Posts Tagged ‘Homes’

Michael Douglas Calls Fatherhood ‘Magical’

May 18th, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff

Michael Douglas loves being a dad later in life.

“I have the attention, the time, the priority,” the two-time Oscar winner, 64, who is married to Catherine Zeta Jones, 39, tells me. “This is not a business that you can balance your family life with your professional life. Most people have a nine-to-five job and they work five days a week. Sometimes they have the summer off. This is a job where you’re gone for long periods of time. When your priority becomes family first, you really get to enjoy and savor these incredible years of super-fast growing spurts. It’s a bond that’s magical.”

Dylan, 8, takes drama class while Carys, 6, does ballet.

Like son Cameron, 30, from his previous marriage, would he encourage the latest batch to go into showbiz?

“I don’t think you have a lot of control over what your children decide to do,” the Ghosts of Girlfriends Past star says. “Either encouraging or discouraging – that’s certainly the life they’re familiar with and the life they know. It wouldn’t surprise me if, like a lot of children, they go into the careers that their parents might be in. I think they’ll see the pitfalls and the great advantages. It is a gypsy life. I’ll support my children in whatever they decide to do.”

The family certainly enjoys a lavish life faraway from Hollywood.

“We live in Bermuda, where my mother came from – my mother’s a Bermudian and we have a big family down there. The kids are in school there.”

He adds, “It’s a beautiful island. Gorgeous beaches, lovely people. It creates an environment for us away from the entertainment business, and gives our kids independence and freedom where showbiz isn’t on everybody’s lips. It’s a lovely, lovely place. It’s about an hour-and-forty-five minutes – under two hours — from New York. It’s also a British colony. It’s a lot of similarities for Catherine. They drive on the left side of the road, and the Queen and all that.”

They also keep an apartment in NYC and a farm in Quebec.

“We go skiing in the winter time,” he says. “In the summertime — lake stuff.”

Taylor Swift is a Homebody

May 15th, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff

Taylor Swift’s favorite place in the world is her Tennessee home.  Why?

“I’m never there,” the Love Story singer, 19, tells me. “I feel like whenever I have time off, it would be so pointless to get on another plane and stay in another hotel room.”

One thing she enjoys at home is her collection of ACM, CMA and American Music awards.

“I keep them right at the center of my house, right next to my platinum record.”

Why else does her house rock?

“I live on a lake, and I like to go and paddle out to the middle of the cove on a surfboard and lay out.”

Sounds like fun!

SEE MORE PHOTOS IN THE VALERIE GALLERY:

Leona Flees To UK After Stalker Scare

May 5th, 2009

Poor Leona Lewis.

The British singer just moved into an amazing new house in LA — then had to move right back out again because she was worried she was being stalked.

According to reports from Britain, the "Bleeding Love" star had only been in the $6 million pad in the Hollywood Hills for six days before she noticed a creepy guy hanging around the house.

The paper quotes a source as saying: “Leona had just gone to the shops to pick up some bits and pieces and was followed all the way back home by this man.

“She was completely unsettled by this and was pretty relieved to get back to the house safely. But when she looked out of the window later the man was still there, staring right at her. It freaked Leona out big time. She feared she was being stalked.”

Apparently she was so weirded out by the whole thing that she packed her bags and went back to England until the security at her new place gets beefed up a little.

Come back soon, Leona!

Jade Goody’s Home Listed at $1.4 Million

April 20th, 2009

In another piece of her legacy to her two boys, Jade Goody’s country home in Essex, England is up for sale for £949,99, which is around $1.4 million in the U.S.

 

The reality star spent her last days in the house, before succumbing to her hard-fought battle against cancer on March 22. All proceeds from the sale will go to a trust fund set up for her sons Bobby, 5 and Freddy, 4, who live with their dad, Jeff Brazier. The boys’ stepfather Jack Tweed is currently serving time in prison for assaulting a taxi driver.

