Does Beyonce's apartment hunt mean she's looking to move out?

THE BEYONCE/JAY Z split rumors gained a wee bit of traction yesterday when the New York Post reported that Queen Bey looked at a $21.5 million Chelsea penthouse without her hubby.

Now Tattle, always looking for the best in people, might say: maybe he was busy counting money or something, maybe Bey was looking for an investment property, maybe Blue Ivy needs a new playdate spot.

You don't get it, anonymous sources said. Jay is the real-estate guy. He's got 99 problems but a high-priced condo ain't one.

The source also told the Post that Jay loves the family's present 8,309-square-foot digs in Tribeca.

The apartment that Beyonce was scouting on West 19th Street was less than half that.

"I can say with certainty that Jay is not downsizing," the source said.

But what about Beyonce?

The Really Useful Group, the London-based production company of "Jesus Christ Superstar" composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, said yesterday that it was taking legal action against producer Michael Cohl for the "unilateral decision" to scuttle the show's summer North American arena tour.

The Really Useful Group said in a statement that it "has no option but to proceed with legal action to recover its costs associated with the project and in turn satisfy outstanding payments to suppliers and contractors."

The tour was to start June 9 and was to star former Sex Pistol Johnny Lydon as King Herod, Michelle Williams (of Destiny's Child) as Mary Magdalene, Brandon Boyd (of Incubus) as Judas and JC Chasez (of 'NSync) as Pontius Pilate. Ben Forster, the winner of the U.K.'s prime-time contest show "Superstar," was to play Jesus.

The New York Daily News reports that bird conservationists are concerned about "Star Wars: Episode VII" shooting for three days on human-free Skellig Michael island, in Ireland.

It seems as if it's breeding season for puffins, peregrine falcons, Manx shearwaters and guillemots.

"They've gotten their permissions, but we're curious about what precautions they are taking to protect the nests," Dr. Steve Newton of BirdWatch Ireland told Radio Kerry.

Bird lovers are concerned that the Jedi will disturb the birds while they mate.

Hey, if the police couldn't disturb the couple mating on the roof of Chipotle, are birds in heat really going to be distracted by a couple of stormtroopers?

ESPN says it has suspended sportscaster and former Inquirer columnist Stephen A. Smith for a week because of comments about domestic abuse suggesting that women should make sure they don't provoke attacks.

Smith apologized for the comments made Friday during an on-air discussion about NFL running back Ray Rice's suspension for allegedly assaulting his fiancee. He called them "the most egregious error of my career," and that's a fairly high bar.

But even with the apology, ESPN said that Smith would be silenced until Aug. 6.

ESPN chief executive John Skipper said in a staff memo that Smith's comments don't reflect the company's views. They certainly don't reflect the views of ESPN's Michelle Beadle, who criticized Smith on Twitter and was not disciplined.

In related news, Geraldo Rivera, speaking about so-called beta starter marriages, said on Fox News' "Outnumbered":

"I know this may provoke a Stephen Smith-like reaction, but . . . what I think a woman brings to a marriage more than anything else, to a relationship, is her youth. Her youth is a fragile and diminishing resource. So, if a woman were to invest two years in one of these marriages, and then to be rejected by the man, I think that she has given up a valuable asset that is unequal - in other words, the man gets everything and the woman gets nothing from this arrangement."

More often than not, it seems, men should just not speak.

* "Dig," a new TV series starring Anne Heche and Jason Isaacs, is moving some of its production from Israel to New Mexico.

The USA Network series filmed its pilot in Jerusalem but is moving due to the recent unrest in Israel and Gaza. The New Mexico Film Office says the show will film interiors in Albuquerque while it looks for new international locations for exteriors.

Now, if we could just convince Jews, Christians and Muslims that Jerusalem was in New Mexico, we may be able to solve a lot of problems.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

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