Sylvester Stallone fan, Kenneth sent in the article [reprinted below] from the Los Angeles Times about Sly selling one of his homes in California.

Sylvester Stallone has sold a Beverly Hills-area home next door to his residence to media mogul Sumner Redstone for close to $15 million, real estate industry sources said.

The sale marked the first time that Redstone, a native of Boston, has bought a California home. The chairman and chief executive of Viacom (the owner of MTV and Nickelodeon, which merged with Paramount in 1994 and later acquired Blockbuster) has for years been traveling to Los Angeles several times a month on business, but he has stayed mainly in hotels.

The home that the billionaire businessman bought had been owned by Stallone since September. The actor paid $16 million for it, then put it back on the market in December at $16.95 million. When Stallone purchased the property, a spokesman for the actor said, he bought it as a place for his relatives to stay while visiting him.

Redstone bought the property after months of house hunting. He was in escrow to buy another home, but that deal fell through. Escrow on the home that Stallone sold to him closed last week. The house was vacant at the time of the sale, which did not include any furnishings.

Built in 1997, the 15,000-square-foot house has a master suite with two bathrooms, three additional bedrooms, a gym, a billiard room, a screening room, a two-story reading room, a 10-foot-long aquarium, an indoor pool with skylights, a 100-foot-long outdoor pool and a tennis court.

The gated estate is on more than two acres. The actor bought his house next door in 1998 for about $10 million, then expanded and refurbished it. His Italian-style villa has more than seven bedrooms in an estimated 20,000 square feet.

Stallone, 55, starred in the 2001 movies "D-Tox" and "Driven," co-starring Burt Reynolds, and is due to co-star with Gabriel Byrne in the upcoming film "Shade."

Redstone, 79, was named media person of the year earlier this month at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. The award recognized Redstone's success in establishing Viacom as one of the world's premier entertainment and media companies. Among its many entities, Viacom also owns CBS and UPN. "A Passion to Win," Redstone's memoir written with Peter Knobler, was published by Simon &Schuster in 2001.

Valerie Fitzgerald of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills North, had the listing, and Ernie Carswell of the same office represented Redstone in his purchase, sources said.

- Thanks to Kenneth for the tip! Craig Zablo [July 6, 2002]