 

Jade bought the home, a converted barn, two yaears ago. It features four bedrooms, a paddock and more than an acre of land. It is described on Essex real estate firm Hetheringtons’ website as: "A beautifully appointed and well presented barn style home in grounds of nearly an acre."

 

THE LIFE OF JADE GOODY IN PICTURES:

 

 

7 Secrets Behind ‘Hannah Montana: The Movie’ Revealed

April 10th, 2009

It’s Miley mania now that Hannah Montana: The Movie has hit theaters. The Disney Channel series that began in 2006 is finally getting its cinematic sendup.

“We’re supposed to be in Malibu, I’m going to school and I’m living the Hollywood life and everything,” Miley Cyrus, 16, says of the movie’s plot. “That begins to be a problem, so we come back to Nashville, and we’re home.”

I caught up with the all-star cast including Miley, Billy Ray Cyrus, Emily Osment, Lucas Till and Taylor Swift, who dished up seven secrets from the flick.

SEE PHOTOS FROM ‘HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE’:

1. TAYLOR SWIFT GOT HER ACTING BREAK IN ‘HANNAH MONTANA.’
Although the Love Song singer has appeared on CSI, Hannah Montana: The Movie was actually the first role she ever filmed.

“It feels good to be in the Hannah Montana movie, especially because I don’t have to do much acting because I’m playing myself,” Taylor, 19, tells me. “I thought it was cool because that’s my first experience ever with a major motion picture. It’s good to ease your way into something like that.”

It’s no wonder Miss Hannah Montana picked Taylor for the plum part.

“I’ve known Miley for a long time, and knowing her, it’s just so refreshing that she’s not jaded by having to be in an adult world,” Taylor tells me. “She’s still a kid.”

2. WIGS, WATER, OH MY!
Behind the scenes of Hannah Montana: The Movie, things aren’t always what they seem.

“I have five Hannah wigs,” Miley says. “I have a long one, another long one, a medium one, a short one and a black wig too. Once in awhile I go upside down and it’ll come off.  We glue them down. Yeah. We wash them. It’s like real hair. It’s from a person. It’s a natural thing. They have all sorts of wigs.”

Lucas Till, 18, who plays her onscreen boyfriend, says the watering hole scene was most difficult to film.

“It was like jumping into a bag of ice, and then I had to act like I was happy to be there,” he tells me during a Hannah Montana memorabilia donation held at NYC’s Planet Hollywood Times Square this week. “It wasn’t all that fun. It was cold, and it was in the summer too. That was not a fun experience.”

3. MILEY SCARED HER ONSCREEN BOYFRIEND SILLY.
Lucas was in fear for his life when he went off-roading with the teen princess during some downtime on the Tennessee shoot.

“We went to Miley’s house,” he tells me. “She has property out there, and she will drive the off-road vehicle and will not let you drive, and will almost kill you. We did a lot of that, almost dying.”

He continues, “I remember my dad came to pick me up one night, and all he could see is the headlights, and the headlights were spinning. He was wondering what happened. She actually spun out a couple times. She was going so fast, and she tried to stop and turn. Yeah, she’s crazy.”

Lucas tells me she never needed to be rescued, but had a few close calls.

“She called me one time asking for help – advice on how to get out of a sticky situation. Apparently she had gotten stuck out there, but she didn’t need a rescue. She figured it out herself.”

4. THE MOVIE WAS ALMOST SHOT IN LOUISIANA, NOT TENNESSEE.
It may seem obvious that Hannah Montana: The Movie would be filmed in Tennessee, but it was actually a tough sell.
   
“When I read the initial script, it was all about me bringing Miley home to Tennessee, and we were going to go film it in Louisiana,” dad Billy Ray Cyrus, 47, says. “To me, that was a red flag. I called a few different people, and I said ‘wait a second, I feel that Tennessee is the right place to make a movie about coming back to Tennessee.’ I’m not making this up. I’m like, ‘every place I read in this movie is within seven miles of my house.’ They said ‘take some pictures.’ So I took a few pictures. The pictures of Leiper’s Fork and Thompson’s Station were the ones that sold them on it initially. They said ‘we’ll fly someone there to see it firsthand.’ I said, ‘you come to Tennessee and Tennessee will sell itself.’”

