Digital Media Exec Looks to Connect With Buyer

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A former Warner Bros. executive is putting words in other people’s mouths. No, I mean that in a good way.

Eric Frankel, a 28-year veteran and former president of Warner Bros., has launched a digital media company that creates those highly personalized, user-customized celebrity voices you hear when you expect your friend to answer the phone but instead get his machine.

So we’re imagining a Ricky Ricardo voice screaming out, “Lucy, get the door!” when you ring the front bell of the Brentwood home that Frankel and his wife, Juli, have listed at $6.15 million. But we’re just speculating, mind you.

StarGreetz, Frankel’s new company, provides original scripted recorded content that is customized with names, locations, hobbies, relationships and countless other variables that make you think you are listening to Sean Penn or Miley Cyrus speak for someone. Clients can choose the celebrity, pick the words and the rest is, well, very Hollywoodesqe. You can have your favorite sports hero or movie idol greet callers on your voicemail or e-video cards.

Frankel headed Warner Bros.’ domestic cable distribution division and is considered a leading new technologies and marketing executive with experience in programming, video-on-demand, pay TV, basic cable, network TV, mobile and the Internet. He is a principal in Delhi Entertainment, which recently acquired the rights to the Evel Knievel brand and licensed a reality series to IMG World, one of the industry’s largest sports reality production companies.

The 5,818-square-foot home the Frankels are selling was built in 1927, and has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The estate combines 1920s charm with architectural chic on a large gated lot. There is a chef’s kitchen, family room, four fireplaces, custom lighting, three surround-sound systems (because one can’t possibly be enough), and a newly installed pool and pool house.

Mary Beth Woods of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Brentwood is the listing agent for the home.

Shampoo Malibu

This is a listing that makes my hair stand on end. But quite likely, Paula Kent Meehan has just the product to calm my strands down. Kent Meehan, co-founder of Redken hair care products, and a principal behind any number of other entrepreneurial ventures and investments, just listed her Malibu beachfront compound for about $40 million.

Kent Meehan spent the bulk of her career building the beauty products company that bears her name – or at least part of her name. Partner Jheri Redding is the other half. Kent Meehan was named to the list of top 50 women business owners by Working Woman Magazine.

She launched her now-worldwide business empire more than four decades ago by investing $3,000 she earned from making a Hamm’s Beer commercial. The company’s revenue the first year was $90,000 and jumped to $350,000 the next. She took the company public in 1988 when sales had reached $120 million and eventually sold the company to L’Oreal.

Not one to retire, Kent Meehan renovated the former George W. Elkins building and started an investment firm, KenQuest. She owns real estate and charters out her 15-passenger Gulfstream IV private jet as well as a 140-foot luxury yacht.

The estate she has listed, which includes two totally remodeled homes, comes with 175 feet of Broad Beach beachfront and has unobstructed ocean views to prove it. (Broad Beach is a 1.1-mile stretch in the northern part of Malibu.) One home has four bedrooms and four bathrooms, and a separate guest suite with a little kitchenette. There are interior walls of glass and bamboo flooring. French doors in the master suite open to the ocean. The second home has four bedrooms and five bathrooms, and features custom cabinetry and tile work throughout.

Wailani O’Herlihy of Sotheby’s International Realty, Malibu, is the listing agent.

Two Million Off

Activity in the high-end luxury home market is picking up, according to most top agents, but the homes that are selling are those that are priced right. It’s hard to imagine a more than $2 million price drop not generating some attention.

When we wrote about Richard and Shari Foos’ 12,271-square-foot Brentwood Mediterranean in September, it was listed at $19.9 million. The price was just dropped to $17.25 million. Foos is the former head of Rhino Records, a record store he founded in 1973.

David Offer of Prudential CA Realty is the listing agent for the property.

Brentwood Details

Colm and Kimberly Plunkett have listed their Brentwood home for sale at $2,295,000.

Plunkett is the senior vice president for corporate development at the aerospace contractor, Klune Industries. Klune specializes in commercial and military aircraft, and missile components. The two-story traditional home with four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms has been enlarged and updated with an eye for detail. It has a chef’s kitchen with a large center island, pantry, a breakfast nook and spacious family room. The patio features a custom outdoor gas/wood-burning fireplace. There is a formal living room with mantled fireplace and a dining room with wainscoting.

Richard Stearns of Partners Trust is the listing agent for the property.

Ann Brenoff can be reached at [email protected].