A-List Secrets: How Stars Move Their Stuff
So Brangelina has moved to France and Larry Birkhead bought a house in Kentucky. How can they pack their houses up without the paparazzi looking through their stuff?Laird, Birmingham, Ala.
Oh, please. It’s easy, son! When it comes to moving while famous, celebrities simply hire an A-list schlepping company. It’s just like your own mover, except totally not. Unless your mover can…
- Deploy five or six empty decoy trucks over a period of days, or all at once on the day of the haul
- Recruit Oprah’s dog trainer to keep a star’s pooch calm and comfortable during the transition
- Disperse movers specially trained in thwarting bribes and other paparazzi tricks
- Hire a moving nanny so A-list children do not have to make eye contact with the guys loading the boxes
- Bring in cranes or other specialty equipment to haul all the celebrity’s custom gym equipment across town
- Provide organizing tips in case the client collapses under the stress of deciding where the stapler should go
- Take detailed photos of every cupboard and cranny in the A-lister’s home, and then painstakingly reproduce the positioning of each china cup and wayward Vicodin in the new digs, so the star never has to touch a piece of cardboard
See? That’s it. Simple!
“Usually it’s the agent or assistant who makes the initial call,” says Laura McHolm, cofounder of NorthStar Moving. (They count La Jolie as a long-term client but declined to say whether they had specifically helped with the reported move to France.) “They may not use the real name of the person moving, but through the questions they start asking, you start to understand it’s a big star.”
Sometimes NorthStar will even organize the move in the darkest of night to throw off photographers. And when it comes to service, no job is too small. In at least one instance, the company got a nighttime call from a celebrity requesting that someone come over and move a single chair from one room to another.
The company obliged.
No word on how many decoy chairs were deployed during the operation.
Oh, and be my fan on Facebook, ’kay?
It’s a Boy for Melissa Joan Hart
Melissa Joan Hart, best known as the star of TV’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and her musician husband, Mark Wilkerson, welcomed their first child, a baby boy, on Wednesday, PEOPLE has learned exclusively.
Mason Walter Wilkerson was born at 4:19 p.m. in Los Angeles, and weighed in at 9 lbs. exactly.
“He was a little stubborn, but all is well,” the actress tells PEOPLE. “Everyone is well and we are all relieved.”
When news of the star’s pregnancy was reported last June, her mother, Paula Hart, told PEOPLE, “I’m thrilled to death. I’m so excited. Melissa is feeling great. So far, so good.”
At her Nov. 28 baby shower, the mom-to-be and 35 guests gathered at Paula’s San Fernando Valley home to decorate onesies, eat homemade lasagna and cupcakes and marvel at her bump. “I have this enormous belly,” she told PEOPLE. “Everyone tells me I won’t make it to January.”
Hart, 29, and Wilkerson, 28, the lead singer and guitarist for the hard-rock trio Course of Nature, met when she introduced his band at the Kentucky Derby’s Mint Jubilee cancer fund-raiser in Louisville, Ky., in May 2002. “It was love at first sight,” Hart said. “We made eye contact, and my knees got weak.”
They were married in Florence, Italy, on July 19, 2003. Since Sabrina had ended its seven-year run just three months earlier, the couple were eager to focus on their future. As Hart told PEOPLE, “we can start enjoying the rest of our lives together.”
So You Think You Can Dance: LA Auditions (season premiere)
(S04E01) It’s back! *sings terribly* “Oh, I wanna dance with somebody. With somebody who loves me!” I am psyched for So You Think You Can Dance. We kicked off tonight with the L.A. auditions and a two-hour season premiere. There were a lot of Russians, a lot of pelvic thrusts, a lot of repeat dancers, and a lot of Mary Murphy’s infectious/irritating laugh. I can’t decide about that one. Some times I can’t stand her and some times I want to sit next to her at the judges table. What about you?
But enough about Mary, let’s get to the good stuff … the auditions!
Most Interesting/Entertaining of the Night:
I’m not even going to mention Sex. Wait … I just did. Okay, start again.
Let me clarify something before I get to the meat of it. When I say “entertaining,” I’m talking either way here. They could be awesomely bad or just awesomely awesome. Also, I’m only picking a few so feel free to leave your favorites in the comments.
Now, that that’s out of the way. Laura, the visually-impaired dancer, was certainly one of the most interesting auditions of the night. Mia completely broke down after her performances and I have to admit, I was a little misty myself. It was indeed awe-inspiring that she could even dance as well as she could with such an impediment. How does she balance? How does she turn? Unfortunately, the handicap is a real setback for anyone with aspirations of being a professional dancer. First, it’s nearly impossible to follow choreography, especially in a large audition setting. Second, half the experience of watching a dancer is the expression in his or her eyes and his or her eye contact with audience members. But, major props to her. As Mia said, she was inspiring.
On the second day of Los Angeles auditions we met Victor. He wasn’t you’re average breaker. Every year, I watch the breakers and I think I’ve seen it all. And every year, someone comes out with something new, some unique trick that makes me say, “Wow.” Victor had everything: great tricks, great facial expressions, and great musicality. He even walked off stage (on his hands, mind you) and sat in the audience. As Nigel put it, “I don’t know what else we could ask for.”
And then there’s Rijiy who stripped down to just his jazz shoes and tighty-whities (thank God he left those on). Then Rijiy, who later explained his outfit made him a “clean slate” for the show to mold, ran around the stage grabbing his head and revealing his privies. I loved the “Dance” sign over his unmentionables.
Who’s Going to Vegas?
