Hot Property

COURBEFY, France - The village of Courbefy has rustic buildings with fireplaces and exposed beams, a horse stable, a tennis court, and a swimming pool. Sound nice? It's for sale. The saga of the abandoned hamlet is a story of flight from rural France, bad economic times, and real estate schemes gone awry. It has turned the mayor of the village next door into a minor celebrity whose office fields inquiries from places as far-flung as Qatar and China. The village in Limousin, about 280 miles southwest of Paris, was put on the block last week because its latest owners, who had run it as a luxury hotel and restaurant, had long ago stopped paying their mortgage.

Only two years ago, Holy Cross football coach Rick Carter seemed to be on top of the world. He was bright, energetic, talented and highly regarded by his peers. It was only a matter of time, everyone agreed, before Carter would get his chance to run a major college football program. "He was a very successful coach, a very good coach. I think he had a tremendous future," Colgate coach Fred Dunlap said. "Everyone who played against his teams was impressed by the job he did. " But Carter no longer shared such optimistic views of the road his life has been set upon.

Most of the booty from drug busts eventually goes up for sale - and anyone can make a pitch for the spoils. The goods, which can include jewelry, cars, boats and other property, are sold at government auctions. Despite newspaper and radio ads soliciting the purchase of catalogs of government auctions, when and where they are held is no secret. The problem is that the auctions are held when inventory demands it, not on a regular basis. Buyers either have to scan the legal notices in newspapers, where the government is required to advertise the sales, or call the appropriate offices.

A LAISSEZ-FAIRE LOOK AT HEIDI THE MARKET-MAKER (Heidi) Fleiss was simply supplying lubricatory information in a market creaking from its lack. Hollywood's harried high-rollers have no time to engage in idle (and potentially fruitless) chat-ups: They are occupied with commanding the film business, which is after all one of the world's great industrial triumphs. Ms. Fleiss enhanced their efficiency; there was not a victim in sight. Her prosecution is a perversion of the free market in another sense.

A Glassboro congregation appears to have failed in its ambitious bid to buy an abandoned campground and turn it into a for-profit recreational mecca. Philip Swartz, president of the Florida-based FSL Development Corp., which owns the Village Dock Campground, said Mount Zion Baptist Church had backed out on July 25, the closing date. "They simply were not able to go to closing," said Swartz, who would not comment further. The Rev. Harrod Clay Jr., Mount Zion's pastor, had announced in July that the church was close to sealing a $1 million to $2 million deal for the 273-acre property off Delsea Drive.

Tony Buba's delightfully offbeat Lightning Over Braddock bills itself as "A Rust Bowl Fantasy. " It's more accurately described as the ultimate home movie. Buba is a hardy independent filmmaker who grew up in Braddock, a grimy, once-thriving steel town outside Pittsburgh. It has been transformed into a ghost town by social, economic and political forces far beyond the control of the blue-collar workers who make up the rapidly dwindling population. Unlike many of his neighbors, Buba didn't leave Braddock.

It may still hurt that he lost his bid for a fourth term as guv of New York, but Mario Cuomo is still one hot property. Hot enough to be talkin' up a weekly radio show to take on conservatives like Rush What's-His-Face. And hot enough to sign a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster for an anti-conservative, as yet unwritten, book. All this in the same week that he hooked up with the firmly established Manhattan law firm of Willkie (as in Wendell), Farr & Gallagher. And don't forget his heavy schedule of speaking engagements, which will take him to London, Zurich, Australia and Nashville, Tenn.

Ukrainian shot putter Aleksander Bagach says a New Jersey company cost him his gold medal at the world championships and he wants to be paid damages. Bagach was disqualified and stripped of his medal after testing positive for the stimulant ephedrine. He blamed "Quick Energy," a product he used made by Universal Nutrition, of New Brunswick. "I am a victim of the American company. On the package they guarantee that it is a natural product," the daily Kievskiye Vedomosti quoted Bagach as saying.

HUNKER DOWN FOR THE HOMESTAND. The Phils are in town for eight games straight, their record is 10-3 and Phan Phever is probably as hot as it's going get before October. Here are today's stats: Stolen profits: Phillies gear is now No. 2 on street vendors' sales charts, having edged past Phoenix Suns merchandise (in the No. 4 spot this week) and Barney (No. 5). Designer Karl Kani, who's "all that" with teenagers, is entrenched in third. T-shirts and hats with marijuana leaves on them are untouchable at No. 1. This week's nerviest trademark infringer is a T-shirt ($5 on the street)

With Roy Halladay one pitch away from his historic no-hitter, and the towel-waving masses at Citizens Bank Park exploring new decibel levels on Wednesday, Robert "Bobby" Bonds did something quietly remarkable. At that very moment, he managed to betray even less emotion than Halladay. From his station in the Cincinnati Reds dugout, he was consumed with only one thought: If this is the last pitch, get that ball! At Phillies games, Bonds is the chief "authenticator," and he and his team are the on-field witnesses responsible for certifying that all game items that are sold, given away, or sent to the Hall of Fame are the real deals.

