Chelsea resident Katie Holmes.

If a typical break-up calls for vats of Ben & Jerry’s and repeated viewings of The Notebook, then we suppose a highly publicized divorce from a top Hollywood actor and devout Scientologist calls for a cross-country move and a gorgeous new apartment. That’s pretty much what Katie Holmes got last summer when she took up residence at the Chelsea Mercantile—the spectacular, star-infused, 21-story building at 252 Seventh Avenue. The actress reportedly signed the lease just a few days after announcing her split from husband Tom Cruise in June 2012.

As you might expect from Ms. Holmes, who has also transmitted her fashion sense to daughter Suri, these are some stylish digs. The actress has been settling into her New York lifestyle pretty well since then. Last winter, Ms. Holmes took the stage as Lorna in Theresa Rebeck’s Dead Accounts, which ran from late November to early January at the Music Box Theatre. Though the show received mixed reviews, Ms. Holmes’s performance stood out, at least to The New York Times. Ms. Holmes “appears much more at ease playing a worn-down country mouse to the hyped-up city mouse of [Norbert Leo Butz],” Ben Brantley wrote. “Ms. Holmes and Mr. Butz summon an appealingly natural family rapport … You may even forget that Ms. Holmes is Katie Holmes for a moment.”

It’s no problem that Dead Accounts closed earlier than expected—Ms. Holmes is already at work acting in another project, a Spike Lee production called Mania Days. In the film, which has been shooting in different locations around New York City, Ms. Holmes plays Carla, a manic-depressive poet who forms a romantic relationship (and later a pregnancy) with a manic-depressive rapper, played by Luke Kirby.

Katie and Suri strolling and riding.

If you’re looking to spot Ms. Holmes on the streets of New York City, it’s unlikely—the star leads a private life (or as private as possible when you are being stalked by paparazzi). The most reliable place to spot the celeb is the H. Stern store on Fifth Avenue, where larger-than-life, nearly nude billboards of the gorgeous Ms. Holmes grace the windows on either side of the doors. Since moving to New York, Ms. Holmes has also been made the face of Bobbi Brown; she’s the company’s first-ever celebrity spokesmodel.

When Ms. Holmes isn’t performing onstage or posing on-camera, she’s playing the role of mother to daughter Suri. Ms. Holmes reportedly enrolled the stylish seven-year-old in the prestigious Avenues school, located near their home in Chelsea.  The school is very new, and has an educational philosophy that might appeal to jetsetters able to pay its slightly higher-than-usual tuition costs.

“In addition to teaching traditional subjects,” Avenues CEO and co-founder Chris Whittle has said, “the school takes seriously its mission to prepare students for the world through intensive classes in Spanish or Mandarin and by providing them with a global view of geography, history, religion, demographics and economic development across many cultures and countries.”

We always knew that Suri could out-dress us any day, but from the looks of her new school, we’re pretty sure she’ll soon be able to outsmart us, too.

But Back to Those Digs

The Chelsea Mercantile was originally built as a fabric manufactory in 1908 (that’s exactly 90 years before the premiere of Dawson’s Creek, the show that marks Ms. Holmes’ debut, in case you slept through that pop culture moment). Nowadays—with the influx of trendy galleries, restaurants and shopping spots in the neighborhood—the historic textile building has been transformed into more than 350 luxury condos that house the likes of Marc Jacobs, Jane Fonda and Lance Bass, along with Katie and Suri. It boasts an interior garden, full gym, parking garage, and a 10,000-square-foot roof deck, and yet still retains charming elements of its turn-of-the-century origins.

“The Chelsea Mercantile is really cool,” says Corinne Pulitzer, executive vice president of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, which has sold a number of units at the Chelsea Mercantile in recent years. “The building has the infrastructure of a factory building, with the very high nine-foot ceilings. Some of the apartments have exposed brick walls.”

Sensible Katie probably chose the apartment for the distinctly downtown flavor but slightly

Entrance to the Chelsea Mercantile, home of Holmes.

more convenient location. She’s not a kid anymore, after all. “The apartments have a loft feel, but you don’t have to go down to Soho or Tribeca, which I think is a big pull for people,” Ms. Pulitzer says. “It’s great to live down there, [but] it’s a hard lifestyle selection if someone’s in the theater, or [working] in midtown.”

