BIEBS IN THE ’BURBS
Pop star haunts tony Jersey town
The Biebs has a thing for the ’burbs.
Justin Bieber sightings have become a parlor game of Where’s Waldo in tony Montclair, NJ.
In recent weeks, the 23-year-old pop idol has been spotted shooting hoops with neighborhood kids, chowing down at Smashburger, lounging at the pool club, touring the middle school, and cheering on a street performer as a gaggle of girls went gaga.
He is popping up all over the place in the leafy town 12 miles west of Manhattan. Locals surmise it’s because his spiritual guide, evangelical pastor Carl Lentz, lives there. Lentz, 38, who preaches at Hillsong NYC in Manhattan, has known Bieber since 2008.
On May 19, Bieber was spotted leading cheers for a girl singing and playing guitar on South Park Street.
“Put down your phones and be a normal person for a second,” Bieber advised the crowd of girls capturing their brush with fame.
He then put his arms around two fans and applauded the singer as she performed Colbie Caillat’s “Brighter Than The Sun.”
The moment went viral, and soon the performer, Ava Otterbein, 11, gushed on Instagram: “When @justinbieber comes to your performance and asks you to play for him. This is the best day of my life! He gave me a high five!”
That same day, The Biebs, sporting a $290 pair of Vilebrequin turtle-print swim trunks, as posted on Twitter, was seen posing and sunning poolside at what is believed to be the Montclair Beach Club.
The sighting generated a bit of controversy, with rumors spreading that if he visits the club again, members’ paying guests will be ushered out.
“They don’t want everyone to go crazy texting. It’s a little annoying, right?” one 49-year-old club member sniffed. “Nobody joins the pool club because you want chaos. You want your family and your friends. A star is not what the club is about.”
A man who identified himself as the owner said sharply, “We don’t give out any information about our members or their guests.”
Local gossips are also chattering about where in town they think Bieber lives, and it’s led to comical confrontations.
The owner of a $3.9 million mansion for sale on Lloyd Road had to post someone “outside the top of the driveway because so many fans were stopping by and cruising around,” said real-estate agent Christine Lane, who has the home’s listing.
The move backfired when crazed fans mistook the watchman for a Bieber bodyguard.
“I’ve had his Beliebers calling me, trying to find out if the house is still for sale, but they try to sound like adults,” Lane said with a laugh, noting, “It would be a perfect house for him.”
To some locals the “Sorry” singer is a mystery, to others a menace, and to one woman, he’s just make-believe.
“He hasn’t been here!’ the resi- dent fumed. “I don’t know what it is about this area. Three weeks ago, it was Johnny Depp in Montclair . . . It used to be Telly Savalas . . . It’s all a bunch of crap. Fake news!”
While Beliebers are going bananas, most denizens of Montclair — where the 38,000-population includes “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert — are not impressed.
“Call me if Ozzy is in town,” said a tattooed beauty-store saleswoman.