CONAN'S HOME OPTIONS AREN'T LOOKING ROSIE
By Allen Salkin
Birthday boy Conan O'Brien was singing the New York City apartment blues yesterday - and indicating things might have become more serious with his longtime girlfriend. O'Brien, who turned 35, said he can't afford to live where he wants. "I'm a salaried employee - I'm not Jay or Dave," the red-haired funnyman told celebrity photographer Lawrence Schwartzwald while strolling alone on the Upper West Side.
O'Brien, who makes about $2 million a year, said he is looking for a place to live because he got booted out of the SoHo apartment he's had for the past two years. He was subletting a co-op, and that is the maximum time the building will allow non-owners to live there, he said.
The tall trickster moved temporarily into the Apthorp Building blocks and blocks north of his better-compensated talk-show brethren. Asked what kind of apartment he is looking for, O'Brien began his answer with, "My wi...," before pausing and restarting his sentence: "We can't afford a place like Rosie." O'Brien has been together with former "Late Night" booker Lynn Kaplan for four years and has said he wants to get married and have kids someday.
Rosie O'Donnell's production company pays the rent on her apartment in the West 60s. "Her show is in syndication," O'Brien said. "She can afford much more." O'Donnell has said she makes more than $4 million a year.
Other celebrities in that area include Madonna, Mikhail Barishnykov and Ricki Lake. O'Brien, who lived in a rough Williamsburg neighborhood when he was a young writer on "Saturday Night Live," said he's lived in three apartments in the past five years. He is not without at least one other famous neighbor in his new building. Rag-wearing songstress Cyndi Lauper lives there.
Though O'Brien said he might not be staying at the Apthorp too long, he promised to keep Schwartzwald apprised of his whereabouts. "If I ever hit anybody, I'll make sure you get the picture," he joked.
Copyright New York Post April 1997