Apparently, her apartment in NYC's Gramercy Park neighbourhood wasn't enough for the Eat, Pray, Love star.
Stars - they're just like us! They buy groceries, take their kids to the playground and own two Manhattan pied-à-terres.
Wait, what?
Julia Roberts and her new home. bauergriffinonline.com / Lee Brown, Splash New
The stunning Julia Roberts has just spent $3.895 million (about 2.4 million pounds) on a penthouse apartment in the charming Greenwich Village neighbourhood in Manhattan. We wouldn't count this as all-out luxury for the star if it wasn't for the fact that she already has an apartment 10 blocks away in the Gramercy Park 'hood. She also happens to only spend a fraction of her time in New York (most of her life takes place in California and on her ranch in New Mexico).
Maybe it was the new apartment building's amenities that sold her -- a rooftop terrace and resident-only garage. Or it might have been memories of the neighbourhood - in 1999, Roberts bought a nine-room apartment one block away from the new apartment.
And in more wild speculation: Is the Roberts-Moder family planning a permanent move to New York? This building is close to the posh preschools and elementary schools in Greenwich Village (twins Hazel and Phinnaeus will be six this year; son Henry is three and a half). It's on tree-lined West 10th Street, which is dotted with mostly single family homes, and we're going to guess that there's enough space to house the brood quite comfortably. Now, if only, we could help with the design...