Billy is in awe about the turns his life has taken.

“There’s no way you could make this stuff up,” he says. “I’m living in front of the world exactly what my life is. It’s a bizarre time for me in my life, but I’ve always said it’s about being real.”

5. MILEY AND BILLY RAY HAVE A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP.
Playing father and daughter onscreen and in real-life may seem like Miley gets a lot of dad time, but he’s careful not to smother her.
 
Billy says, “I’ve always tried to be her best friend and that’s what I continue to do now. She needs her space to do her thing, but I’m always there and I’m always a phone call away or a text. She always knows if she needs me, I’m there.”

Billy realized his daughter had something special early in life. “She’s always been really quick,” he says. “I’ve always found it extremely funny and I am the butt of her jokes.

Lucas agrees. “Their relationship is pretty funny. It’s like watching a TV show. They have very distinct personalities, and they don’t change much. To see them interact is funny.”

6. DURING THEIR DOWNTIME, THE CAST SPENT TIME TOGETHER.
It wasn’t all work and no play for the stars of Hannah Montana: The Movie. Miley showed them around her hometown.  

“Downtown Franklin is a small town, and you get to see what it looked like a couple decades ago,” Lucas, who counts sweet tea and Chick-fil-a amongst his Southern faves, says. “It was really cool.”

Emily Osment, 17, who plays Miley’s best friend, also enjoyed the working vacation, but she could’ve done without the bugs.

“I sat by the pool all day reading I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier,” she tells me during a Hannah Montana memorabilia donation held at NYC’s Planet Hollywood Times Square this week. “It was a nice little short read. It was good. I might have been reading the Twilight books at that time. I read a lot. I’m a big reader, so I take my book out to the pool and just read and read with Jason [Earles] and Miley. It was so nice to sit by the pool and relax and have the best time, and then go to work for a few hours in the morning.”

7. MILEY LIKES BEING A ROLE MODEL.
Miley doesn’t mind being in the spotlight, even though her most personal foibles become public fodder.

 “It’s so fun to see that little girls are looking up to me and saying ‘when I grow up, that’s who I want to be like,’” Miley says. “That’s so cool for me. That shows to the little girls that it’s cool to be a good girl.”

Hannah Montana: The Movie is in theaters now.

SEE MORE PHOTOS IN THE VALERIE GALLERY:

Madonna Moving To Malawi?

April 10th, 2009

Apparently Madonna is buying a new home. No, it’s not another New York penthouse, London townhouse or a villa on Lake Como.

 

This time Madge is moving to the Third World.

Reports from Britain are claiming that Her Madgesty is building a "family home" in Malawi — the country that has just refused to allow her to adopt three-year-old Mercy James.

It’s said that Madonna thinks that it would be good for her youngest son David — who is also from Malawi — to have that "connection to his birthplace."

“Madonna has a big, beautiful plot of land over there already," a source has said. "She’s planning to build a girl’s school in the Chinkhota village and those designs are well under way.

“But she’s gone back to the designers and asked if they could accommodate a family home on the plot or on adjacent land.”

Earlier this month, a Malawian court told Madonna that she wouldn’t be allowed to take a second child from the country because she had not been a resident there for 18 months.

She has already launched an appeal against the decision.

 

Have a news tip or great photo you want to tell us about? Shoot us an e-mail: tips@okmagazine.com

 

PHOTOS OF MADONNA & FAMILY IN MALAWI:

Kobe Shoots Back In Maid Law Suit

March 26th, 2009

Yesterday we reported that Kobe Bryant’s former maid is suing him and his wife, Vanessa.

Maria Jimenez claims that Vanessa was abusive to her, and once even demanded that she put her had in a bag of dog poop to find a price tag.

But now the Bryants have responded, saying it’s the claims — not the contents of the bag — that are a load of crap.

