Malibu, extra twangy

Let’s tip our 10-gallon hats to Garth Brooks and wife Trisha Yearwood, who just bought a house along the Malibu beachfront that originally had been listed at $5.45 million and then dropped to $4.95 million. Public records did not disclose the purchase price.

Brooks is the top-selling solo artist of the 20th century, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, and Malibu residents no doubt look forward to the additional paparazzi that the King and Queen of Country will bring to the beach scene this summer. The last paparazzo who was tossed into the ocean with his camera is said to be drying off nicely.

The house is behind gates and sits on half an acre with beach access. The one-story house has about 3,700 square feet and, according to the listing, includes three bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms. The master bedroom has hardwood floors; flooring elsewhere is stone and carpet. There is an outdoor patio with a fireplace.

The wooded property is secluded, but those paps are a tenacious lot. Altercations between the photographers who follow celebrities and local residents erupted at least twice in recent weeks, making international headlines.

In May, Brooks became the first artist to receive the Academy of Country Music’s Crystal Milestone Award in recognition of his 128 million record sales. His most recent release, “The Ultimate Hits,” has been certified five times platinum, according to his website.

Yearwood won Grammys in 1997 for best female country vocal performance for “How Do I Live” and best country vocal collaboration (with Brooks) for “In Another’s Eyes.”

A bidding war in Beverly Hills

Here’s a real estate story that will make you want to check what year it is. No, this isn’t 2005. A house listed for $4 million in the Beverly Hills flats just got 10 offers, all above the asking price, and has an accepted offer of $5.4 million -- cash. It had been on the market about two weeks.

The home was owned for many years by a friend and neighbor of actress Valerie Harper, who is now acting as executor of the estate.

Harper said the home has a “fabulous English garden,” which the owner tended herself. “She was like a grandmother to our daughter; she cooked, baked, gardened . . . just a delightful, wonderful woman with fabulous stories,” Harper said.

Without question, the house needs updating. But it’s in an undeniably great location, and the listing agent underscores that it was “priced right.”

The house was appraised at $3.7 million, which was below the asking price. Yet when it first came on the market, Sotheby’s agent Drew Mandile says, more than 300 people went to see it during two open houses.

“We received 10 offers, all over asking price,” Mandile said. It goes to court on Aug. 1 for confirmation -- standard operating procedure in a probate sale. Other buyers may show up and overbid.

The 4,211-square-foot house, built in 1925, has five bedrooms and five bathrooms. It is described as Country English in style and sits on a 16,000-square-foot lot.

The multiple Emmy Award-winning Harper is best known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on the 1970s television show “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and a spinoff, “Rhoda.” She also is playing legendary Hollywood bad girl Tallulah Bankhead in “Looped” at the Pasadena Playhouse. Last year, she starred in the film “Golda’s Balcony.”

Mandile’s Sotheby’s partner, Brooke Knapp, co-listed the property.

Wolf’s Lair comes with a lot of lore

One of Los Angeles’ true trophy properties is for sale: The so-called Wolf’s Lair is a castle that sits atop a hill overlooking downtown, Griffith Park and the Hollywood sign; on a clear day, it even has views of Santa Catalina Island. Asking price: $7.5 million, but that includes the 1920s speakeasy and all the history that comes with it.

The owners are former “View” co-host Debbie Matenopoulos and her husband, Lionsgate Entertainment’s Jay Faires.

But the real celebrity here is the house. It sits on 3 walled and gated acres. There are eight bedrooms, six bathrooms and a heart-shaped, black-bottom pool. The guesthouse was designed by architect John Lautner.

Wolf’s Lair was built by Hollywoodland developer L. Milton Wolf. One story connected to the house is that Wolf, said to be a womanizer of young starlets, built a secret apartment under the gatehouse in which to do his entertaining while his unsuspecting wife slept in the castle a few hundred feet away.

The exterior of the gatehouse still looks like a Norman-style castle; the interiors have been reworked.

Matenopoulos did a brief stint hosting “Good Day Live,” a nationally syndicated show. She is one of three hosts on E! Entertainment’s weeknight celebrity gossip series “The Daily 10.”

Faires is president of music at Lionsgate and founder of Mammoth Records.

The listing agents are Laura and Brian Moore of Keller Williams Realty, Los Feliz.

Stowaway creator wants it sold away

On behalf of all who are less than nimble-thumbed, thank you, Robert Olodort.

Olodort invented the Stowaway -- a full-size QWERTY keyboard that weighs just ounces, fits in a shirt pocket and unfolds to plug into a hand-held computer device in mere seconds. Hats off to the man who eliminated having to hunt and peck on a PDA while squinting and wondering when your fingers grew so fat.

Olodort is selling his Brentwood house for $3,195,000. And why shouldn’t he?

The sixtysomething released his collapsible four-piece keyboard design in 1999 through his company, Think Outside. And now, millions of Stowaway sales later -- he also invented the Seiko Smart Label Printer -- let’s just say he can pretty much buy whatever he’d like. Not bad for a UCLA film school graduate who once thought about making documentaries.

His wife and co-seller, Mary Ann Braubach, does produce documentaries, including an Oscar-nominated Brazilian film.

The couple’s three-bedroom, 3 1/2 -bathroom architectural home was recently redone. It is in a private setting adjacent to Brentwood Park, has an open floor plan and is suitable for indoor-outdoor entertaining.

There is a pool, an oversized spa, a waterfall and an outside fire pit. The 3,000-square-foot house is wired for all modern amenities -- as you’d expect in the home of an inventor.

Fiora Aston of Coldwell Banker, Brentwood West, has the listing.

Starsky’s car is not included

It’s hard to imagine anything looking finer than Det. Dave Starsky’s 1974 Ford Gran Torino parked in this driveway, but actor Paul Michael Glaser and Tracy Barone Glaser have listed their Agoura home for sale at $2,424,000.

Glaser played the curly haired, wise-cracking detective on the popular TV show “Starsky and Hutch” from 1975 to 1979. His character’s trademark car, a red-and-white “striped tomato” Gran Torino, made a cameo in a 2001 episode of “The Agency” that Glaser directed.

The house, car not included, has a flat acre. There is a full dressage arena with lights, corrals and a double driveway with horse trailer access. There is also a large pool, professional landscaping and a wraparound porch. The New England-style home, built in 1983, has walnut wide-plank floors, recently remodeled bathrooms and kitchen, crown moldings, French doors, a marble fireplace and a three-car garage. There are five bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms in the 4,500-square-foot house.

Glaser, 65, also played Capt. Jack Steeper on “Third Watch” (2004).

His first wife, Elizabeth, was an AIDS activist; she contracted HIV through a blood transfusion. Before her death in 1994, she co-founded the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

Glaser later married Tracy Barone, from whom he is now separated.

Cynthia Nexon of Ewing & Associates, Sotheby’s, Calabasas, has the listing.

--

[email protected]

--

Can’t wait all week for more?

Find new updates online as they break as well as additional photos of homes from this and previous Hot Property columns at latimes.com/realestate.