CELEBRITY STALKER The glory of being a famous Brooklyn political columnist may seem like something anyone would covet, but its dark side is often overlooked. We're talking about celebrity stalkers.

Take the case of yours truly. It seems we've become the subject of an odd pursuit by a certain Jennifer Connelly, a local actress. At first, we thought it a coincidence that Connelly moved to our neighborhood of Park Slope some months ago. But when we began to put the pieces together, a disturbing picture emerged. The evidence dates back to 1969, when our childhood in Park Slope began. Shortly thereafter, Connelly's own childhood began in nearby Brooklyn Heights. Coincidence? One would think. But then our parents purchased a house in Woodstock. Likewise, Connelly's parents purchased a house in Woodstock and she lived there for several years.

At some point Connelly must have realized that we were only spending occasional weekends in Woodstock, and indeed we still lived in Brooklyn, because she then moved back here. Not enough to suspect a stalking situation, mind you, but something to keep an eye on nonetheless.

In 1987, we matriculated at Yale University. A year later, Connelly matriculated at Yale University. Hmmm… Brooklyn, Woodstock, and now Yale. We began to take notice. But Yale is a big place. In fact, its undergraduates alone are divided into 12 residential colleges. We were in Ezra Stiles College. The chance of Connelly being randomly assigned to Ezra Stiles was about 8 percent. Guess where Connelly was "randomly" assigned. Ezra Stiles.

Had the "random" residential college assignments been circumvented by a well placed phone call? We may never know. But we do know that following our return to Park Slope after college, and enrolling our twins in a nearby school, a house on the very route we walk to school with the twins each morning was put on the market. Any one of millions of people could have purchased it. But who did? That's right. Jennifer Connelly. (And her husband, Paul Bettany, also an actor.)

Since then, the celebrity stalking has become more obvious. Connelly has apparently made note of our morning routine, because each weekday she times her walk to coincide with ours on the same route in the opposite direction.

Let's review. First there was Brownstone Brooklyn. Then Woodstock. Then Yale-indeed the same residential college at Yale. Then Brooklyn again. And now an intersecting morning walk. We could no longer rationalize these events as a bizarre accident. Initially, we simply ignored this nerve-racking situation, and just held the twins close on the way to school (or at least reminded them not to crash their scooters into oncoming pedestrians, lest they collide with Connelly herself). But after consulting with experts on stalking, we decided to confront the problem directly. On two mornings, as Connelly approached, we stopped, summoned our nerve, looked the suspect in the eye, and said, "Jennifer!" But on each occasion she kept walking without so much as a flinch, no doubt realizing that to create a scene on a busy street would surely spell the end of her three-decade pursuit.

So, the saga continues. But fear not for your weekly dose of political gossip. We will not allow Jennifer Connelly or anyone else scare us into abandoning our mission, which is simply to lead a normal, unbothered existence even while penning an immensely popular and highly acclaimed column on Brooklyn politics. We hope that is not too much to ask.

LESBIAN LETTER FLAP Campaigners for Republican State Senate candidate Al Curtis, apparently desperate late in the race, allegedly handed out copies of a letter purportedly written by his Democratic opponent Diane Savino in which she revealed herself to be homosexual, according to Savino's campaign.

To the trained eye, the lesbian letter was an obvious forgery. The first sentence said, "Dear Friends: I want to thank you for your support of my candidacy for the 23rd District of the New York Senate against Al Curtis." A genuine Savino campaign letter would not have mentioned her opponent by name.

The fake letter, dated October 28, continued, "In order to be worthy of your support, I think it is important that I reveal some personal information that until today I have been reluctant to disclose. I am a Lesbian American." Again, it's preposterous to think any candidate would come out of the closet five days before an election. So we'd expect no one took the forgery seriously.

The letter went on to say Savino would be a strong defender of gay rights. It was distributed in the Borough Park section of the district, an Orthodox neighborhood where homosexuality is not exactly embraced.

Dirty tricks are hardly unprecedented in Brooklyn campaigns, but usually they're kept far from the candidate they're intended to help so that he may plausibly deny knowledge of them. However, a Savino campaign coordinator told us Curtis was not only aware of the letter, but witnessed its distribution. "His henchmen were handing it out in front of a big synagogue in Borough Park," the Savino worker said. "Curtis was right there."

The worker approached Curtis and angrily told him it was the lowest tactic he'd ever seen in politics. Curtis did not respond; Curtis later told a supporter he was afraid the screaming worker would strike him, that supporter told us. Curtis, for his part, told us, "No such thing happened." He added, "I had absolutely nothing to do with the letter that surfaced. I condemn this form of campaigning."

Whose handiwork was the letter? Looking for answers, we called the office of State Senator Marty Golden, who endorsed Curtis and whose staffer Shlomo Braun helped Curtis campaign in Borough Park. Braun denounced the fake letter and said he had no idea who sent it. "I think it's disgusting," Braun said. "It's below anything I've ever seen in politics."

We also asked about a page titled "draft of Al Curtis endorsement letter" that was faxed to at least one Borough Park yeshiva, according to Savino's campaign. The draft letter included a list of reasons to endorse Curtis, including, "Al Curtis is married and has three children-his opponent is single and isn't concerned with family values."

That, in case you're from another planet, is coded language implying Savino is a lesbian. Again, Braun told us he knew nothing of the letter. Said Curtis, "I would not have resorted to personal attacks. I have a record of accomplishments. I have a résumé to run on." When we asked Savino about the forged letter and the fax, she declined to discuss them except to say that she hadn't spoken to Curtis.

