Not everyone is making money in the California real estate boom. Director Steven Spielberg just sold his oceanfront Malibu home, not his primary residence, for approximately $4.5 million or $1.5 million less than he paid for the property when he purchased it in 1992. His loss is his lucky buyer's gain.

The buyer is the Academy Award-winning special effects wizard Stanley Winston, and his wife, Karen, who purchased the property through a trust. Mr. Winston is known for his startling effects in motion pictures such as 1986's "Aliens" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," He is the creative force behind the lifelike dinosaurs in Spielberg's 1993 classic "Jurassic Park," and "The Lost World: Jurassic Park."

Mr. Spielberg is currently in the news because of the release and favorable reception of his realistic homage to World War II and its veterans in "Saving Private Ryan" starring Matt Damon and Tom Hanks.

Telecommunications King Makes Headline News with Home Purchase

Not since Bill Gates broke ground on his approximately $50 million, 40,000-square-foot lakeside compound has another telecommunications mogul even come close to spending that much on a residence.

But Bernard J. Ebber, president and chief executive officer of WorldCom, Inc. does. He has just purchased a 164,000-acre working cattle ranch in western Canada, for which the asking price was $67 million. Ebber is expected to continue the ranch's commercial operations, one of the largest in the nation. Ebber is a Canadian by birth.

Rock Meets Rap

David Bowie, gender bender rock legend has just sold a Beverly Hills condo to rap star Heavy D for approximately $850,000, according to sources quoted in the LA Times.

Published: August 19, 1998

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