but left many design touches of decorator-to-the-stars Billy Haines.

The 8,000-square-foot-plus compound, where the studio chief entertained Hollywood royalty and as many as 300 guests on a weekend, has a two-bedroom poolhouse with a poolside wet bar; a studio guesthouse with its own pool; a two-bedroom caretaker’s cottage; a staff apartment; a two-car garage and four carports. The grounds, with 6-foot-high walls, a courtyard and a large pool, are shaded by palm, olive and citrus trees.

Jeff Hyland of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, and Deirdre Coit of Caravan Coit, Palm Desert, share the listing. The estate is in the Old Las Palmas area of town.

A record year for top-dollar sales

With multimillion-dollar home sales still closing escrow in December, a time when the market is traditionally quiet, it was a record year for high-end sales on the Westside, according to Cecelia Waeschle of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills.

Waeschle, who has tracked upper-bracket houses for 15 years, counted 276 home sales at more than $3 million each, up from 196 in 2001. In the over-

$5-million category, there were 90 in 2002, up from 67 in 2001, she said, and in the over-$10-million group, there were 24 in 2002, up from 16 in 2001.

Among the biggest transactions in 2002 was the nearly $30-million sale of a Holmby Hills group of several properties, which included the late Jayne Mansfield’s former home known as the Pink Palace. Others included the house built for silent-screen actor Buster Keaton, which sold for nearly $20 million, and the Malibu home known as Gull’s Way, purchased by TV icon Dick Clark for $14 million. A Bel-Air home and two adjacent properties, all owned by Kevin Wendle, chief executive of the Internet Movie Guide, also sold for slightly more than $20 million.

One of the biggest investors turned out to be producer Steven Bing, who bought an estimated half-dozen or more properties in Bel-Air.

In the $15-million category, Sylvester Stallone sold a Beverly Hills-area house to media mogul Sumner Redstone. And Gary Winnick, formerly of Global Crossing, sold a Bel-Air property for about the same amount.

To see previous columns on celebrity transactions visit www.latimes.com/hotproperty.