The estate of Larry Gelbart, the late creator of the TV show M*A*S*H, has placed his longtime, seven-bedroom mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif. on the market for $7,999,000.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on the listing of the 6,724-square-foot mansion by the family of the prolific TV writer, playwright and screenwriter, who died of cancer in September at age 81. Gelbart also scored Oscar nominations for co-writing the movie “Tootsie” and for being the screenwriter for 1977’s “Oh God!”

Built in 1924, Gelbart’s house, on Alpine Drive in the flats of Beverly Hills, has nine baths, and five bedrooms upstairs, including a master suite with his and hers baths and a kitchenette, according to public records and listing information. Other features include grand-scale public areas, outdoor areas for entertaining, two guest houses, a hidden tennis court, a lagoon-style pool with a waterfall and a greenhouse, all on an 0.83-acre (36,198-square-foot) property, according to public records and listing information.

Gelbart had owned the house since 1972, according to public records.

No photos are available online anywhere yet of Gelbart’s house, although we’d expect that some will surface very, very soon. We’ll keep you posted.

Check out Bob’s weekly column in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, in which Bob breaks the news of Cincinnati Bengals (and former Chicago Bears) running back Cedric Benson having his house in Libertyville, Ill. on the market for $899,000.

Also featured: a duplex co-op unit on Chicago’s Gold Coast that the late International Harvester CEO Brooks McCormick had owned that is on the market for $5,950,000. And, Bob also writes about best-selling novelist Scott Turow selling his 14-room, 6,143-square-foot, contemporary-style house in Glencoe, Ill. for $5,000,000.

Actress/megabrand Ashley Olsen is expecting to take a loss on her 2,332-square-foot house in Los Angeles’ Hancock Park neighborhood, having just placed it on the market for $1,399,000.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Olsen’s listing of the three-bedroom house, which hit the market on Wednesday.

Built in 1926, the house has been part of Olsen’s empire since her Isabella Missoni Revocable Trust in November 2007 paid $1,575,000 for it. Features in the house include three baths, new central air and heat, new tiled bathrooms, a new driveway, and a living room with a wood-beamed ceiling, a large picture window, a fireplace and French doors, according to listing information. Other features include a large arched doorway between the living room and the formal dining room, a kitchen with stainless steel appliances, a second-floor balcony with wooden balustrades, and an authentic period tiled staircase.

The house sits on a 0.18-acre lot.

We wrote back on December 23, 2007 about Ashley purchasing this house. Our question (to you, dear readers): did Ashley ever actually move in? We believe that…she did. If that’s the case, then our question is: why sell now? We haven’t a clue.

Entertainment mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly has paid $35,000,000 for an 8,704-square-foot mansion on 6.329 acres in Beverly Hills, Calif. that was not on the market.

We write “reportedly,” because while something called the Loma Vista Trust is shown in public records as having been the one that purchased the mansion from 96-year-old physicist (and ICBM creator) Simon Ramo. The Wall Street Journal’s “Private Properties” column on Friday reported that Katzenberg was behind the purchase, and we have no reason to disagree.

Regardless, the purchase is a spectacular one, even by Los Angeles standards. Built in 1965, the mansion — which was not on the market — was in the hands of Ramo for several decades, as best as we can tell. Ramo appears to have decided to sell the mansion shortly after his wife, Virginia, died in August 2009 at age 93.

This is one of our more spartan items out there, given that 1) a detailed description of the property is not available; 2) photos of the mansion are not available; and 3) there aren’t even any other celebs in the mansion’s immediate surroundings! (by “immediate surroundings,” we mean the block itself)

Our friends over at the Real Estalker did a nice job providing a rundown of other properties that Katzenberg owns. We’ll refer you to that item for more on Katzenberg (shown here with another celebrity who also paid $35 million not long ago for a mansion in Beverly Hills that’s not *too* far away; just a 0.8-mile drive to the other side of Greystone Park).

In the meantime, if we find out more details on this purchase, we will let you know. Stay tuned!

Check out Bob’s weekly column from this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (but already available online), where Bob exclusively reports on Chicago TV anchor Judy Hsu selling her house in Hinsdale, Ill. for $590,000.

Also featured: Chicago sports anchor Mark Giangreco paying $1,225,000 for a condo unit in Chicago’s South Loop, and Internet entrepreneur Marc Ewing buying a house in Wilmette, Ill. for $1,506,000 just weeks after he sold a mansion on Lake Michigan in Glencoe, Ill. for $5,200,000.

