In 2007, Bronx-born Ellen Barkin memorably griped to More magazine about her Greenwich Village townhouse. “I’d rather have an apartment, quite frankly. I don’t like being responsible for a house. I don’t want to shovel snow. I want to pick up the phone and say, ‘My bathroom is leaking’ and hang up,” she said. “I’m a New Yorker. I wouldn’t care if I never saw a tree again in my life. I was thinking last year, maybe I should garden. And then I thought, nah.”
The veteran actress, soon to be seen in the action comedy “The Man From Toronto,” has always said she’s a downtown girl — even before she moved into and was later frogmarched out of then-estranged husband Ron Perelman’s Upper East Side townhouse. After her and Perelman’s famously acrimonious split, Barkin did move back downtown, to the aforementioned townhouse, a 19th-century Greek Revival affair she bought in early 2006 for $7.5 million.
Despite her preference for apartment living, Barkin still owns the three-story townhouse, where she thwarted a burglary a few years ago. She’s also long owned a nearby apartment, a loft-like co-operative unit just a step or two away from Washington Square Park, to which she could retreat when townhouse living became too much of a hassle. However, the “Sea of Love” star has now sold that lower Fifth Avenue apartment. The New York Post was first with the news.
The prewar spread went for $1.75 million, a lot less than the $2.25 million it was was once listed, and maintenance totals a princely $3,349 per month. The open layout features 12-foot ceilings, exposed columns, and an airy living and dining area. Two bedrooms, two baths, a foyer and a kitchen complete the setup, but it could easily be reconfigured if desired. There’s also in-unit laundry and a roof deck for residents.
Previously married to Irish actor Gabriel Bryne, it seems unlikely Barkin unloaded the apartment because she’s hurting for money: She was reportedly granted about $60 million in her 2006 divorce from Perelman, who paid her another $4.3 million in 2011 to resolve a long-running contract dispute. And, in 2006, almost as if to thumb her finger at her billionaire ex-husband, she took in $20,369,200 when Christie’s, New York auctioned “Magnificent Jewels from the Collection of Ellen Barkin,” a glittery, 100-plus-piece array of baubles accumulated while married to Perelman.