Kirsten into N.Y. scene

"Since March, when she moved to New York (and into a $3 million Tribeca penthouse she bought last year) to star in Andrew Jarecki’s "All Good Things" with Ryan Gosling—after a stint in rehab at the Cirque Lodge in Utah, which she told the press she entered for “depression”— Ms. Dunst seems to be everywhere. In the past few months, she’s been spotted walking in Soho in black shorts and a flannel shirt, hair tousled, Barack Obama Rolling Stone cover visible; in a white T-shirt dress, walking with Dave Ransone, the tattooed bartender of the Rusty Knot and East Village bar Black and White; sitting on a stoop on Broome Street while chatting on her cell phone in cut-off shorts and rugged vintage boots; watching the British indie pop group the Ting Tings at McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg in a loose green dress and a white headband (à la Arden Wohl); strolling with Mr. Creed in a straw fedora and floral vintage dress; lunching at Café Cluny in the West Village; and dining at Freeman’s on the Lower East Side, saying to a group of people at her table, “I’m so glad I met you guys!” “She hasn’t been around here in like a year, and then she was nowhere, and then she just shows up in New York being seen every single night,” said a 28-year-old male model who lives in Los Angeles and is part of the bicoastal Beatrice-Chateau Marmont crowd. “She’s going to like every concert and every event, and people there are, like, obsessed with her!”

Much like the new kid at school, Ms. Dunst has picked her lunch table of downtown cool carefully. The new Kirsten (as she’s known around town) rolls out of bed, throws on one of her several pairs of Ray Bans and wanders around lower Manhattan, puffing on American Spirit Blues. She doesn’t care so much about Hollywood as she does about her image outside of it; being just another downtown brooding artist seems somehow truer than being a done-up L.A. celebrity. (Ms. Dunst’s publicist, Steven Huvane, declined to make her available for an interview.)

Ms. Dunst is never photographed hopping in and out of chauffeured SUVs in five-inch heels. Instead, she roams around in Worishofer sling-back sandals—the grandma shoe that’s become part of the downtown vintage aesthetic—portraying a kind of new, seemingly accessible celebrity that Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams personified by moving to Brooklyn and walking the streets without the bodyguards or disguises employed by their Los Angeles counterparts. “The Beatrice was Heath’s haunt,” the male model said. “You could always find him there, having a drink on his own at the bar, his bike locked up outside. I think it taught all these other stars how to be that kind of cool and how much people there appreciate it.”

“She clearly seems to be into that scene right now, but we should applaud her!” said the music writer. “It speaks well of her that she’d rather hang out in Lower East Side dive bars than lunch at the Ivy.”It’s a kind of celebrity that others with Ms. Dunst’s level of stardom, like Mary-Kate Olsen, have attempted, but failed, to cultivate; Ms. Olsen may look the part, but she’s rarely without her black Escalade and beefy bodyguards. And just a few years ago, Ms. Dunst seemed to be heading down a path well-trod by many lithe blond actresses before her. A star since the age of 11, when she kissed Brad Pitt in Interview With a Vampire, Ms. Dunst has also played a tortured young girl in Virgin Suicides; the captain of the cheerleading squad in Bring It On; and the title role in Marie Antoinette.In 2002, she started dating the actor Jake Gyllenhaal. In the aftermath of their breakup in 2004, she began to be sighted in L.A. in questionable states of sobriety in the company of various actors; the gossip blogger Perez Hilton took to calling her Kirsten Drunkst. And thus, many in her circle seem to view her newfound attachment to New York as an attempt to remake herself as not just another Hollywood starlet.A 22-year-old model met Ms. Dunst in May 2007 at the Empire Diner. Ms. Dunst overheard the model talking about a Beirut show at Bowery Ballroom and came over to ask about it. “I didn’t even recognize her, but I was like, holy cow, this person is friendly!”

The model asked Ms. Dunst about her dress—it was Marc Jacobs—and a friendship sparked.

“I’m Kirsten,” Ms. Dunst said finally.

“I was like, ‘Oh, you’re Kirsten Dunst!’ Crazy!” said the model. “And then she basically just asked for my phone number and I gave it to her.” The model said she didn’t see Ms. Dunst around very often until this spring, when the actress became a regular at the Beatrice.Ms. Dunst also frequents East Village mixology bar Death and Co., the Lit Lounge, and Bowery Electric, where Catherine Pierce of the girl group the Pierces spins on Monday nights; in May, Ms. Dunst celebrated her 26th birthday there.

But most of the time, Ms. Dunst can be found at the Beatrice Inn, perched on the counter behind the DJ booth, smoking cigarettes and bopping her head around to her boyfriend’s tunes.

Despite reports in Page Six of Ms. Dunst pursuing the actor Emile Hirsch and Drew Barrymore’s ex Justin Long, her friends say she has not done either. And depending on whom you ask, she and Mr. Creed still may or may not be together. Most describe Ms. Dunst as shy and heavily guarded. Some said that she can be a party girl when no one is watching. “She doesn’t really stand out at Beatrice,” said one regular. “When Lindsay [Lohan] used to come into Bungalow 8, it was like Elizabeth Taylor was there or something, but Kirsten pretty much blends in.”

Blending in is perhaps the point. After all, Ms. Dunst’s move to New York came in the wake of her time in rehab, a period that the gossip blogs attributed to her breakup with Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell. “It seemed like she went through a rough patch of maybe drinking more than she should, but I’m not one to talk,” said party photographer Patrick McMullan, who’s been photographing Ms. Dunst for years. “She really seems to be embracing New York.”

And the 22-year-old model, who said that she and Ms. Dunst have had talks about the “rough stuff,” agreed. “I think she’s found a level of her own in New York,” she said".
Source: www.observer.com