Retired tennis star Pete Sampras has paid $5,600,000 for a six-bedroom, newly built house in Los Angeles’ Brentwood neighborhood.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Sampras’ purchase of the brand-new house, which sits on a gated, 0.55-acre flag-shaped lot at the end of a street. Records show that Sampras’ Golden Gate Trust purchased the house on December 16, with the deal being recorded on December 23.

Features in the house include two master suites with room-size closets, five and a half baths, bathrooms with heated floors, a library, a media room, floor-to-ceiling windows, a large gourmet kitchen, a family room and a wine cellar, according to listing information. Outdoor features include sunny lawns and streams, a large grassy back yard, and an outdoor entertaining area with an outdoor kitchen, a theater, a spa and a rain forest (actually, a natural redwood forest that can sprinkle at the push of a button!).

The house had been listed for $6,995,000.

Sampras (shown here with wife Bridgette Wilson), of course, is famous for having had a 10,376-square-foot, Tudor-style mansion on a 1.04-acre parcel in nearby Beverly Hills, which he had listed early in 2008 for $25,000,000, then later for $23,000,000 and finally that he sold for $16,980,000 that same year to “Will & Grace” creator Max Mutchnick. We wrote about that house many times, including breaking the news of the (much) lower sale price than anyone had expected. He had bought that mansion for $8,300,000 in 2001.

Check out Bob’s weekly column in this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (already available online!), in which Bob breaks the news of Charlotte Bobcats (and former Chicago Bulls) center placing his 10,000-square-foot mansion in Northfield, Ill. (north of Chicago) back on the market for $3,395,000. Chandler previously had listed the mansion for $4.9 million and later took it off the market.

Also featured: Bob’s report (previously broken online on the Chicago Tribune’s web site) of Houston Texans quarterback Rex Grossman selling his condo unit in Chicago’s Trump International Hotel & Tower for $2,000,000; and Chicago sportscaster Steve Kashul selling his house in downtown Naperville, Ill. — complete with a basement bowling alley — for $475,000.

Check out Bob’s weekly column in this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (available online now) in which Bob breaks the story of Northwestern University head football coach Pat Fitzgerald paying $2,300,000 to purchase a six-bedroom mansion in Northfield, Ill.

Also featured: Bob exclusively reports on Chicago Bears linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer renting out his town house in Vernon Hils, Ill. for $1,900 a month, and he breaks the story of former basketball star Antonio Davis selling a lakefront lot in Plainfield, Ill. for $315,000. Bob also exclusively reports on the recent price reduction of a house in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood that Abbott Laboratories founder Wallace Abbott built and owned for 30 years.

Check out Bob’s exclusive breaking-news report from Thursday’s Chicago Tribune (report is online only — it has not appeared in the print editions yet) about Houston Texans and former Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman finally unloading his 36th-floor condominium unit in Chicago’s Trump International Hotel & Tower for $2,000,000. Grossman, 29, took a major loss on the 3,437-square-foot unit, which he purchased in September 2008 for $2,681,000.

(By the way, pay no attention to other news reports also from Jan. 21 on the sale (particularly from the Chicago Sun-Times) — Bob broke the story fair and square, with the Tribune uploading the story at 8:05 a.m., CST on Thursday morning.)

Today’s installment of our “Which celebrity’s house is this?” feature involves the 1,485-square-foot house at 3374 Deronda Drive in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills area, which sold recently for $1,225,000.

There are two reasons we believe that this house was purchased by a celebrity: 1) the house’s new owner is identified in public records as the whimsically named “Open Your Eyes Trust” (as loyal readers know, celebs often used whimsically named trusts to purchase their real estate); and 2) the money manager whose name appears on the deed as representing the Open Your Eyes Trust is none other than Mr. Howard Altman. Loyal readers of this blog also know that Altman historically has represented many celebrities in their home purchases, including Jennifer Garner, Jessica Alba, Dan Castellaneta, Simon Baker and Naomi Watts.

Built in 1953, the three-bedroom house has two baths and had been listed for $1,225,000 as well, according to public records and listing information. Features in the house include a meticulously appointed kitchen and baths, and access through French doors from most rooms to the luxurious pool, lush gardens and private seating areas, according to listing information. The 0.14-acre (5,976-square-foot) property has easy access to extensive walking trails and stunning views of the Hollywood sign, canyons and city lights, according to public records and listing information.

The property sold on Sept. 4, with the deal being recorded on Oct. 5. The seller, a “Saved by the Bell” producer, is not a celebrity.

So, dear readers, we ask you as we always do: which celebrity purchased the house at 3374 Deronda Drive? Which bold-faced name lives behind the curtain of the Open Your Eyes Trust?