Brooklyn Seeing Stars
Celebs are flocking to the once unfashionable borough for more space, trendy hangout spots and freedom from gawkers.
"Brooklyn is a destination now, it's not the alternative," said Frank Percesepe, director of the Brooklyn Heights office for The Corcoran Group real-estate firm.
Among the borough's boosters are Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Connelly, hip-hopper Busta Rhymes and new "Sopranos" star Steve Buscemi.
Camera-shy celebs like Connelly favor town houses in quiet areas like Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope.
Connelly, who grew up in Brooklyn Heights, just bought a $3.7 million town house on Prospect Park West with her husband, actor Paul Bettany, and sons Kai, 6, and Stellan, 10 months.
Documentary filmmaker and Camelot heiress Rory Kennedy also moved to Park Slope. Kennedy and her husband, screenwriter Mark Bailey, are fixing up a Montgomery Place town house they nabbed last month.
"You see them all walking around and in line at the store," said Suzanne DeBrango, a broker with Brooklyn Properties in Park Slope. "They're just our neighbors here, and there's a certain anonymity they get."
Scorching-hot "Sopranos" addition Buscemi has bedded down in a brownstone on Fifth Street in Park Slope for years. Neighbors see him all the time at Smiling Pizza at Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street.
And John Turturro loves the borough so much he's currently shooting the musical comedy "Romance & Cigarettes" in Red Hook, not far from his own place in Park Slope on President Street.
If you're in the area, don't be surprised to see the film fanatic at Key Foods, where he regularly picks up vittles.
Not far from there, Brooklyn-born beauty Rosie Perez has a huge place in Fort Greene, where she often sips joe at hip java joint Tillie's.
Young stars and rappers favor flashy, trendy 'hoods such as DUMBO and Williamsburg.
Busta Rhymes has just snapped up three pads for about $1.5 million in The Gretsch building at 60 Broadway in Williamsburg.
And actress Annabella Sciorra, who played a feisty Brooklynite in "Jungle Fever" and a Mafia mistress on "The Sopranos," has just gone to contract on a 2,000-square-foot pad in the building, sources told The Post.
The Gretsch, the first luxury doorman building in the 'hood, opened last year with glass-paneled elevators, granite kitchens and a media room and library.
Sciorra's corner apartment, which cost more than $1.2 million, has three bedrooms and 21/2 baths with a stunning view of the Manhattan skyline.
"She was tired of the city - Manhattan's pretty pricey, even for a celebrity," said a Sciorra friend. "And all celebrities want something pretty and nice."
Busta doesn't plan to move out of his TriBeCa loft just yet, but he's renting out the two one-bedrooms and an alcove studio loft for handsome returns.