Tattle | Vant to buy a castle in Transylvania?

INTERESTED in sinking your teeth into speculative real estate?

An heir of Romania's former royals put "Dracula's Castle" in Transylvania up for sale yesterday.

The Bran Castle, perched on a cliff in central Romania, is a top tourist attraction because of its ties to Prince Vlad the Impaler, whose cruelty inspired Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, "Dracula."

Legend has it that Vlad, who made Guantanamo seem like preschool, spent one night in the 1400s at the castle.

Oh, but what a night.

After serving as a fort, royal home, and Communist property, Bran was returned to Princess Ileana's son, Archduke Dominic Habsburg in May 2006.

Habsburg, a New York architect, pledged to keep Bran open as a museum until 2009 and offered to sell it last year to local authorities for $80 million.

The offer was rejected.

Yesterday, he opened up the bidding "to the right purchaser under the right circumstances," said Michael Gardner, CEO of his rep, Baytree Capital.

Gardner predicted Bran would sell for more than $135 million - and that's without raisins. He added that Habsburg will sell it only to a buyer "who will treat the property and its history with appropriate respect."

That means no strip mall.

Some 450,000 people visit the castle every year . . . but only a handful make it out alive.

Tattbits

* Only two weeks after getting a

knighthood that seemed to have stirred up sleeper cells in Great Britain, the ridiculously targeted author Salman Rushdie and the ridiculously beautiful "Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi, are getting divorced.

Rushdie has agreed to divorce Lakshmi "because of her desire to end their marriage," his statement said. "He asks that the media respect his privacy at this difficult time."

Hasn't the media been respecting Rushdie's privacy since a fatwa was issued against him?

* Prince Edward's wife, Sophie, is

expecting the couple's second child - Lady Louise was born in 2003.

Calling a 3-year-old Lady Louise is a bit silly, isn't it?

Maybe that's why we celebrate Independence Day tomorrow. *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Send e-mail to gensleh@phillynews.com