There’s something about the apartment that Cameron Diaz has bought in the West Village – it took her forever to find it. After searching for more than a year, including showing up at numerous open houses, the leggy blond actress has settled on a two-bedroom pad on West 12th Street.
The five-room renovated residence in a prewar doorman building, with an asking price just under $3 million, includes a large living room with a fireplace, a study, eat-in kitchen, panoramic views, several closets and high ceilings.
The “Shrek” and “There’s Something About Mary” star, whose main residence is in Los Angeles, had been renting a West Village loft, which she found while filming in the city in 2006.
Brooke takes a look
It’s a “Lipstick Jungle” out there, and Brooke Shields wants in. The current star of Candace Bushnell’s success-in-the-city TV show is looking at townhouses in NYC. Sources tell us the original pretty baby and her “Entourage” writer husband Chris Henchy were recently checking out a four-bedroom townhouse on West 20th Street with close to a $7 million asking price.
The 25-foot-wide house is one of a number of row houses on the block between Ninth and 10th avenues, across the street from the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal church. Fellow thespian Ethan Hawke is an owner of one of the houses on the block.
Shields and Henchy, who also live on the West Coast, already have an apartment further downtown.
Moving Van Zandt
As we first reported, rocker/actor Steven Van Zandt and his wife (in real life and on “The Sopranos”), Maureen, bid on a condo in a converted church in the West Village known as Novare.
Now we see from city records that their bid was accepted and they have closed on the penthouse on West Fourth Street for $6 million.
The three-bedroom, three-bath residence of 3,500 square feet had a $5.99 million asking price. It features stained-glass windows, cathedral ceilings (natch) and a 600-square-foot terrace with an outdoor kitchen.
The 140-year-old deconsecrated former church was converted to eight loft condos by Flank Architects. The listing brokers were Wilbur Gonzalez and Wendy Maitland of Brown Harris Stevens.
Lipton’s lair
It’s tea time at a new abode for Holly Speyer Lipton, the daughter of Rockefeller Center owner Jerry Speyer, who just purchased a 12-room Park Avenue co-op for $12 million. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom residence includes an oversized gallery, a living room with a wood-burning fireplace, a paneled library, a formal dining room and a butler’s pantry.
Sharon Baum and David Enloe of the Corcoran Group had the listing.
Speyer Lipton and her husband, investment banker Jonathan Lipton, who married in 1999, have been living on East 87th Street.
Plaza-palooza for music man
Music mogul Alain Levy will be playing his downloaded tunes in the Plaza.
According to city transfers, the former head of EMI Music, who was let go last year – that’s the thanks he gets for discovering Norah Jones, bah! – has paid $6.274 million for a two-bedroom, two-plus-bath apartment with Fifth Avenue views from the 18th floor.
Levy, who had been chairman and chief executive of EMI Music since October 2001, was given a $2.2 million bonus and a nearly $6 million severance package plus pension payments and company benefits for a year after leaving EMI.
He also received stock options for 20 million shares. But the drop in value of EMI’s share price has left most of the options almost worthless.
So maybe he’ll wait to decorate.
Levy joins other notables, including Bear Stearns biggie James Cayne, who just closed for just more than $28 million on two apartments. Other buyers in the building include fashion icon Tommy Hilfiger, the 18-1 New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, distressed real-estate owner Harry Macklowe and post-op petunia Jocelyn Wildenstein, also known as the former “Bride of Wildenstein.”