Entertainment

Hollywood’s hottest cougars are hunting this 27-year-old

As “Project Runway” host Heidi Klum frolicked in the waters off Tulum, Mexico, last month, she wore little more than a skimpy bikini bottom — and art-dealer beau Vito Schnabel on her arm.

Klum, 40, began dating Schnabel, the 27-year-old son of famed artist and film director Julian Schnabel, in February, shortly after she split with her bodyguard-boyfriend, Martin Kristen.

High school-age Schnabel dated Sports Illustrated model Frankie Rayder, 12 years his senior.Chance Yeh/Patrick McMullan
Elle Macpherson was more than twice Schnabel’s age — they were together in 2007 with 23 years separating the pair.Dave M. Benett/Getty Images
Vito Schnabel was 23 when he dated Liv Tyler, here at a July 2010 dinner in LA.David Crotty/Patrick McMullan
Heidi go seek! Supermodel Klum, 40, is 27-year-old Vito Schnabel’s latest gal. The two were inseparable during a sizzling holiday in Tulum, Mexico, last month.Steve Ginsburg/AKM Images/GSI Media

As the May-December romance heats up, with the pair globe-trotting to Paris, Dallas, Los Angeles and Mexico, the tabloids have been breathlessly following Klum’s dive into the cubs’ den.

But the German supermodel isn’t the first older woman Schnabel’s romanced. Having already squired Demi Moore when she was 50 and he was 26, Liv Tyler when she was 32 and he was 23, and Elle Macpherson when she was 44 and he was 21, the art scion has always hit it off with more experienced ladies, according to filmmaker/artist Nemo Librizzi, a family friend who has known Schnabel since he was 8.

“I remember older women liking him when he was as young as 13, because he could carry on a conversation. He was precocious and elegant,” says Librizzi of his “surrogate little brother,” who lives in the West Village’s Palazzo Chupi building, which his father designed.

“Younger women get weeded out because they can’t hold their own in a conversation with him. It’s not that he’s directing his attention exclusively to older women.”

Who is the strapping playboy with the strong chin, mop of curly hair and intense brown eyes?

Schnabel is an art dealer and curator who held his first exhibition at 16. He’s a partner in hot red-sauce joint Carbone, where he oversees the art (the “Spaghetti Vito” — pasta with sea urchin — is named after him). He’s an avid athlete who surfs, golfs and plays hoops at Chelsea Piers. And before he was even out of Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, he was dating Sports Illustrated model Frankie Rayder, who is 12 years older than he is, according to a family friend, who asked to remain anonymous.

“[He was] groomed to be with older women,” says the friend. “His mother [Jacqueline] is smoking hot, he’s the youngest with two older sisters, and even in his awkward phase, he still had this thing that was alluring to older women. He’s always had this confidence.”

Schnabel’s longtime penchant for older ladies might be a result of such formidable women in his life, says relationship expert Dr. Gilda Carle: “The mother figure represents someone who is strong, dependable and someone they can always go to. Heidi has children, and she knows how to nurture. A lot of men want that type of nurturing.”

A 40-something socialite who has known Schnabel since he was a child, and asked that her name not be printed, says it’s obvious why he so beguiles older women: “When he talks to you, it’s like you’re the only person in the room,” she says.

His eccentric father is no stranger to romancing beautiful women. Having divorced his first wife, Vito’s mother (with whom he also has daughters Stella and Lola), in 1993, he went on to marry Basque actress Olatz López Garmendia, with whom he has twins Cy and Olmo. “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” director then dated Rula Jebreal before moving on to model May Andersen, with whom he has one son, Shooter.

“[Both Vito and Julian] have a real old-fashioned chivalry,” says Librizzi. “I have learned from Vito, even though he was younger. He always had a way of treating women like royalty.”

Librizzi says he always knew there was something special about Schnabel.

“The first time I met Vito, when he was about 8, it was at Jacqueline’s kitchen at the Frank Lloyd Wright table they have, and Vito was arguing with [now-deceased poet] René Ricard about how to boil a quail egg,” says Librizzi. “I said, ‘Wow, who the hell is this kid going to be when he grows up?’ ”

Vito Schnabel with his artist dad, Julian, in London last month.Richard Young/Rex/REX USA

When he was still a teen, Schnabel curated an exhibit at 250 Hudson St. through a guy he met playing ball at Chelsea Piers. He’s gone on to work closely with controversial artist Terence Koh, who once gold-plated his own feces, and multimedia performance artist Laurie Anderson.

“In a business where it pays to flaunt and to be in the limelight, he doesn’t go after it. The spotlight has a way of finding him,” says Librizzi.

Perhaps this low-key attitude soured his 2012 relationship with Demi Moore. According to Page Six, he was reportedly furious that she flew to Art Basel in Miami to party, because he was there to do business and was worried that the mother of three would ruin his brand.

“Everybody is so glib and Machiavellian, and if you talk to Vito, he seems to be translating real feelings,” says Librizzi. “I think that’s why he has such luck with the ladies. He has a poet’s soul and a business mind.”

Schnabel got involved in the restaurant business when one of his best friends, Jeff Zalaznick, whom he met playing basketball 10 years ago, opened Carbone with Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone on Thompson Street last year.

“He has always loved food and restaurants, so when Rich, Mario and I started working on Carbone, it made perfect sense for Vito to become involved and to curate all of the art,” says Zalaznick, who attends Yankees, Giants and Knicks games with Schnabel.

Even Jay Z — who has affectionately called him “Young Vito” since he was in high school — is an admirer.

“I remember when Jay Z was cutting his teeth as a public figure, and when he’d see Vito at an art show, he would sorta walk behind him or next to him in an eager way, almost like he wanted to be Vito, even though Vito was much younger,” recalls Librizzi.

“Vito had a style at the time, with a white T-shirt and a cashmere V-neck sweater. That was his uniform for about a year when he was 16. I noticed that Jay Z was wearing the exact look. It’s funny, but who better for Jay Z to take a cue from?”