N.Y. Comedian Goes Bicoastal

JERRY SEINFELD, star of the NBC sitcom “Seinfeld,” has purchased a view home in the Hollywood Hills for close to $3 million.

The 38-year-old bachelor from Brooklyn--who spent 15 years on the comedy circuit before his TV show became a hit--performed in May at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center. During “The American Comedy Awards” in May he was named as the funniest actor on television.

In June, Seinfeld, whose ambition since he was 7 was to be a stand-up comic, traveled around the country on a 17-city, stand-up-comedy tour.

But now he is back to work on the sitcom, which he also writes with program co-creator Larry David. “Seinfeld” is about everyday occurrences in the lives of four New Yorkers.

“He has an amazing place in New York and still wants to be known as a New Yorker, but with the success of ‘Seinfeld,’ he knew he had to establish himself in Los Angeles,” a business associate said.

Seinfeld had a condo here but “fell in love with his new home even before it was completed or on the market,” a source said. The house, built in the ‘60s by actor GEORGE MONTGOMERY, was renovated by designer Norman Wogan for Fresno cotton grower Paul Diener, who lives in Los Angeles but spends two to three days a week at his ranch.

The home was redesigned to take advantage of its 180-degree views, stretching from downtown L.A. to the ocean. “We brought the house down to a shell and steel beams,” Wogan said. He lowered the floor, raised the ceiling and added a spa to the 55-foot-long pool.

He turned three bedrooms into a master suite and the old master bedroom into a kitchen. The nearly 6,000-square-foot, contemporary home, behind gates, also has a guest suite, maid’s quarters and guest house besides a two-story entry with walls of glass.

Wogan also built a six-car garage with picture windows. “Even the garage has a city-to-ocean view,” a source remarked.

Sandra Renard of Rodeo Realty represented Diener, and Colleen McAuley of Jon Douglas Co.’s Sunset Strip office represented Seinfeld.

MARLON BRANDO has purchased the Sherman Oaks home of KRISTY McNICHOL for about $800,000.

But the actor, who has had a home for many years off Mulholland Drive, did not buy the house for himself. “He bought it for a friend,” a source said.

Brando appears in the soon-to-be-released summer movie “Christopher Columbus: The Discovery,” with Tom Selleck and Rachel Ward.

McNichol, who stars on the NBC sitcom “Empty Nest,” put the Sherman Oaks house on the market in January, at $975,000, to move back to her former home, also in the San Fernando Valley.

She had lived in the home Brando bought for about a year, having been attracted by its tennis court. However, McNichol, an avid tennis player, decided that the four-bedroom home with a guest house was too large for her, sources say.

Rick Fields of Fred Sands Realtors, Sherman Oaks, represented McNichol, and Charlotte Coleman of Fred Sands, Studio City, represented Brando.

GARY LIEBERTHAL, who recently resigned as chairman of Columbia Pictures Television, and his wife, Ann, have reduced the price on their Holmby Hills home to $5.25 million, as the renovation on their 1,200-acre estate in Virginia nears completion.

Columbia Pictures Television is the Sony unit that has produced such TV hits as “Who’s the Boss?” “Designing Women,” “The Young and the Restless” and “Married with Children.”

The Lieberthals’ Holmby Hills estate, which had been priced at $5.95 million, has two family suites, two staff quarters, a media room and a 2,000-square-foot master suite in about 9,000 square feet, behind gates with a 300-foot-long driveway. There is also a three-car, limo-sized garage as well as a pool and tennis court on the 1.65-acre site.

The Virginia estate just outside of Charlottesville that the Lieberthals bought recently is a state and national historic landmark.

The wood frame part of the home was built in 1764 by Dr. Thomas Walker, Thomas Jefferson’s guardian. A brick addition was built in the 1820s for William Cabell Rives, a U.S. senator and ambassador to France. The Lieberthals are the fourth owners of the property.

Their Holmby home is listed with Myra Nourmand of Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills.

Stockbroker-turned-actor HERB MITCHELL, who plays Dean Witter in the stock brokerage’s commercials, and his wife, Janet, have purchased a 45-acre estate in Blue Hills, Maine--his home state--for $450,000, his publicist said. The eight-bedroom Colonial-style home was built in 1870.

Mitchell, who also has a home in Calabasas, will appear in the TNT mini-series “Killer Angels,” to begin filming in September, and he is expecting to start work next year on starring roles in “The Andrew Johnson Story,” about the 17th President of the United States, and “The Coach,” about Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics.