Man of Steel, Wood, Drywall

DEAN CAIN, who co-stars in the ABC series “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” is remodeling a 1950s ranch-style house in Malibu that he bought recently as a home for his brother, Roger.

Cain, who lives in the Brentwood area, bought the Malibu house for close to its $495,000 asking price just before his show was renewed for a fifth season.

ABC renewed “Lois & Clark” and then had second thoughts, although the show’s production company, Warner Bros. Television, has indicated a desire to do a fifth year. ABC will announce its prime-time lineup on May 19.

Cain, 30, has played Superman longer than anyone, even the late George Reeves, who starred in the ‘50s TV series. Cain also wrote a couple of the “Lois & Clark” episodes, and he wrote, produced, directed and hosted the ’96 TV special “Off Camera With Dean Cain.”

Now he’s working on the movie “Dog Boys,” and he completed filming Orion’s “Best Men,” in which he co-stars with Drew Barrymore and Sean Patrick Flanery. “Best Men,” due out in October, is about friends whose loyalty is tested when one of them pulls a bank robbery en route to a wedding.

Cain has never been married but dated Brooke Shields while they were attending Princeton and later had a romance with pro-volleyball player/model Gabrielle Reece.

Cain, an all-American football player when at Princeton, became an actor after suffering a knee injury during preseason training with the Buffalo Bills.

The house he bought is on a knoll with views of Santa Monica Bay. He bought the house from its original owners in its original condition, sources have said. It has three bedrooms in about 1,700 square feet.

Cain, who also has a sister, grew up in Malibu with his mother, actress Sharon Thomas, and stepfather, Christopher Cain, director of such movies as “The Next Karate Kid” (1994).

Jeff Chertow and Isabel Miller had the listing, and Brian Merrick represented Cain, other sources said. All of the Realtors are with Fred Sands’ Malibu office.

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Rap singer M.C. HAMMER’s mansion in the Fremont foothills overlooking the peninsula and San Francisco has been listed at $6.8 million. Assessor’s records value it at $9.4 million.

“He’s happy to sell it,” said Travis Clark, Hammer’s manager. “It’s a new beginning for him. He’s letting go of the old.”

Hammer, 34, filed for bankruptcy in 1996, with debts of nearly $14 million and assets of $9.6 million. He was estimated to have earned $33 million in 1991 alone but spent his money on his racehorses, including one that ran in the Kentucky Derby; a 17-car collection; a Boeing 727; his own record label (Bust It Productions), and his house, on 12 acres with a view of the bay from the Oakland side.

The six-bedroom, 11,000-square-foot house has two pools, a pool house, guardhouse, exercise room and two saunas. The house was built six years ago for Hammer; his wife, Stephanie; and their daughter, Akeiba Monique.

The Grammy-winning singer, who grew up in a tough neighborhood in Oakland as the youngest of seven children, became one of the most popular black performers of the early 1990s with such songs as “U Can’t Touch This.”

Now he is considering record labels for his new album, “Too Tight,” and he has completed his starring role in the Showtime movie “The Right Connection,” tentatively scheduled to air in August.

Elaine Young of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, and Faye Carlson of the firm’s Fremont office share the listing.

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Three-time NBA All-Star KIKI VANDEWEGHE, who played basketball most recently with the L.A. Clippers in 1993, and his wife, Peggy, have sold their Beverly Hills home for about $2.5 million and bought the former Bel-Air residence of the late actress Greer Garson for $2.7 million, according to industry sources. Escrow on both houses closed last week.

Vandeweghe, 38, had owned the Beverly Hills home since 1988. He and his wife, who married just last year, wanted to buy another house that they picked out together. He is president of the sports-drink company Proteam Beverage and is putting together some other businesses.

The Beverly Hills house, which was purchased by a local businessman, has five bedrooms, maid’s quarters and a screening room in about 8,000 square feet, on about an acre along the L.A. Country Club.

The couple’s new home was owned for 25 years, until 1973, by the Oscar-winning actress, who died in 1996 at the age of 92. Built in the late 1920s, the 8,000-square-foot house has six bedrooms and is on an acre of park-like grounds. It was a Design House after Garson owned it.

Raymond Bekeris of John Bruce Nelson Associates, Bel-Air, had the listing on the Vandeweghes’ Beverly Hills house and represented them in buying their new home.

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A Mulholland Drive house used in the Mel Gibson-Danny Glover movie “Lethal Weapon 2” (1989) and designed by the late architect John Lautner has been listed at $755,000.

The Garcia House, as it is known because it was built in the early 1960s for jazz composer RUSS GARCIA, is on two lots with living and entertaining quarters separated by a staircase and a waterfall.

The 1,900-square-foot residence, which has two bedrooms plus maid’s quarters, was featured prominently in the Warner Bros. movie, but a replica of the house was blown to bits. The real thing still stands with walls of glass and canyon, city and ocean views.

Lautner oversaw an upgrading of the house just before he died in 1994 at age 83.

Judy Smythe of John Aaroe & Associates, Pacific Design Center office, has the listing.

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The residential real estate market on the Westside and Malibu is “boiling,” a number of industry observers have said. Cecelia Waeschle, who tracks $2.5-million-and-up home sales for the Prudential-Rodeo-Douglas Co. in Beverly Hills, provided these numbers:

* From January to May 7, almost 80 homes sold at more than $2.5 million each; last year, 35 sold in the same period.

* There have been 20 sales already this year of homes at more than $5 million each; during 1996, there were 17 for the whole year.

* In 1989, the pinnacle of the high-end market, there were 46 sales of homes at that price, but there were only 10 by this time of the year.

“We already have 20, so we’ll probably surpass that [1989 total of homes sold at more than $5 million],” she said.