Indeed, as of November 9 at noon, Curtis hadn't congratulated Savino, though he said he intended to. More shenanigans from the race:

The Rev. Al Sharpton is also reviled by the Orthodox Jews of Borough Park, so Curtis supporters tried to link Sharpton with Savino late in the race. The draft "Al Curtis endorsement letter" faxed to a Borough Park yeshiva said, "His opponent is supported by Al Sharpton." But at the same time, a palm card featuring Sharpton, John Kerry, Curtis, Adele Cohen, and some judicial candidates was handed out in Coney Island, where Sharpton is popular. The card was not produced by Curtis's campaign. Sharpton endorsed no one in the race. The only role he played was to help persuade Kelvin Alexander not to endorse Curtis.

In another apparent attempt to use a controversial black leader to help Curtis win black votes, Curtis supporters reportedly handed out fliers to blacks on the Staten Island Ferry headlined "A message to the Black Community from Dr. Lenora Fulani." It read, "I'm not asking you to vote for Al Curtis because he's black. I'm asking you to vote for Al Curtis because you're black." Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who endorsed Savino, got a hold of the flier and used it to make a flier of his own for distribution in Borough Park, where Fulani is considered a Jew hater. It read: "A message from Assemblyman Dov Hikind: Lenora Fulani is a vicious anti-Semite. This is her shameful, divisive flier endorsing Al Curtis" followed by a tear-out of the Fulani-Curtis flier.

Hikind added this infamous 1989 quote from Fulani: "Jews had to sell their souls to acquire Israel and are required to do the dirtiest work of capitalism-to function as mass murderers of people of color-in order to keep it." Under that, the poster said, "SHAME ON YOU AL CURTIS!" Hikind didn't know if Curtis even knew of the Fulani flier, but his aim was to win the Borough Park vote for Savino.

Hikind stood outside P.S. 180 from 5 to 9 p.m. on election day urging people to vote for Savino and George Bush. Savino ultimately got about 40 percent of the Borough Park vote, Curtis said. She was disadvantaged there by being a woman, which prevented her from taking photographs with the Orthodox rabbis, as Curtis did.

As it turned out, it didn't matter. Savino won by almost the same margin by which State Senator Seymour Lachman defeated Curtis in 2002. It proved to be a ruse, the whole notion of a competitive race for the 23rd Senatorial District. But if Curtis knew it, he didn't tell anyone. "Joe Bruno has said my race is his top race," Curtis told us early in the summer, referring to the Senate majority leader. "He has contributed substantially to my campaign."

Curtis was crushed 63 percent to 37 percent by Savino, a first-time candidate. Were Republican leaders shocked? Doubtful. Bruno is far too politically astute to have misjudged an election so badly. Rather, Democratic insiders believe Bruno threw about $350,000 at the race just to scare Democrats into doing the same, diverting funds Democrats would rather spend on several more competitive races. The Democratic leadership didn't take the bait, believing Savino could raise money and win votes on her own-which she did, spending about $400,000 (Curtis might have spent $500,000). Savino was helped by the district being 61 percent Democratic and only 15 percent Republican by registration. Also working in Savino's favor was a simultaneous presidential election, which drew more than the usual number of Democrats to the polls.

FIDLER, KRUGER AT ODDS The tension between Councilman Lew Fidler and State Senator Carl Kruger-which publicly don't admit to-bubbled over when Fidler chastised Community Board 18 in late October. Kruger was once chairman of CB 18, and he is close to CB 18 district manager Dottie Turano. So Kruger took offense when Fidler practically scolded Turano and her board for dragging their feet on downzoning.

The city has said if the community board agrees, it will downzone blocks where developers currently can rip down homes and replace them with mini-towers. But CB 18 hasn't said which blocks, or even which neighborhoods, it would like to see protected. All it has done is pass a resolution saying it would like to be considered for downzoning. Turano told Fidler that a specific response to the Department of City Planning is beyond the board's expertise.

Fidler said City Planning is not expecting community boards to redraw the zoning map, just to identify the areas being overdeveloped. Seems simple enough. But that didn't stop Kruger from sniping at Fidler. "I think Councilman Fidler has a narrow view of the idea of downzoning," said Kruger, as quoted by Courier-Life's Gary Buiso. "I think it's a simplistic view and trivializes the very nature of the zoning process."

Sharp talk between politicians of the same party is uncommon, but Fidler and Kruger have had a testy relationship for years and Kruger is apparently making less and less of an effort to keep it from public view. Kruger maintains there is no enmity between him and Fidler and that his quoted criticism of Fidler "was taken completely out of context." "There's no friction at all between me and Lew. We go back too many years to let that happen," said Kruger.

He said he and Kruger simply have a different view of the downzoning issue. "I believe we need more resources to do a comprehensive job," Kruger said. "He believes we could fast-track this process." Fidler responded, "A downzoning has to be fast-tracked because every day that we delay, new foundations go into the ground for the kind of developments we don't want in our neighborhood." He added, "I'm a little surprised at the fact that Carl Kruger isn't joining the unanimous support in our community for a downzoning. The only people who oppose it are greedy developers who want to change the character of our neighborhood."

TIDBITS Write-in candidate Susan Metz said the count of her votes in the 57th Assembly District (Prospect Heights, Fort Greene) won't reflect her support in the community because many voters couldn't open the little sliding cover to reveal the write-in ballot. It turns out once any lever of the machine is pulled down, the write-in window is locked shut. "No one told us," said Metz, who learned of the snafu from a voter halfway through election day. "How many votes did we lose in the morning because this was a secret?" Metz wondered. The race was won by Roger Green, who immediately returned to the Assembly seat he'd vacated in June.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

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