Mel Gibson buys Malibu home of David Duchovny and Téa Leoni

Gibson's familial home is in a guard-gated neighborhood a few miles north of the Carbon Canyon home that Duchovny and his wife, Leoni, had listed June 1 at $12 million.

The sales price was about

$11.5 million, according to public records.

The main house has five bedrooms and four bathrooms in 6,578 square feet. There are unobstructed canyon and ocean views, and the property is private, sitting on 5.5 acres. There is a two-room guesthouse over the three-car garage. It also has two swimming pools, one a regulation lap pool. The property has an old-world feel to it and was considered to be fairly priced for its primo location and quality construction.

So did Gibson just snap up a deal when he saw one?

Certainly the Duchovny-Leoni situation has changed. In June, Duchovny and Leoni told neighbors they were eager to return to New York City before the opening of the school year. But then by the end of the summer, we were reading that Duchovny had entered rehab for what he described as a sex addiction.

Duchovny, 48, played Agent Fox Mulder in "The X Files" series and movies and stars in Showtime's "Californication," in which he, coincidentally, plays a writer obsessed with sex.

For her part, Leoni has been lying low. She canceled an appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival, where she was expected to promote her new movie, "Ghost Town," also starring Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear. Leoni, 42, was in the films "Spanglish" (2004) and "Fun With Dick and Jane" (2005).

Gibson also has been lying low -- as low as the Malibu paparazzi allow him -- since his anti-Semitic tirade after a drunk-driving arrest two years ago. His Hollywood comeback, directing Robert De Niro in "Edge of Darkness," a thriller set in Boston, hit a bump in the road this week when De Niro walked off the set after just one day of shooting citing "creative differences." Stay tuned.

Gibson owns oceanfront property in Malibu and Costa Rica and an island in Fiji. He also owns an estate called the Old Mill Farm in Greenwich, Conn., currently on the market for $35 million, according to various news reports.

In lap of luxury on Sunset Strip