H'WOOD STARS LIGHT UP SMALL-SCALE N.Y. RACE

Some of Hollywood's biggest names are taking sides in a little-noticed City Council race - all thanks to a childhood friendship between a novice candidate and superstar actor Edward Norton. Producers David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg have each chipped in $2,500 to Mark Levine, one of 10 Democrats slugging it out to succeed term-limitedCouncilman Stanley Michels in northern Manhattan. Actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Courtney Love have also written $2,500 checks, ashas Norton himself. Director Milos Forman came in with $250. Those marquee names don't usually pop up in lowly council campaigns. But Levine had the good fortune to grow up in Maryland with Norton, who didn't forget his childhood pal. "We both wound up in New York City after college," recalled Levine, 32, founderof the 4,000-member "Credit Where Credit is Due" credit union. "He was an aspiring actor. I was a schoolteacher in the South Bronx. We probably grew closer here [than in Maryland]." Norton struggled for five years in off-off-Broadway roles before breaking outin the hit 1996 film "Primal Fear." He's now co-starring with Robert De Niro in"The Score," the fourth highest-grossing film in the nation last week. With Norton's help, Levine has amassed an impressive $105,644 war chest,surpassing his two closest rivals, Mario Torres, a vice president of theBattery Park City Authority ($82,066), and Robert Jackson, who led the lawsuitchallenging the state's education formula ($33,607). But the sprawling 7th council district - which stretches from West 122nd toWest 218th Streets - isn't Hollywood on the Hudson. Levine said schools are among the most overcrowded in the city and there's"rising concern" about the shrinking supply of affordable apartments. Forty-six percent of the residents are Hispanic, who may be more impressed byLevine's ties to the community than his connection to Tinseltown. "I speak fluent Spanish," he said. "It's important in the neighborhood."

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