‘Man On Wire’s’ Philippe Petit to mark 50th anniversary of Twin Towers tightrope walk with Sting collab
Philippe Petit, the man who stunned the world by tightrope-walking between the Twin Towers, is taking to the air once again.
On Aug. 7, the French high-wire artist will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his stunt — immortalized in the Oscar-winning doc “Man on Wire” in 2008 — by walking the width of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
We’re told his pal and frequent chess opponent Sting will join him for the festivities. (Petit tells us Sting has a leg up on him in the chess department: “I often lose, as he’s taking lessons from [Russian chess grandmaster] Garry Kasparov.”)
Petit’s two-days-only performance will include the “Every Breath You Take” songwriter debuting a tune about his friend’s breathtaking achievement in 1974, played while Petit walks the cathedral (at a manageable 20-foot height).
He pulled off the illegal World Trade Center walk by disguising himself as a construction worker to map out the logistics, which took eight months of observation and planning.
On the day, he and a few French and American accomplices snuck onto the roof of one of the towers and strung a cable to the roof of the other.
The performer then walked back and forth for nearly an hour before cops arrested him. They released him hours later and he did what anyone in the ’70s would do after going free and pulling off one of the biggest schemes in New York City: He had sex with a groupie.
Director James Marsh told the story of his history-making walk in the 2008 doc, based on Petit’s book “To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers.”
He told The Post back then, “It’s part of my life to feel like a criminal.”


