De Niro Blighty Bound

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/10/1997 at 12:00 AM EDT

Robert De Niro, 57, is said to be buying a $4.7 million penthouse in London's Docklands district, reports that city's Independent newspaper and Reuters. The purchase would mark a continuing trend among New York and Hollywood celebrities to establish a base in the British capital. (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman already have a London home, as does Madonna.) De Niro also owns a penthouse in New York's TriBeCa. Among the first residents in the Docklands, a onetime commercial district, was legendary film director ("Lawrence of Arabia") David Lean, who lived in four adjoining former warehouses on the banks of the Thames from the mid-'80s until his death in 1991. World heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis reportedly was the former owner of the De Niro penthouse.