The Chelsea Mercantile is also perfect for anyone with a seven-year-old daughter. “The building has a children’s playroom,” says Ms. Pulitzer. “I can see how [Ms. Holmes] came to choose it.”

The diversity of the Chelsea neighborhood may also be responsible for attracting celebrities like Ms. Holmes. From the threshold of the Chelsea Mercantile, residents can reach avant-garde art galleries, elite eateries and fine retail all on foot (or by chauffeur, of course). “The neighborhood has such diverse attractions that it gets a really good mix of different types of people who are seeking [something] cool and edgy,” Ms. Pulitzer says, “as opposed to the Upper East Side, which I wouldn’t call cool or edgy.”

The Star Grocery Shops, Too

On the ground floor of Ms. Holmes’s apartment building is a cozy Whole Foods Market, where the actress is known to regularly shop. The Daily News photographed her there last summer, trying on  cowboy hats with daughter Suri as the pair shopped for a Fourth of July meal.

Though she had been spotted inside the organic food mecca, reporters last summer—who crowded Ms. Holmes’s building shortly after she moved in—were wondering why they rarely spotted their target entering Whole Foods. Hillary Reinsberg, a staff member at BuzzFeed, explained the popular theory that gradually circulated among the crowd of Holmes seekers: “Nearly every lingering photographer seemed to have figured out that Holmes has a way of getting into the store from inside her swanky apartment building,” Ms. Reinsberg wrote in a July 2012 article.

We needed to know: Is it a secret revolving bookshelf, activated by touching a certain tome? Does she enter through a nondescript girls’ bathroom, á la Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? Can Katie Holmes teleport?

We ask a Whole Foods employee if Ms. Holmes really has a private entrance to the grocery store. He laughs—he has heard the rumor before. But, he says, there’s definitely no secret entrance for the rich and famous. “There’s no Batcave in here, there’s only one door.” Like almost everyone else we spoke to for this story, except the vocal Ms. Pulitzer, the real estate agent, this employee declines to be named, citing company policy.

While Ms. Holmes shops at Whole Foods, her “team” reportedly favors the more casual deli across the street. According to Amen, who does give his first name, and works behind the counter at Chelsea Gourmet Deli, “She sends her bodyguard in every morning—it’s one major guy who comes in.” He notes that the bodyguard frequently buys sandwiches, drinks and snacks.

And when it comes to eating out, Ms. Holmes has no shortage of choices in Chelsea. “The restaurants—my God, you never have to cook!” Ms. Pulitzer gushes.

Back in Beverly Hills, Ms. Holmes was known to be a fan of Crumbs Bakery. Luckily for Ms. Holmes, she can feed her sweet tooth on the East Coast, too; there’s a Crumbs a block away from her Chelsea apartment.  And indeed she has visited the cupcake shop. “It wasn’t a big interaction, but she was very nice,” says the manager of Crumbs when asked about Ms. Holmes’s visit to the bakery. She admits feeling a little star-struck: “I pretended like it wasn’t Katie Holmes!”

Nearby is also the trendy Meatpacking District, whose cobblestone streets are clustered with the hottest bars and restaurants in the city. “I’m sure [Ms. Holmes] hangs out there a lot,” Ms. Pulitzer says. “You have the Ganesvoort, all of these fabulous hotels and clubs. The Standard is there too, and they have that beer garden in the summer. It’s a really high-energy neighborhood.”

Living the Active Life

Of course, for a celebrity with a physique like Ms. Holmes’ and modeling and film contracts, along with great cupcakes come great demands for cardio. Though Ms. Holmes ventures outside of Chelsea to attend spin classes at SoulCycle, the actress is also known to frequent the Chelsea Piers, an expansive, multi-purpose athletic complex along the Hudson River, just blocks from her apartment, although this might be more for Suri’s benefit than her mother’s. Last summer, photographers spotted Ms. Holmes taking Suri to a Chelsea Piers gymnastics class.

