WITH the fourth and final season of “The Osbournes” getting under way tonight, Sharon Osbourne is ready to move on.
The famous house in Beverly Hills is up for sale.
“It’s quietly on the market,” Sharon disclosed in a phone interview from the house Friday. “We’re not going to put a ‘for sale’ sign outside, but a few brokers in town know that it’s on the market.”
Like other couples their age (he’s 56, she’s 52), Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are about to become empty-nesters.
“The kids are growing up, they’re moving out,” Sharon said. “Once Kelly and Jackie-boy go, it’s way too big for us. They want their own homes now, and Ozzy and I want a small house with a small garden for the dogs.”
A greater degree of privacy would be nice, too. The success of their MTV reality series turned the family’s home into a tourist attraction.
“It’s a little difficult,” Sharon admitted.
But a change of address does not mean the Osbournes are retiring.
According to Sharon, everyone in the family is gearing up for a busy year.
“Jack [19] is working on an extreme sports show in England for ITV,” Sharon reported, adding proudly that in April he’ll celebrate two years of sobriety. “He’s taken up mountain climbing and tai chi. He’s really soulsearching and he’s going through a great stage in his life right now.”
Daughter Kelly, 20, has been starring on the new drama “Life As We Know It” on ABC, and has a new album coming out in March. And at the end of next summer, she is scheduled to assume the starring role in “Hairspray” on Broadway, her mother revealed.
As for Sharon and Ozzy, the first (and probably last) season of their talent- competition series, “Battle for Ozzfest,” had its finale last Monday on MTV. Sharon is continuing as one of three judges on the British talent-search series “The X Factor” with Simon Cowell.
Sharon said Ozzy has been clean and sober for nine months, ever since he kicked the painkillers to which he became addicted following the crash of an all-terrain vehicle he was driving on his English estate last February.
Ozzy’s addiction drama is the focal point of the season premiere of “The Osbournes” tonight at 10:30 on MTV – the first of 10 new episodes.
“The first episode really, really shows Ozzy really out of it,” Sharon said. “He wasn’t drinking, but he was on a lot of drugs – loads and loads of pain pills. But he’s in the condition today where he can say, ‘Thank God I’ve come through that and I’m not that way anymore.’ ”
After “The Osbournes” and “Battle for Ozzfest,” Sharon said she and Ozzy – who helped usher in an entire era of celebrity reality shows – are finished with reality TV. But they’re not done with TV.
They even have a new project in the works, an “unstructured” sitcom for Fox, possibly for next fall, Sharon said. “There is no script, but there is a whole storyline to the show, but we ad-lib our lines,” she said, describing a technique used in such shows as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and the upcoming “Fat Actress.”
“I’m OK,” Sharon said, answering a question about her health in the wake of her cancer fight two years ago. “I’m a survivor.”
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Jack is working on an extreme sports show and Kelly is scheduled to assume the starring role in “Hairspray” on Broadway.
