Scarlett Johansson Sells, Then Buys New California Home

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(LOS ANGELES, CA) -- It seems as though actress Scarlett Johansson had no sooner sold her old place in the Hollywood Hills than she and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, closed on a house in Los Feliz, Calif., for $2.9 million.

Built in the late '60s, the restored Buff & Hensman-designed Wong House has walls of glass looking out on a swimming pool, a walled garden off the master bedroom suite and views of downtown Los Angeles and the ocean. There are two bedrooms, three bathrooms and 2,835 square feet of living space. Two rooms originally used as bedrooms had been converted to an open-plan library and an office by the sellers.

Johansson, 25, won a Tony Award in June for best featured performance as an actress in the revival of Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge." She plays Natasha Romanoff in "Iron Man 2" (2010).

Reynolds, 33, starred in "Van Wilder" (2002), "Just Friends" (2005) and "The Proposal" (2009). He and Johansson were married in 2008.

She sold her 1931 walled and gated Spanish villa in the Hollywood Hills for $3 million less than she bought it for in 2007, public records show.

See related REAL ESTATE CHANNEL post:

Scarlett Johansson Lists Her 1931 Villa

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He Plays Tenant in Santa Monica

Actor Greg Germann, perhaps best known for playing Richard Fish on "Ally McBeal," has leased a home in Santa Monica, Calif., that had been listed for sale at $1.7 million. The lease price was not available.

The Cape Cod-inspired house includes high ceilings, skylights, balconies, terraces and a master bedroom with coved ceilings, a fireplace and dual closets. There are four bedrooms and four bathrooms.

Germann, 52, was on "Ally McBeal" from 1997 to 2002 and starred in "In Case of Emergency" (2007). Since then he has appeared on "Medium" (2010), "Ghost Whisperer" (2009), "CSI: NY" (2009) and other shows, as well as in the Broadway play "Boeing-Boeing."

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Artistic Touch to Encino Home

A home owned by the family of the late Albert Heschong, the Emmy-winning production designer for television, film and theater who headed the art department at CBS for more than two decades, is for sale in Encino, Calif., at $1.15 million.

Heschong designed and fabricated the custom woodwork in the interiors, including coffered ceilings, moldings and built-in cabinets and bookcases.

On the market for the first time in 40 years, the gated ranch house was designed for Hollywood-style entertaining. Its oversized public rooms have easy access to patios and a courtyard shaded by a mature oak tree. There are four bedrooms, four bathrooms and 2,989 square feet of living space plus an artist's studio/workshop with a skylight.

Heschong, who died in 2001 at age 82, served as art director for "The Wild Wild West" (1965-67), "Hawaii Five-O" (1968-69) and "Gunsmoke" (1961-73), among other shows.

He won an Emmy as art director for "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (1956), a "Playhouse 90" drama starring Jack Palance.

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Perhaps He Likes the Reception

The site of the former Malibu Lodge has been purchased by international cell phone magnate Sebastian Harrison and his wife, actress Linda Gucciardo, for $2.4 million.

The Malibu Lodge was an elegant French-Californian restaurant in the 1940s and early 1950s frequented by Hollywood luminaries including "Gone With the Wind" producer David O. Selznick and songwriter Irving Berlin. The restaurant building was destroyed in a landslide.

The 3-acre compound Harrison and Gucciardo purchased includes a two-bedroom main house plus five rental cottages, some of which were developed by the late Doreen "Biddy" Field, whose Malibu Lodge Trust was the seller.

Harrison, who lives nearby on property owned by his father, actor Richard Harrison, said he plans to make small improvements and keep renting to the existing tenants, some of whom have been there for decades.

The site has unobstructed ocean views across the Pacific Coast Highway, as there are no houses on the ocean side.

"There are not any other properties that have flat lots and are close in on PCH," he said by e-mail from Sicily, where he is redoing a beach house.

Harrison, 44, is a former actor and the founder and chief executive of Cellular Abroad Inc.

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Oscar Winner's St. Lucia Winter Home

The longtime winter residence of Oscar-winning screenwriter Nancy Dowd on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia has come on the market at $1,995,000.

Called Belmont, the 7-acre nature reserve overlooks Castries Harbor. The West Indies Creole-style house, built in 1895, includes four bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Dowd wrote "Slap Shot" (1977), in which she also appeared, and "Coming Home" (1978), for which she won an Academy Award for original screenplay. She was a writer on "Saturday Night Live" in 1980 and '81.

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