Spice Girl buys bigger home

Singer Melanie Brown, also known as Scary Spice from her days with the Spice Girls, and Mel B during her time Las Vegas, has purchased a gated home in the San Fernando Valley area for $3.15 million.

The country French-style house has five bedrooms and eight baths in more than 8,000 square feet. Wrought-iron doors open to an entry foyer with limestone floors. The chateau, its 1,352-square-foot detached media house and a swimming pool sit on more than half an acre.

Designed by Xorin Balbes and built in 2006, the house has a fireplace in the family room, living room and master bedroom, plus three dishwashers and a yoga studio.

Brown and her husband, Stephen Belafonte, bought the home because they have plans to expand their family, said Charmaine DeGrate, an agent with Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, who also represented Brown in the $3.14-million sale of her Hollywood Hills residence in April. That house had four bedrooms and four baths in 3,476 square feet.

Brown, 34, joined the all-female band in 1994. They had two multi-platinum albums and landed a movie. On television, she has appeared on "Dancing With the Stars," including a guest appearance in October. She and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy took second place in Season 5. At Planet Hollywood Resort, she was one of the stars of "Peepshow" earlier this year.

Brown also is involved in fashion design and supports philanthropies working to end world poverty, fight breast cancer and support children with cancer.

Home of actress from 1950s on market

A Hollywood Hills home once owned by actress Dorothy Dandridge is on the market at $3.5 million.

The restored 1926 Mediterranean has three bedrooms and five baths in 4,368 square feet. Three terraces with city views provide space for entertaining. There are arched doorways and windows, beamed ceilings and stained-glass windows. The master bedroom suite features a circular bath.

Dandridge, whose early work included an uncredited role in the 1937 Marx Brothers film "A Day at the Races," was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the title role of "Carmen Jones" (1954) and bought the home as her personal residence after that success. She also starred as Bess in "Porgy and Bess" (1959).

A singer as well as an actress, Dandridge appeared on "The Colgate Comedy Hour" in 1951 and 1953 and on "Toast of the Town" (later known as "The Ed Sullivan Show") from 1951 to 1962. She died in 1965 at age 42.

The property sold for $849,000 in 1998, according to public records.

Baseball pitcher lists gated home

Former major league pitcher Bret Saberhagen has listed his gated home for sale at $3.25 million.

The renovated and rebuilt compound Calabasas, north of Los Angeles, includes a 5,600-square-foot, single-story Tuscan-style villa and two guesthouses on 1.2 acres. The main house has a home theater with a 90-inch screen and eight recliners, a wine cellar that can seat 12, five bedroom suites and six baths.

Outdoors there is a cabana with a fireplace and television, a swimming pool with spa, a wet bar and a putting green.

Saberhagen, a two-time American League Cy Young Award winner, grew up in the San Fernando Valley. He went on to play for the Kansas City Royals, the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox. He won his two awards for being the American League's best pitcher in 1985 and 1989.

"I moved back in 2002 after I finished my baseball career to watch my kid finish up high school at Calabasas," said Saberhagen, whose youngest child is a senior there and will be going away to college in the fall.

Saberhagen said he plans to stay in California and move closer to the ocean.