One line that Jude Law, 36, probably didn’t whisper to his new baby mama Samantha Burke, 24, during their brief but steamy affair last winter was “Get thee to a nunnery.” Now, ironically, Law lives in a former church and utters those very words every night.
While in town to star as Hamlet at the Broadhurst Theater, Law is living it up in a downtown penthouse at the Novare building on West Fourth Street. The actor is renting the three-bedroom, 2½-bath, 3,500-square-foot unit with 20-foot ceilings and a terrace for an undisclosed price. The apartment is also listed for sale at $7.8 million with Reid Price of Brown Harris Stevens, who could not be reached for comment.
Law’s new neighbors, in a building that features stained-glass windows and soaring cathedral ceilings, include musician/actor Steven Van Zandt, who bought a different 3,500-square-foot, three-bedroom penthouse for $6 million last year. The building was a church for 145 years until being reincarnated as condos, and it now offers a 50-foot glass atrium and eight residences.
Law, who received a Tony nomination for his work with Kathleen Turner in “Indiscretions” 14 years ago, is well known for his own indiscretions. Once dubbed People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, Law made headlines for cheating on former fiancée Sienna Miller with a nanny. This fall, the bachelor became a father for the fourth time — thanks to his liaison with Burke, whom he met in his off-hours while filming the “Sherlock Holmes” movie.
Welcome, Matt!
The Upper West Side is abuzz over its latest celebrity resident. Matt Damon and his family, with stroller and dogs, have been spotted in and around the Belnord rental building at West 86th Street and Broadway.
The building is a New York City landmark and one of the neighborhood’s Beaux-Arts beauties. It takes up an entire city block and has 226 apartments and a 22,000-square-foot courtyard.
While this column has chronicled Damon’s not-so-stealth house-hunting experiences uptown and downtown, he appears to be drawn to the relaxed, family spirit of the Upper West Side. Damon, his wife, Luciana, and their daughters, Isabella, Gia and Alexa (Luciana’s child from a previous marriage) have been seen hanging out on Broadway.
“Matt is in Manhattan this year,” says Damon’s publicist, Jennifer Allen. “He is shooting a movie (‘The Adjustment Bureau’) in the city this fall.”
Gramercy it to believe it
A five-story Gramercy Park townhouse is back on the market for $12 million — far less than the $18.5 million price it was listed for (without finding a buyer) three years ago.
The townhouse, at 65 Irving Place, is zoned for residential and commercial use — and even a sidewalk cafe. Restaurateurs are already eyeing the space. Nello Balan, whose celebrity-packed hot spots on the Upper East Side and Southampton serve some of the priciest pasta around, has been spotted there.
Built in the late 1800s, the townhouse was most recently the showroom and part-time home of London-based Keith Skeel, owner of Keith Skeel Antiques and Eccentricities. The townhouse is more than 7,200 square feet. The first two floors and basement are commercial space, and the top three floors, with 3,500 square feet of space, are currently configured as a two-bedroom, 2½-bath triplex with floor-to-ceiling windows, a 600-square-foot deck and a master bedroom suite with a separate 400-square-foot deck. Corcoran Group listing agent Patricia Dugan had no comment.