X-cellent Arrival, Princely Departure

Actor DAVID DUCHOVNY and his wife, actress TEA LEONI, have purchased a Malibu home for close to its $2.95-million asking price, sources say.

Duchovny, who stars as FBI agent Fox Mulder in the paranormal series “The X-Files,” plays a drug-addicted surgeon working for a criminal gang in the just-released movie “Playing God.” “The X-Files” begins its fifth season on Fox tonight.

Leoni, who appeared in the movies “Flirting With Disaster” (1996) and “A League of Their Own” (1992), stars in the ABC sitcom “The Naked Truth,” now in its third year.

Duchovny, 37, and Leoni, 31, were married in May. Duchovny has said repeatedly that he would like his series, which is shot in Vancouver, Canada, to be moved to L.A., where his wife’s sitcom is filmed.

The couple’s new Malibu home has a four-bedroom main house built in the 1940s plus a four-car garage, studio, pool and gardens with a stairway to the sand.

Kay Pick and Mike Silverman had co-listed the property, records show. Both are with Mike Silverman Estates, a Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., in Beverly Hills.

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THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE has sold his Beverly Hills-area home of about five years for just under its $2.5-million asking price, sources say.

The buyer, described as a European financier, also purchased a vacant lot next door for a total (with the entertainer’s former home) of about $3.6 million, a source said. The buyer plans to build a tennis court, pavilion and pool house on the lot.

The Artist, also known for a time as an unpronounceable double-gender love symbol, sold his Beverly Hills-area home because he lives in Minneapolis, his hometown, and spends little time in L.A., sources said.

The 39-year-old pop star severed his 18-year relationship with Warner Bros. Records last year and is now selling his newest albums through the Internet. He was in L.A. last month to headline the World Healing Honors concert, aiding Muhammed Ali’s campaign against intolerance.

Built in 1989, the house is about 8,000 square feet and has four bedrooms and a guest house. The Mediterranean-style villa also has a rock waterfall that cascades into a pool. The gated estate is on a hill with a city view.

Kurt Rappaport of Stan Herman / Stephen Shapiro & Associates, Beverly Hills, represented the buyer.

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Producer STEVEN BOCHCO (“Brooklyn South,” “Total Security,” “Murder One,” “NYPD Blue,” “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” “L.A. Law,” “Hill Street Blues”) has purchased a Pacific Palisades home for about $5.6 million, sources say. The house had been listed at $6.25 million.

Bochco, 53, created most of the series he has produced. The multiple Emmy-winning producer is also a writer and director.

He and his wife, actress Barbara Bosson, separated in June after 29 years of marriage and two children.

Built in 1937 and designed by late architect Paul Williams, the nearly 11,000-square-foot home that Bochco bought is on about 1.5 acres, and it has eight bedrooms, two maids’ rooms, a guest house, pool and screening room.

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Hockey star LUC ROBITAILLE, who was traded back to the L.A. Kings in August, has purchased a home in Holmby Hills for about $1.7 million, sources say.

Robitaille, 31, played for the Kings from 1986 to 1994, when he was traded to Pittsburgh. He was signed by the New York Rangers in 1995.

He bought a traditional-style house with four bedrooms and maid’s quarters in 4,500 square feet. Built in the 1930s, the home also has a pool.

When Robitaille played earlier for the Kings, he and his family lived in a Hidden Hills house that he sold in 1994 for $925,000.

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KEVIN CRONIN, lead singer of the 25-year-old rock band REO Speedwagon, has put his Encino home of 17 years on the market at just under $1.6 million.

Cronin, 45, wrote the song “Building the Bridge,” which President Clinton used as his theme at the end of the 1996 Democratic National Convention.

The singer-songwriter listed his house because he is planning to move to Hidden Hills.

Built in 1980, the gated 5,000-square-foot home has six bedrooms, five baths, three fireplaces, a guest house, recording studio, sunken tennis court and lagoon pool with spa.

Gary Gold of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, has the listing.

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MAUREEN O’HARA, the Irish redhead who co-starred in such classic movies as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939) and “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947), has sold a house she owned in the Encino hills to a physician for $525,000, sources say.

O’Hara, who maintains her primary residence in the Virgin Islands, bought the Encino house four years ago. Built 30 years ago, it has four bedrooms and a pool.

O’Hara, now in her 70s, starred in nearly 60 movies, including “How Green Was My Valley” (1941) and “Big Jake” (1971) with John Wayne, before she moved to St. Croix in the ‘70s with her third husband, aviation pioneer Charles F. Blair. He was the first pilot to make a solo flight over the Arctic Ocean.

O’Hara became the first woman to run a U.S. airline when she took over his Antilles Airboats after his death in 1978. She returned to movies as the mother of John Candy in “Only the Lonely” (1991). She recently earned a World Wide Web Heritage Award for her Internet Web site.

Joie Gomez of 1st London Realtors, Beverly Hills, represented O’Hara in her house sale.