COURBEFY, France - The village of Courbefy has rustic buildings with fireplaces and exposed beams, a horse stable, a tennis court, and a swimming pool. Sound nice? It's for sale. The saga of the abandoned hamlet is a story of flight from rural France, bad economic times, and real estate schemes gone awry. It has turned the mayor of the village next door into a minor celebrity whose office fields inquiries from places as far-flung as Qatar and China. The village in Limousin, about 280 miles southwest of Paris, was put on the block last week because its latest owners, who had run it as a luxury hotel and restaurant, had long ago stopped paying their mortgage.

With Roy Halladay one pitch away from his historic no-hitter, and the towel-waving masses at Citizens Bank Park exploring new decibel levels on Wednesday, Robert "Bobby" Bonds did something quietly remarkable. At that very moment, he managed to betray even less emotion than Halladay. From his station in the Cincinnati Reds dugout, he was consumed with only one thought: If this is the last pitch, get that ball! At Phillies games, Bonds is the chief "authenticator," and he and his team are the on-field witnesses responsible for certifying that all game items that are sold, given away, or sent to the Hall of Fame are the real deals.

For decades, 1 Brace Rd. in Cherry Hill bustled with supermarket shoppers. The seven acres off the intersection of Route 70 and Kings Highway were an anchor for one of the region's top centers of commerce, second only to Cherry Hill Mall. Today, the empty parking lot and vacant building - most recently home to National Wholesale Liquidators - are a pockmark on the landscape, a reminder of the near-standstill of the commercial real estate market. That could soon change. The longtime Pathmark location, at what was once the Ellisburg Circle, was recently listed for sale by CB Richard Ellis and interest has exceeded expectations, say brokers Doug Rodio and Jim Galbally.

What does Beowulf have in common with brussels sprouts? You know the eighth-century epic is culturally nutritious, but boy, is it hard to get down - especially since it's written in Old English, which is unintelligible to modern readers. Some lit majors whine that Beowulf, which was composed between 700 and 750 by Anglo-Saxon bards and is considered England's first masterpiece, is boring, lame. Un-sexy. Try telling that to Angelina Jolie, who sexes up the saga plenty with her scene-stealing, if unintentionally comic, turn as a super-seductive, nude dragon lady in Robert Zemeckis' $70 million Beowulf, which opens tomorrow.

Last season, Allen Iverson finished second in the NBA in scoring. Perhaps more remarkably, he was fourth in jersey sales. Even though his team hadn't contended for a title since 2001, more Iverson uniform tops were sold than those for anyone other than Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. That statistic underlines Iverson's remarkable staying power as a cultural icon and marketing force - and, at the same time, the fact that his star may have faded a bit. In years past, the Iverson 76ers jersey often ranked first or second.

ZACH HELM is a hot property in Hollywood. But he's not some boy toy you're likely to see shirtless in the remake of a Japanese horror film. What's unique about Helm's Hollywood heat is that he's a writer. And until today he's never written anything you ever heard of. Having penned plays and an unseen TV pilot, Helm's first produced screenplay is "Stranger Than Fiction" (see Gary Thompson's review on Page 44), which has more A-listers involved with it than any debut screenplay in recent memory.

Motorists may mutter and conservationists may object, but one group not complaining about sprawl in Montgomery County is the hotel industry. Since 2001, 12 hotels have opened in the county and 15 others have undergone major renovations, according to the Valley Forge Convention and Visitors Bureau. Now 7,201 rooms are available at 48 hotels, bureau president Paul Decker said. "Along with almost every other sector, the economy is stronger," fueling a surge in development and occupancy, he said.

He's newly out of the closet, he's near death politically, he's an admitted adulterer - and he's in demand. Everyone wants to hear from Jim McGreevey. When he was just the governor of New Jersey, sure, reporters came calling. But now it's just plain crazy at the Statehouse. Call volume to his press office has swelled from 30 to 50 calls a day to well over 200 daily since McGreevey's profile-altering announcement last Thursday, spokesman Micah Rasmussen said yesterday. It's no longer just media with a presence in New Jersey wanting to know what he has to say, it's Katie Couric, Oprah, Barbara Walters, Larry King and Diane Sawyer.

Buyers are lining up for the chance to purchase - sight unseen - one of the 230 homes planned for the former Philadelphia Navy Base property across from FDR Park in South Philadelphia. Even before the new development, to be called the Reserve at Packer Park, was announced late last summer, potential purchasers started plunking down $1,000 refundable deposits for a shot at one of the houses, which will range in price from $200,000 to $300,000. Today, Westrum Development Co., the Fort Washington builder, begins demolishing the 399 former military houses at 20th Street and Pattison Avenue to make way for the new homes, which will be built and sold over the next four years.

It is a familiar story. It is the story of the high school basketball star that finishes his first year of college and enters the NBA draft. On draft day he fulfills a lifelong dream. A professional contract, worth millions of dollars, follows. Former Roman Catholic standout Eddie Griffin made that jump last year when he left Seton Hall. A lottery pick last season, Griffin now plays for the NBA's Houston Rockets. Former Camden standout Dajuan Wagner is next. If not this year, then certainly next year.