If Suri tires of gymnastics, there’s always ice skating to try (and adorable skating dresses to wear while doing it), golf, bowling, boating and facilities for just about any kind of kid party.

But there is at least one sport Ms. Holmes enjoys partaking of at Chelsea Piers. An employee at Chelsea Brewing Company—a microbrewery and restaurant that’s part of the Chelsea Piers—says that Ms. Holmes is reportedly quite the alley cat.

“She goes bowling,” the employee says. “What’s interesting is they offer the private room—they have a private room with eight lanes—but they don’t want it. They want to be in

Crumbs, a favorite of Katie's and Suri's.

public.” Bowling in plain sight. Pretty brave.

Shopping Around

Ms. Holmes is known to be a long-time fan of Anthropologie; lucky for her, the store has a retail space in Chelsea Market, an easy walk from Ms. Holmes’s apartment.

We swing by Anthropologie’s Chelsea location in the hopes of spotting the actress—or at least finding out if she’s a frequent visitor. A friendly employee confirms our suspicions, noting that Ms. Holmes often comes into the store to grab a few things. “She’s a loyal customer,” the sales representative says. “She’s an Anthro girl!”

One Columbia grad student and frequent Anthropologie shopper describes the time she and her roommate spotted Ms. Holmes at the Chelsea Market store: “I was admiring bowls and glasses and first saw her from the periphery,” the source says. “I walked over to my roommate and asked her to look for me again to confirm. Katie Holmes said, ‘Let’s go, sweetie’—she was with Suri, and they were looking at plates. I also checked out next to them and she asked about different colors for table settings.”

The student also reports that on that day in November, Ms. Holmes’s overall style was pretty casual. “From what I remember, [she wore] a long gray cardigan, jeans and short boots,” she says.

Ms. Holmes has also been seen checking out other spots in the famed indoor market, which houses popular joints like Morimoto, Friedman’s Lunch and Sarabeth’s Kitchen.

Walk a little farther south to the Meatpacking District and you’ll hit even more high-end clothing shopping destinations: Diane von Furstenberg, Tory Burch, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney all have shops there. And the shopping options are only continuing to grow: “On the corner of 14th Street toward the West Side Highway, one of my favorite gas stations is now going to be 20,000 square feet of retail right by the Highline,” Ms. Pulitzer says. It’s a market that’s certainly perfect for a fashionista like Ms. Holmes—or even a budding fashionista or a budding one.

jtaylor@observer.com

Debbie Harry, alien hater (Getty)

- Debbie Harry made a pretty cryptic comment on the elections, saying "I am thinking we have been invaded by aliens who have reduced the intelligence level of the entire fucking country to cement." Did she mean little green men or illegal immigrants from Mexico? And aren't aliens usually portrayed as being light years smarter than the average Joe the Plumber? They figured out space travel, how stupid can they be?

-Steve Honig finally quit the world's worst gig of being Lindsay Lohan's publicist. No, it wasn't the drugs that broke the camel's back, or the car accidents that broke the paparazzi's feet, or the career that's just irrecoverably broken. It was Michael Lohan who Mr. Honig couldn't tolerate. Which leads us to wonder...what does he think about Dina?

-Even if Tom Cruise is potentially leaving Scientology to win back Katie Holmes, he hasn't lost his litigious nature. He's filed lawsuits against In Touch and Life & Style for headlines implying that he abandoned his daughter Suri after Ms. Holmes left him.
- Justin Timberlake is really sorry that his friend made a wedding video featuring homeless people as a present.

- Jessica Simpson's dad is not gay, according to Jessica's Simpson's dad.

Tom Cruise (Getty Images)

Tom Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields has issued a press release announcing the star's lawsuit against Life & Style magazine's publisher for claiming that the star "abandoned" daughter Suri. Wrote Mr. Fields: "Tom is a caring father who dearly loves Suri... Tom doesn't go around suing people. He's not a litigious guy."

Mr. Cruise has previously sued a gay porn actor for claiming that the pair had had an affair in 2001, and earlier this year threatened to sue The National Enquirer for calling him a "monster" and describing his home in derisive terms.

