50 Cent has gone high-rent

Curtis Jackson – better known as 50 Cent, the gangsta rapper who broke onto the scene wearing bulletproof vests – had one question for me when we met at Macy’s.

“Have you smelled this?” he asked as he held his new fragrance, Power by 50 Cent.

And with that, he sprayed my left wrist with cologne.

This is the new 50 Cent. He hangs out with Bette Midler and wears Giorgio Armani and Tom Ford suits.

“After 2003, my music took off, and I achieved financial success that allowed me to enter different circles,” he says. “I was exposed to new information and turned onto different things.”

Jackson isn’t worried about the hip-hop community questioning his “street cred.” He feels his past – he was arrested for drug dealing and was shot nine times in 2000 – speaks for itself.

“I think they’ve adjusted to me being successful in business,” he says. “And when people talk about ‘street cred,’ I’m probably one of the people they point to as having the most street cred because I had the hardest time. But all those things are situations I felt unfortunate to have to go through.”

Today, Jackson releases his fourth studio album, “Before I Self Destruct.” His lyrics are just as raw as they were in the past albums (including a little ditty called “Death to My Enemies”).

The album comes with a DVD, which Jackson wrote, directed and stars in.

He played a loan shark in the recently released British film “Dead Man Running,” and can be seen in “Twelve” with Kiefer Sutherland and “13” with Mickey Rourke next year.

Will we ever see 50 Cent in a romantic comedy?

“When you’ve seen Ice Cube do ‘Are We There Yet?, ” he says, “you can never say never.”

The birthday bunch

Actor Steve Railsback is 64. Actress Marg Helgenberger is 51. Singer Diana Krall is 45. Actress Lisa Bonet is 42. Actress Martha Plimpton is 39. Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal is 32. Actor Noah Gray-Cabey (“Heroes,” “My Wife and Kids”) is 14.