Just for Laughs: Brentwood Villa

KEENEN IVORY WAYANS--executive producer, writer and star of Fox-TV’s Emmy Award-winning comedy “In Living Color”--has purchased a 10,000-square-foot Brentwood villa that is still under construction.

Wayans, who hosts the 2-year-old show, also appeared last year in several TV specials including “A Party for Richard Pryor,” “A Comedy Salute to Michael Jordan” and “Story of a People: The Black Road to Hollywood.”

The 33-year-old bachelor, the eldest of 10 siblings, went from majoring in engineering at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to performing stand-up comedy in New York City to co-writing the 1987 film “Hollywood Shuffle,” a satire about black actors struggling in Hollywood.

A year later, he directed, wrote and starred in “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” a spoof of black exploitation and action films.

Wayans bought the Brentwood home, which is about 80% completed, for close to its $3.5-million asking price, sources said.

The Mediterranean-style home has four bedrooms plus maid’s quarters, a guest house and a swimming pool, all on about seven acres.

Wayans is living in a smaller house elsewhere in the Los Angeles area while his new home is being completed, sources said.

Stephen Shapiro of Stan Herman & Associates, Beverly Hills, represented the seller; Robert Ross of Fred Sands Realtors, Marina del Rey, and Joanne McKenzie of Prudential California Realty, Hancock Park, represented Wayans. None of the realtors was available for comment.

Philanthropist/fund-raiser WALLIS ANNENBERG, a former co-publisher and editor of TV Guide, has sold her 58-year-old home in Beverly Hills and is about to move into a newly built, 7,000-square-foot condo in Century City.

Annenberg’s father, Walter, is former TV Guide owner and U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain.

She sold her Country English home--with seven bedrooms, three maids’ quarters, a swimming pool and tennis court--for about $5.4 million, including a real estate trade estimated at $1 million. The estate had been listed for a couple of years, first at $8.7 million, with Linda May of Fred Sands Estates.

Designed by the late architect Wallace Neff, the 10,000-square-foot-plus house was once owned by late actor FredricMarch.

The home was purchased by Kenneth and Marcia Ziffren. He is one of Hollywood’s leading power brokers and is a founding partner of the Century City law firm Ziffren, Brittenham & Branca. His father, Paul, was known for years as “Mr. Democratic Party” because of his leadership in California politics.

Annenberg’s new home is nearing completion in the Century Woods Estates project, where the so-called “estate condominiums” range in size from 5,000 to 9,400 square feet and are priced from $2.5 million to $5 million.

SEAN JONES, former L.A. Raider and now defensive end with the Houston Oilers, has purchased a contemporary, Southwestern-style home off Benedict Canyon for $1.5 million.

Jones, who also has a condo in Houston, is a stockbroker in Los Angeles and Houston during the off-seasons. He was born in Kingston, Jamaica.

His new Beverly Hills-area home is about 15 years old but was recently completely remodeled. It has four bedrooms plus maids’ quarters in about 5,000 square feet.

It also has a swimming pool and what has been described as “an outstanding kitchen, breakfast room and wine cellar.” Jones, who is single, likes to cook and entertain.

Liz Stewart-Armato with Asher Dann & Associates, Beverly Hills, represented the 28-year-old football player in his purchase.

CASEY COATES-DANSON--an environmental designer who married “Cheers” co-star Ted Danson 14 years ago--has undertaken her largest project in a 7,800-square-foot, Brentwood home.

“I designed the house to be self-sufficient for electricity and hot-water needs because I’m trying to make a statement about breaking our addiction to fossil fuels,” she said.

The modern-style home, with such Southwestern details as exposed wood beams and flagstone floors, will have a solar electric system, north-facing skylights, walls without windows, a drought-resistant garden and a lap pool with solar hot-water collectors.

“I designed this as a showcase home but hope the same concept can be used for tract houses,” she said. The Brentwood home will have a five-bedroom main house and a three-car garage with an apartment when completed by early fall.

Coates-Danson and her family live in a Santa Monica Canyon home, which has an indoor, solar-heated pool that she designed with a roof that opens.

She and her husband, who also co-starred in the movie “Three Men and a Little Lady,” co-founded the American Oceans Campaign in 1987 after they took their two children to a Santa Monica beach but were unable to swim because of pollutants.

A 32,500-square-foot San Diego County home that is being built on 50 acres with a 286-foot-long, indoor/outdoor swimming pool has been listed for sale at $12.5 million.

The home, about five miles from the ocean in the Rancho Santa Fe community, is being built by a doctor who is filling the house with his electronic inventions.

The property is listed with Bruce Nelson of John Bruce Nelson Associates, Newport Beach and Beverly Hills.

Expected to be completed in three months, the home also will have a 22-car garage, a helipad, a 4,300-square-foot master suite and an arched bridge over the pool.