TMZ reports that the Bryants’ lawyers, Loeb & Loeb LLP, released this statement today: "We have learned that a former employee of the Bryants, Maria Jimenez, has filed a complaint against our clients.

"Ms. Jimenez’s outrageous allegations of improper conduct are totally unfounded and patently false.

"The Bryants intend to vigorously defend against these untruthful allegations and are confident that the baseless nature of the allegations will be proven."

Kobe Plays Defense

March 25th, 2009

Kobe Bryant and his wife are being sued by their former maid.

Furious cleaner Maria Jimenez says that not only was she treated like crap — but she was forced to put her hands in it as well!

According to TMZ, Maria claims that Vanessa Bryant was "incredibly abusive" to her, and even demanded that she put her had in a bag of dog feces to find a price tag.

The site reports that Maria also says Vanessa called her "lazy, slow, dumb, a f***ing liar, and f***ing sh*t" and accused her of stealing (of all things belonging to a multi-millionaire!) her mouth retainer.

The lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Orange County, also alleges that Vanessa "badgered, harassed and humiliated Maria by yelling and screaming at Maria and criticizing her in front of Kobe, the Bryants’ children, employees and other people in the household".

Apparently she threatened to quit but Kobe talked her out of it.

 

But according to the suit, Maria finally decided she couldn’t take it any more after Vanessa punished her for putting an expensive blouse in the washer by making her fish its price tag out of a bag of dog poop.

After that Maria said she was out of there, but Vanessa allegedly made her work until she’d paid off $690 for the blouse.

Now Maria is suing for wrongful discharge, invasion of privacy and emotional distress and unpaid wages.

Ty Pennington Goes Home

March 12th, 2009

Ty Pennington may live in Venice, Calif., but he maintains his hometown ties with Atlanta by running a shop with his high school buddies and playing music with his old band.

“I’m always going home to Atlanta to smell the air, to see the Kudzu,” the vibrant Extreme Makeover: Home Edition host tells me. “I’ve got family and friends there. Whenever you grow up in a place, it’s kind of always home no matter where you are. I miss the people. I love how they smile and give you a hug everyday. There’s a Southern hospitality you can’t get anywhere but in the South, and Atlanta definitely has it. It’ll always be home.”

When he gets home at the end of the day, Ty, 44, doesn’t sit still.

“I will start doing a tie-dye project whether it’s t-shirts or maybe doing these big tapestries just because it’s a different outlet and I don’t consider it work,” he says. “It’s my free creativity. I don’t always have time to do an art project for the fun of doing an art project. You’d be amazed at how relaxed I get doing that because it gives me a sense of creation and accomplishment. There’s a moment in all artists’ lives when they’re in the middle of that creative process, and it’s the happiest state you can be in. I love being in it, even if it’s momentarily.”

He continues, “A buddy of mine I used to work with said ‘oh my God, dude, you’ve been screaming and yelling in the phone, just going nuts all day about gotta get this done, gotta get that done, and the minute you get on the computer it’s like you’re calm and quiet. I can’t believe it, but it’s like a project actually calms you.’ That’s when I realized, oh my God, he’s right.”

He’s not all business, all the time though.

“Sometimes knowing that a project is going well is calming enough but I love taking a day where I just read, maybe play a little guitar, check out a sunset at the beach, maybe ride my bike, maybe go skateboarding and just feel like you’re living – not necessarily just working.”

Although Ty jetsets too much to have animals, he looks forward to a future filled with furry friends.

“I want a llama in a big way because I love the way they spit. I want to have a dog but I cannot do that to a dog. It’s the same reason I don’t have kids. You have to be able to be there for that animal. I’d love to one day get a ranch and have horses too.”

He doesn’t count little ones out of his future, though.

“I’ll have to have some time and some patience, but sure. Eventually I’d love to have children.”

This design guru calls Graceland his favorite celebrity home.

“That is very nice, if you’re into Memphis and kitsch. You’ve gotta love Elvis.”

Catch Ty Pennington on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which airs Sundays at 8/7c.

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