He Debuts in Brentwood, She Closes in Beverly Hills

ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1992, has purchased a Brentwood home for a bit more than $1.5 million, sources said.

Salonen, 39, and his wife, Jane Price, moved into the house with their two children in May. The Finnish conductor, who is also a composer, and his family had been living in Santa Monica.

Built in the 1950s, the original 2,000-square-foot house was expanded by 3,000 square feet and refurbished about five years ago by Venice architect Ted Tokio Tanaka, who added a second floor, a studio with a separate entrance and a wall around the property for privacy.

Tanaka, known for his minimalist-influenced projects, also turned the old house with a pitched roof into a modern-looking design, sources said.

Salonen, who was born and raised in Finland, is one of Southern California’s best-known faces, thanks to the Philharmonic’s billboard-advertising campaign.

The blond, athletic conductor has been credited with giving the orchestra a more youthful appeal than it has had since the early days of Zubin Mehta in the ‘60s.

Salonen, who succeeded Andre Previn as the Philharmonic’s music director, first gained international attention in 1983, when he replaced Michael Tilson Thomas with five days’ notice to conduct the London Philharmonica in the challenging Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler.

After that, Salonen led the orchestras of West Berlin, New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Paris, Montreal, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., and he assumed permanent assignments in London, Stockholm and Norway.

He made his U.S. debut with the L.A. Philharmonic in 1984, when he was only 26. He is the 11th permanent conductor of the orchestra since it was founded in 1919.

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FAYE DUNAWAY, who will soon star in “Master Class” at the Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood, has sold her Beverly Hills-area home of seven years for close to its last asking price of $1.7 million, industry sources say.

The Oscar-winning actress paid $2.5 million for the house in 1990, “the day the market peaked,” a local Realtor said.

Dunaway plays the late opera star Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s “Master Class,” which has been on tour throughout the country. The play runs in Hollywood from June 20 to July 13. She hasn’t appeared on the Los Angeles stage since 1973, when she played Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire” at the Ahmanson Theatre.

Dunaway, 56, co-starred in the 1996 movies “Dunston Checked In” and “Albino Alligator.” She won a best-actress Oscar for “Network” (1976) and was nominated for an Oscar in the earlier films “Chinatown” and “Bonnie and Clyde.”

She has had her home on and off the market for years, even leasing it while she was in other places. She first listed it in 1993, when her son, now 16, went to New York City for boarding school and she wanted to become more bicoastal. Actor Val Kilmer leased it in 1995.

The house is Cape Cod in style and has three bedrooms and maid’s quarters in about 4,500 square feet, a source said. It also has a basement and a guest house with a fireplace and a loft. The master suite has a fireplace, spa and steam shower. Built in 1937, it was later refurbished.

The buyers were described as a local businessman and his family.

Stephen Shapiro of Stan Herman / Stephen Shapiro & Associates, Beverly Hills, had the listing, and Gary Gold of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, represented the buyers.

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BRIAN GRAZER, co-chair and CEO of Imagine Films Entertainment, and his ex-wife, Corkie, have sold their Malibu home for just under its last asking price of $3 million, industry sources said.

Grazer, 45, and director Ron Howard formed Imagine Films in the mid-’80s. The company has produced such movies as “Backdraft” (1991), “Apollo 13” (1995) and “The Nutty Professor” remake with Eddie Murphy (1996). The house, in Malibu Colony, was sold as part of the Grazers’ divorce settlement, sources indicated. The house has four bedrooms in about 3,000 square feet plus 32 feet of beachfront and a swimming pool.

The buyer was described as a New York tax attorney and financier, represented by workers’ compensation Judge Gerald Perman and Ira P. Greenspon of Rexford Realty in Beverly Hills and Bob Rubenstein with the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co.’s Malibu West office.

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JOE COCKER, a ‘60s Woodstock festival star (singing “With a Little Help From My Friends”) who went on to top the U.S. charts in a duet for the soundtrack to “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982), has listed his Santa Barbara home at $849,000. It was originally on the market at $1.3 million.

Cocker, 53, and his wife, Pam, have purchased a Colorado ranch, where they are building a 15,000-square-foot English Manor-style house. Cocker is from Yorkshire, England.

He also performed at Woodstock II in 1994 and then went on a world concert tour to promote his recent album “Have a Little Faith.”

His Santa Barbara home is on 11 acres in the foothills. It includes a 3,000-square-foot main house and a three-story circular guest cottage. Under Cocker’s direction, the houses were remodeled and expanded.

Joyce Carlisle of Coldwell Banker in Santa Barbara has the listing.

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Supermodel-actress ELLE MacPHERSON has renewed her lease in the Hollywood Hills for about $6,000 a month, sources said. She leased there for the first time a year ago because of her increasing work in movies. She had been living in a condo that she owns in New York City.

Macpherson, 33, appears in “Batman & Robin,” due to be released on June 20. She made her film acting debut in “Sirens” (1994) and appeared last year in “The Mirror Has Two Faces.” She has been on the covers of Elle and Sports Illustrated.

The house, in a gated area, has three bedrooms in about 3,000 square feet. It also has city views.

Brent Watson of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, had the listing, and Elaine Young of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, represented Macpherson, other sources said.