Looking at celebrities’ homes is like a home-lover’s version of reading People magazine. It’s a fun, lighthearted way to see how celebrities live – these larger-than-life people we are so entertained by, with their performances in movies, television, and music. Seeing their homes gives us glimpses into them as “real people,” like you and me. The kind of home or apartment a person chooses, and how it’s decorated and landscaped, is always interesting to me, whether he or she is a celebrity or not.

Something that adds interest to celebrity homes is that they often have more resources to spend than the “average bear,” and taking a peek into the lives of the rich and famous is all the more interesting for that. Generally, when a celebrity opens his or her home for a photo feature, it’s a way of promoting themselves and their career. So, we get the entertainment factor and they get the enhancement to their celebrity by gaining our attention and interest. Win-win!

A feature I saw recently pictured Woody Allen’s New York apartment. It was cozy and kind of old-fashioned, with red velvet wingback chairs flanking a fireplace, striped wallpaper, and dining chairs with turned-spindle backs and comfy cushions. His designer, who was interviewed for the article, said that the project was interesting because of how the client approached it. The designer said his normal MO for a space is to go into it and, from inside the room, to look at it from every angle. He said that in this case, the client stood in the entry and looked at the space from there – like a set designer.

Another feature talked about Frank Sinatra’s great love of privacy in his Palm Springs get-away house. It showed a picture of this mega-celeb smiling in the doorway to his home… but at his feet was a doormat that said GO AWAY. I have often wanted a doormat like that myself! Although, since I balk at the off-putting quality of Private Property – Do Not Enter and No Soliciting signs, I’m not sure a Go Away doormat would really work for me. Well, I loved seeing that Frank had no problem with it.

Both those features and many more, were in Architectural Digest’s annual Hollywood at Home issue. AD is one of my fave go-to magazines because they are so dedicated to design excellence and take an almost scholarly approach to topics. Even in the case of featuring celebrities, the editorial segments of the features are focused mostly on the design, refer to the celebrities in respectful tones, and sort of take “the high view.” I like that.

Traditional Home usually has a celebrity home in their feature pages every month, and that’s another magazine I subscribe to. Their editorial tone is more warm and fuzzy than AD’s, which is why I read so many different ones – variety is the spice of life. This issue shows Rosanna Scotto, New York’s Fox 5 news co-anchor, in her Manhattan apartment. What a contrast from Woody Allen’s! It’s in a highrise, full of light, and not like a set design at all. You can see it in a slide show of 9 pix at http://www.traditionalhome.com/design_decorating/howwelive/neighborly-advice_ss1.html

So that’s the celebrity homes scoop. Nice, light relief from “the usual” of day-to-day living, and isn’t that why we love celebrities in the first place?

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