Church Problems Mean Pennies from Heaven for Ron Burkle, by Rush & Molloy, New York Daily News, October 23, 2007

Church Problems Mean Pennies from Heaven for Ron Burkle

By Rush & Molloy
New York Daily News
October 23, 2007

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/r_m/2007/10/23/2007-10-23_church_problems_mean_pennies_from_heaven.html

The problems of the Catholic Church have worked out well for billionaire Ron Burkle.

Successful sexual-abuse suits against parish priests have cost archdioceses across the country so many millions of dollars that the church has been forced to put properties up for sale.

Burkle never intended to capitalize on the church's distress, but was aware of its large landholdings in the U.S. He had the foresight to start a company that would buy up properties and either resell them or develop them, which he has done for a tidy profit, our source reports.

Ron Burkle

He did hit a speed bump when he sued Anne Hathaway's Italian boyfriend, Raffaello Follieri, over $1.3 million in personal expenses, including private jet travel, stays in fancy hotels and even doggie day care. He jettisoned Follieri as CEO of the joint venture.

"But his team is still in place, and they know what they're doing," the source told us.

Burkle invested about $40 million through his Yucaipa company in the effort, not $100 million as reported elsewhere.

While the deal with Follieri was brokered by Bill Clinton aide Douglas Band in 2005, there are no hard feelings. Burkle remains one of Sen. Hillary Clinton 's biggest backers in her White House bid, and, though Hathaway and Follieri attended the Clinton Global Initiative last year, the Clintons are much closer to Burkle.

Catherine Zeta-Jones went super-glam to host last weekend's 'A Fine Romance' benefit in Hollywood.

Hathaway told us at the summit of plans she and Follieri had to go to Honduras to immunize children against hepatitis A.

Follieri also had a project to give away discount prescription cards in the U.S., but the foundation has been off to a slow start on its ambitious, if idealistic, plans.

Jay-Z is no longer the retiring type

"I think I pulled the retirement rip cord too many times," Jay-Z now says. "People [were] looking at me like, 'Please shut up.'"

The rapper-turned-CEO admits in the new XXL magazine that when he watched his goodbye-to-all-that movie "Fade to Black" again recently, "I was embarrassed. I couldn't watch. I had to turn it off. I was cringing."

The 37-year-old just can't stay out of the studio, where he's now mixing cuts based on the Denzel Washington film "American Gangster." But he confesses that when he retired the first time, he was not too pleased when Lil Wayne proclaimed himself the "greatest rapper alive."

Jay-Z

"I think Lil Wayne is extremely talented," says the record exec, "but do I think me and Lil Wayne should be in the same sentence? Me? No. He has to accumulate work. Put some classics under his belt."

Speaking of which, Jay doesn't seem to like the attention he gets as the boyfriend of Beyoncé.

"People are only interested in [celebrity couples] three times: When you get together, when you break up and when you have a baby," he says. "They don't have good intentions. People just want to manipulate the situation to benefit them. I think relationships are broken up because of the media."

Tea Leoni

Oh yeah, blame us.

Side Dish

It's like being taken to meet the parents — Gisele Bundchen partied with about 40 New England Patriots' wives at Opium Garden in Miami Saturday night. The supermodel shook her booty on the dance floor with the ladies while boyfriend Tom Brady and the rest of the team stayed home and rested for their game with the Dolphins. It worked: The Pats won, and Brady and Bundchen hit up SkyBar at The Shore Club, where they kissed so much the duo barely came up for air. "It was almost embarrassing to watch," said an onlooker. "She was holding his face, and they kept kissing all night. They ignored everyone. But they wore matching outfits, jeans and white tops, and looked cute together."

Could two massages in one day have mellowed out Whitney Houston? The former diva got nothing but good grades on her recent stay at the Mayfair in London. Our spy reports that Houston, who got deep-tissue in the a.m. and Swedish in the evening, "had no weird requests and was so down to earth, she even left a thank-you note for the staff."

Guests at Penelope Cruz 's Sunday-night screening of "Volver" at Soho House were sipping Mahou beer all night. First brewed in Cruz's native Spain in 1890, the suds only recently hit the States with a splash.

Friday night brought Josh Hartnett to Ubisoft's late CMJ event, featuring Band of Horses at the Blender Magazine Theater. Spies say the star was super-friendly, "taking some pics with fans while he was hanging out."

"Heroes" favorite cheerleader Hayden Panettiere met French shoe designer Christian Louboutin at his Saks Fifth Avenue cocktail party last week in L.A. — and promptly announced that she was wearing her first pair of Louboutins, which she got for her birthday.

The Counting Crows almost tried their hand at an "unplugged" set Sunday night at the Delta 360 SkyLounge. When the band's lead guitarist stopped to fetch a needed guitar, an audience member shouted out, "Sing a cappella!" Said front man Adam Duritz: "I do know one song, and it's good. It's 'Oh! Susanna.'" Before he could start, the guitar was located, and Duritz breathed a sigh of relief. "Let's meet back here again, and I promise I'll do it for you then," he smirked.

Isaac Mizrahi hosted a Mario Batali -catered dinner last week as part of House and Garden's Design Happening. The fashion guru is currently penning a style book to be published by Gotham in fall '08.

Téa Leoni isn't usually one to show her stuff, but she agreed to for a good cause: Oxfam (see picture above). After all, the cantilevered cutie is the granddaughter of the woman who started UNICEF, and she joins infrequent flashers Ashley Judd, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Felicity Huffman, Molly Sims and others in photographer Timothy White's homage to Alberto Vargas in "Hollywood Pinups." HarperCollins won't release the lush picture book till next year, but this advance gives you an idea why David Duchovny seems such a happy fellow.