Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes show Beverly Hills skeptics the money
Despite speculation that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are having marital problems, he just bought a Beverly Hills home for his family that cost close to $35 million.
The three-time Oscar nominee has been renting another house in Beverly Hills for the last few years and his lease will be up in 2008.
The property that Cruise bought was not on the market. The traditional-style residence was built in 1937 with seven bedrooms and nine baths and expanded from its original 10,000 square feet after it changed hands four years ago, according to real estate sources not involved in the deal.
The home, behind gates, is on 1.3 acres. It has a long driveway, a tennis court and pool.
Cruise, 44, and Holmes, 28, were married in November in Italy before a crowd of celebrity friends that included David and Victoria Beckham.
Cruise is one of Hollywood's most successful actors, having starred in five consecutive films that grossed $100 million in the United States -- including "Mission: Impossible" (1996) and "Jerry Maguire" (1996).
The actor has won three Golden Globe Awards.
Posh home life
for Posh Spice
Soccer star David Beckham and wife, Victoria, the former Posh Spice, have purchased a home in Beverly Hills at its list price of $22 million.
The one-story, 13,000-square-foot house was built on speculation this year on slightly more than an acre with city and ocean views.
It reportedly is near the rented home of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.
The H-shaped house resembles an Italian villa. The house is behind massive iron gates and at the end of a private drive.
Beckham, 32, easily the most recognized soccer player in the world, will play for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Gwen Stefani lists
home without a doubt
Gwen Stefani, lead singer of the rock band No Doubt, was no fool when she listed her former L.A. home on April 1 at close to $4.8 million.
Her six-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot house in the Los Feliz section sold at list price and closed escrow before the end of the month.
The buyers were Mark and Shelley Brazill. He was co-creator of "That '70s Show."
Stefani, 37, had owned the property since the late '90s, when she bought it for $1.4 million.
She married Gavin Rossdale, frontman for the grunge group Bush, in 2002, and they purchased a 10,000-square-foot home on 2 acres in the Hollywood Hills for nearly $15.5 million last fall.
Royal tennis estate
sells for royal price
The Lord Hanson home, an 8,000-square-foot gated tennis estate in the Old Las Palmas area of Palm Springs, has been sold for $3.1 million.
The house is named for British businessman James Hanson, who, with Gordon White, built an industrial conglomerate worth $28 billion.
Hanson, once engaged to actress Audrey Hepburn, died in 2004 at age 82.
His son, Robert, sold the 1.5-acre property, which has four bedrooms and 5 1/2 baths in the main house and two bedrooms and two baths plus a kitchen in the guest house.
The home was built in 1985.
The buyers, from Los Angeles, are Bob Dickinson, a 15-time Emmy winner for his lighting of special events -- including Emmys for his work on the Academy Awards and Grammy shows -- and his partner, Michael Marler.
The buyers' former home, in Palm Springs, is listed at close to $2 million. The three-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot home was built in 1958 and renovated in 2003.
Iran-Contra figure selling
Sunset Strip home
Fawn Hall, onetime secretary to Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North and a notable figure in the Iran-Contra affair, has put her home in the "bird streets" above Sunset Strip on the market at $2.1 million.
Hall shared the nest with her husband, Danny Sugerman, manager of the Doors and co-author of the bestselling Jim Morrison biography "No One Here Gets Out Alive."
Sugerman died in 2005 at age 50 after a battle with lung cancer. He and Hall were married in 1991.
The four-bedroom, 2,800-square-foot house has a master bedroom suite with a fireplace and a large closet.
There are four baths in the house, which also has spectacular city-to-Catalina views.
'Star Trek' costume designer
hoping to beam up home sale
Emmy-winning costume designer Robert Blackman has listed his Spanish-style villa in the Los Feliz hills for close to $1.7 million.
Blackman, known for his design of the Starfleet uniforms and aliens' costumes in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and other "Star Trek" films, is selling his three-bedroom, three-bath house, built in 1935, because he is purchasing a contemporary-style home.
The house he is selling has a vintage kitchen and breakfast room.
There are colorful, hand-painted Spanish tiles and other exterior details.