Devon, who’s music was wrong at first (not a very auspicious beginning to the show)
Twitch, who almost got onto the show last year, but Hok made the top 20 instead
Phillip (or as I call him, Mr. Wavey Arms), who auditioned last year and came back with more footwork
William, who auditioned to a spoken word song (Can I call that a song?)
Erica, who was there for a third time and…it was a charm
Leonidas and Alionda, the ballroom dancers who not only dance together, but live together too
Riki & Oska, who came to the auditions despite her being dreadfully sick
Kherrington, the soccer player who stole Dominic’s heart
Robert, who is the most ridiculous popper I have EVER seen (check out a video of him here)
And a bunch more that we saw quickly at the very end of the show…
Best Outfit of the Night: Irina’s red dress and black knee-highs. The outfit was helped further along by her declaring she left her husband in a half million dollar house for her freedom. I feel like she may have left in that dress.
Best Line of the Night: “I have many years of extensive training.” –Sex from Smithtown, NY
Overall, it was a good season premiere. What did you think?
Talking “Dirt” with Courteney Cox - VIDEO
With the season two premiere of FX’s Dirt just around the corner (this coming Sunday, March 2nd, at 10:00PM), you may have noticed that the ad campaign is in full effect. The image to the right has been adorning everything from billboards in Times Square to magazine pages.
For those that weren’t familiar with season one, you might have thought that this was an entirely new show altogether. If you recall the ad campaign for season one, at first glance the show looked much more darker, and it was. The ads depicted Courtney Cox (as ruthless tabloid editor Lucy Spiller) pale faced, in a blood red dress, overlooking Hollywood — the breeding ground for her next headline. Not the case this season as you can see by the much more jovial, comic book feel of the new ads. As much as I loved the first season, it was nothing that I expected it to be. Trust me when I say that season two very quickly makes up for that deception.
I’ve now had the chance to screen the first two episodes and even got the opportunity to sit in on a conference call with Cox last week. Read on for my thoughts on season two, some quotes from the mouth of the woman who plays Lucy Spiller, and a sneak peek of the premiere episode. Be warned though — this does contain spoilers.
For those that recall the pilot, you might remember the opening. Lucy was at some A-List celebrity event and as she walked around and made eye contact with numerous celebs, her mind began to generate headlines and magazine covers for each person. Bulimic! Pregnant again! Gay? It was corny, tabloid-y fun. Then it stopped and the show took on a fairly serious tone — blackmail, hostage situations, and the destruction of lives. It culminated in the attempted murder of Lucy in the finale.
That isn’t to say that Lucy is any less conniving this season. However, during the conference call, Cox was quick to point out that, “it’s much lighter this year and it’s funnier.” She went on to say that, “this year we just want it to be a little more of a broader appeal.” The tabloid feel that was originally intended comes to fruition this season and you’ll immediately notice the change.
The season picks up right after Julia Mallory’s attempt on Lucy’s life. She’s convalescing in a hospital and still has time to shoot down bad ideas for the upcoming issue of Dirt Now. No real change in character there, other than what Cox calls “a different outlook on life.” The most obvious difference is that while she’s just as abrasive as ever with her staff, her one-on-one interactions with employees (such as Alexandra Breckenridge’s Willa) are far more pleasant. Cox attributes this change to Lucy’s realization that she has a great job: “I think she’s a little more daring in ways, but for a better reason. Just a more fun outlook as opposed to… some personal vendetta against people.” Getting stabbed and almost dying will do that to you I suppose.
One of the biggest concerns coming into this season was the writer’s strike. Only seven episodes were completed (13 were ordered) and even though the strike has been resolved, FX made the call to air the seven as is and then make decisions on a season three renewal. The obvious question was how does the season end? Will there be any sort of cliffhanger?
To that, Cox responded: “Well, we didn’t know that we were going to not finish, but the strike kind of changed all of that. So luckily, what works in our favor this year, which would not have worked last year at all, is that each episode is self-contained. Even though there may be a character that goes over a few episodes you can watch each one and feel like you’ve wrapped up a story. So luckily, episode seven, which is the one that we finished on, if you didn’t know it wasn’t, no one’s getting stabbed, but it’s still an exciting episode. I mean, do we have bigger plans? Sure, but does it work? Yes.”
Other changes readily noticeable this season include:
- Don is taking medication (no more talking kittens)
- Willa is far savvier when it comes to her job
- Holt’s star is rising faster than he expected
- There are some new faces around the Dirt Now offices
- Lucy has a new assistant named… Kenny. Again. Look for some hilarious scenes between Cox and Kevin Wheatley, who plays the new Kenny. (If you can’t remember what happened to old Kenny, read this.)
Overall, I’m fairly pleased with the tone of the new season. Not to say that it requires less thinking, but it’s far easier to digest thanks to the break from the serial format and the acceptance of the weekly procedural (ahem, “celebri-cedural”) format.
For fans of the supermarket tabloids that may have been turned off by the dark themes of last season, go ahead and take another look because the show takes plenty of shots at some fairly prominent celeb headlines that you’ll recognize in an instant. Cox made it a point to clear up any discrepancies about their depictions of celebrities though: “We don’t ever intend to hurt anyone.” Fortunately, that’s half the fun because the effort to avoid that fine line results in humanizing some of these characters to the point where you feel bad and laugh at them in the same breath. Definitely something we can all relate to.
As I mentioned before, Dirt’s second season returns to FX this Sunday, March 2nd, at 10:00PM. In the meantime, check out this exclusive preview clip featuring Willa (Alexandra Breckenridge) in action with new Dirt Now recruit Farber Kauffman (Ryan Eggold).