Burning Q’s: Dean’s Other Girl & More Hills Haters
I’ve been watching the third season of Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott on Oxygen. They keep saying their new daughter is their first little girl. Didn’t Dean have a girl with his first wife, right before he left her for Tori? Debby
Good eye, kid, good eye. Dean McDermott and former wife Mary Jo Eustace adopted a daughter together in 2005, the same year that he began his relationship with Spelling. But McDermott no longer has any legal responsibility for the little girl, named Lola. So take the “first daughter” gushing as you will. I know I won’t.
Got more Burning Q’s? Let’s go!
Why do people report about the so-called “stars” from the MTV show The Hills? Most people don’t seem to care about Heidi Montag and the other idiots who populate the show. Why can’t they report real news about actual celebrities? Kelly
They may annoy you and irk melooking at Audrina too long gives me a tic in my left eyebut as far as ratings are concerned, they are bona fide TV stars. The season-three opener in March brought in 4.8 million viewers, MTV’s biggest audience ever for a single episode.
Is Raven-Symoné married with kids? T.S.
No.
Miss Beaatch, what are you doing for the Fourth? Tandy
Celebrating my independence from Battlestar Galactica, thank God that’s over. Frack, that last season was looking a mess. I shall also receive gifts, celebrity-style, at a party in Malibu, and see if there are any surfer-vs.-paparazzo fights going down in the vicinity. So much more fun than fireworks.
Oh, and be my fan on Facebook, ’kay?
A-List Secrets: Why Stars Need Reality Shows
What’s with celebs needing to do all these reality shows? Are these people so obsessed with themselves, or do they just need the money? D.D.
The answer is as varied as the colors of the diamonds that Jennifer Lopez sees dancing in her dreams. Jamie Foxx has a new MTV reality show debuting July 15, but he won’t be appearing at all, leaving money as the most likely motivation.
In producing a reality show, big celebs typically get “a 5 or 10 percent takeback from everything made through the show,” explains marketer Richard Laermer, who steered über-producer Peter Guber into a reality-show career. “And if the show goes overseas, you can make a fortune on that thing.”
So where does that leave, like, Tori Spelling? Well…
With a drama-turned-reality star like Tori, a flagging career is the likely motivation. She was on Beverly Hills, 90210 in the early 1990s. Then people forgot about her for a while. The Earth rested and everyone was at peace.
Except for Tori, of course. Back she came. She hyped herself and her life through a couple of seasons of Tori and Dean: Something Something Something, and behold, the comeback. She landed an endorsement deal with NutriSystem. She has enough of a fan base for people to care about the birth of her second baby. She’s front and center in a Sketchers ad campaign. Even the death of her dog is news.
“Just like the stock market, celebrities have to aggressively maintain and refreshen those brands, or they will go stale and grow old,” says James Lee, president of the Lee Strategy Group, a marketing consultancy that has pitched celebrities for reality shows.
Speaking of stale and old, gotta go. I think my editor needs something.
Oh, and be my fan on Facebook, ’kay?
A-List Secrets: Catch a Star in Their Own Store
Was thinking about celeb-owned businesses, like the Kardashians’ boutique in Calabasas, Calif. How much of a chance is there that a celeb owner is on hand when you drop by?Erica, Palmdale, Calif.
During the two weeks a month or so that they’re in town, the Kardashian girls are “in and out of the store all day long,” according to Kris Jenner. Kind of like the female Flying Zucchini Brothers of fashion, I guess. Good luck with that.
Your odds increase greatly in the case of Belle Gray, a boutique run by both Lisa Rinna and her fabulously pneumatic lips.
Here’s why:
“She just left,” store buyer Heather Martin told me this morning. “Whenever she’s in town, she’s here every day. She’ll come in here, run to her cardio ballroom class down the street, come back in, rearrange a mannequin, leave, come back and do some business and leave again.”
Last year, the actress wasn’t in town much, being on Broadway and the Dancing With the Stars tour and whatnot. This year, she’s around more. Even her husband, Harry Hamlin, blows in about once a month, albeit it’s usually before store hours.
His missionand I swear I am not making this upis orchid arrangement.
“He wakes up in the morning, heads to the flower mart downtown, rides in his car with his 24 orchids and brings them back to the store,” Martin tells me. “He arranges them all. He puts the moss in there, everything.
“He also fixes the lights and does touch-ups on the paint,” Martin says, but his biggest pet peeve remains a wilty orchid.
Funny. My pet peeve is a Belle Gray cashmere wrap that sets me back $204. Now you’ll excuse me. I’m off to buy four. And say hi to Lisa Rinna.
Oh, and be my fan on Facebook, ’kay?
Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt: Bigger than Beckhams?
Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt: Bigger than Beckhams?
Keeping up with their crazy self-promotional schedule, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt were spotted shortly after landing at LAX International Airport yesterday.
Famished from their flight, the peroxide pair elected to satisfy their appetites at their local Don Antonio’s Mexican Cantina, located in Westwood. Miss Montag looked cute in a black tank top and jeans with a white Hermes Birkin handbag, while Pratt looked preppy in a white polo shirt and dark jeans with sneakers.
The “Hills” couple’s latest venture is called Speidiweb, a social networking website that is, in their words, “going to be bigger than MySpace, bigger than Facebook.”
Also on their list of things to do- becoming more popular than David and Victoria Beckham. Heidi told press, “They’re great with their branding. But Speidi is going to take it to another level. I mean, I definitely want to surpass both of them.”