‘Paparazzi-proof’: sheer brilliance!
Lured by the siren song of pest-free living, celebrities seem to be flooding to 443 Greenwich. The most recent owner in the building is the wildly creative Rebel Wilson, the Australian actress, comedienne and raconteur who has made the crossing to Hollywood. She joins Meg Ryan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel as 443 Greenwich’s newest tenant-owners.
Wilson’s unit is on a lower floor of the seven-floor building. Priced initially at $4.5 million, the actress paid a little under $3 million for the 1,340 square-foot two-and-two. Wilson, who has been known to trod the boards now and then, may have taken the unit as a pied-a-terre for New York theater engagements; she played ever-loving Adelaide (natch) in a successful run of ‘Guys and Dolls’ at London’s West End at this time last year, so Broadway may be in the cards.
443’s developers went about the project with the idea of establishing a safe haven as well as a community atmosphere for the building. The living spaces are all arranged around a central courtyard and garden. Historical details were retained, and the build used reclaimed timber and fixtures for the units, giving them a pleasing, earthy foundation, and a point of historical reference.
The building features a 71’ pool with travertine walls, a tile-lined parking garage which allows for clandestine arrivals and departures, and a rooftop terrace which measures about a tenth of an acre. Its billing as ‘paparazzi proof’ is only part of the story.
Although, it’s easy to understand why Ms. Wilson is shy of journalists; a series of articles in Australian magazines resulted when a publisher strategically took her playful riffs entirely out of their comedic context in order to sell magazines, causing her career to stall. She has since won a defamation suit against the publisher.
Wilson is currently launching her own fashion line. She stars in ‘Pitch Perfect 3,’ which will be released later this year, and has lined up a starring role in ‘Isn’t It Romantic’; the rom-com enters production this summer.