Their love is stronger than all the thetans!

– Tom Cruise is ready to throw his religion overboard in the name of love! Well, either that, or he finally got around to reading that Vanity Fair cover story from August.

– And in continuing, fascinating Lindsay Lohan news, her mother thinks LiLo needs to get a restraining order against her father, Michael Lohan. Despite the fact that just last week, the mother and daughter pair needed the cops to intervene when they started fighting in front of Mama Lohan's Long Island home. Could it be because her slightly-less-than-Golden Goose turned to her ex-con daddy after their blowout and called her a coke addict?

– Fun fact: Scarlett Johansson has left her boob-Tumblring ad exec boyfriend Nate Naylor and is now currently on the market!

– As one would expect, Gizmodo and CNET both issued responses to the portrayal of their Apple-hating writers on Saturday Night Live this weekend. We're waiting on you, Wired.com!

The many wives of Conan. (TBS)

We finally took a moment to dive into Maureen Orth's Vanity Fair exposé about Nazanin Boniadi and her relationship with Tom Cruise and Scientology. That was completely wacky, right? Follow-up question: Did the idea of auditioning spouses make you sort of want to join the church of Scientology? No reason, we're just asking. Hey look! Conan did a segment about how he met his wife!

http://youtu.be/-Uhkq42jkEk

We were always under the impression that CoCo was married to more than one woman, Big Love-style. But maybe that was just wishful thinking.

The October 2012 issue of Vanity Fair.

Tom Cruise's vigilant lawyer Bert Fields has issued a statement on Maureen Orth's not-yet-released piece about the Church of Scientology's long-term "audition process" that yielded bride Katie Holmes.

Vanity Fair's story is essentially a rehash of tired old lies previously run in the supermarket tabloids, quoting the same bogus 'sources.' It's long, boring and false.

We'll reserve judgment on the media-criticism aspect of Mr. Fields's statement until we read the piece--one that Scientology apostate Paul Haggis has said is true. But it's interesting that no mention of legal action is made here; Tom Cruise has historically been a litigious star, filing a $100 million lawsuit against a gay porn star who claimed to have dated the Mission: Impossible actor.

Holmes. (Alo Ceballos/FilmMagic)

The 4th of July has come and gone and so, we hope, has our recent streak of broiling-hot weather. (Hell’s Kitchen, indeed.) Our personal cooling-down strategies: abusing office A/C (which is at least 10 degrees cooler than the window units in our sauna-like brownstone), answering the dual siren calls of the ice-cream man’s perpetually creepy jingle and the music wafting from the beer-chilled bar around the corner, and visiting the city’s “pop-up pool” that opened last Friday under the Brooklyn Bridge. (What is a pop-up pool, exactly? And how does it differ from an inflatable one?)

To be fair, there’s one thing we can thank this scorching heat for: it helped break the six-year fever of New York resident Katie Holmes, who finally came to her senses and served Tom Cruise divorce papers two weeks ago while he was in Iceland, working on a film. In record time, these two have hammered out a divorce settlement, with custody of their 6-year-old daughter Suri Cruise awarded to Ms. Holmes.

Now, did this have anything to do with Tom Cruise trying to indoctrinate his daughter into the world of Scientology? Of course not. You’re just being paranoid, you cynical pre-clear. Here, why don’t you borrow our e-meter? It’s perfectly standard in any divorce to release a joint statement about “respect for each other’s commitment to each of our respective beliefs.”

But as one celebrity breaks free of endless family embarrassments, another is dragged back into the muck. Brad Pitt’s mother railed against homosexuality and President Barack Obama in a recent letter to The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. Which makes it a perfect time for Mr. Pitt’s younger brother, Doug Pitt (who was not the recipient any of the family’s good genes), to appear on The Today Show with Matt Lauer to defend his mom—and perhaps slip in a little marketing for his new Virgin Mobile campaign.

Brad Pitt has yet to comment, but with speculation on his family life heating up, he might want to take a nice, cool vacation.

We hear Iceland is great this time of year.

Given that we can't watch the trial, we guess we're excited about Katie's next chapter too--her Oscar speech in 2014 will be terrific!