Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
1. LA.
2. NYC
3. Chicago
4. Miami
5. Atlanta
6. Nashville
LA has more TV and movie celebrities residing in it than NYC, hands down. It's not even close.
After those two cities...Chicago, Miami, Nashville and Atlanta also have quite a few TV/movie celebrities. Most of the celebrities that live in these cities often have a place in LA too. Also, many of the celebs in Chicago and Miami will live there for a summer or winter. I think this will be the case for a long time even though movies and tv shows are increasingly filmed in NYC, Toronto, Chicago, New Orleans, etc.. instead of LA.
Theater, opera, blues, jazz and classical music etc.. are huge in NYC and Chicago though, but these aren't exactly the type of people tourists from Sacramento are going to get excited about seeing at a restaurant. I think music celebrities increasingly live wherever they want and just fly to LA or NYC to tour or possibly record.
NYC, Chicago and San Francisco have many more celebrity architects, intellectuals, economists, artists, chefs and businessmen than LA. They aren't nearly as recognizable as their names only carry currency in niche intellectual groups. In reality though, most Americans aren't really that educated or interested to consider Nobel prize winners to be celebrities. If they did then Chicago would be a mecca of boring celebrity culture haha....TMZ reports Yoichiro Nambu was spotted at a cafe looking unkempt in an old tweed jacket mumbling to a friend in broken English about the the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics.
Final thoughts, I think that fashion is really more centered in Milan, Paris and then a far 3rd New York. The US chases fashion trends much more than anyone seems to know or want to admit. Most of the fashion trends in the US are the result of marketing rather than any organic development however authentic it seems to feel. I suppose that is also true in Europe, but it is less obvious.
Anecdotal, but I've found you can't spend too much time in LA without bumping into celebs. In the few years I've lived here I have:
1. Stood in line behind Jane Lynch at a cafe on La Brea Avenue. Sat down and noticed that Steven Speilberg and his family were sitting one table over.
2. Bumped into Kevin Bacon and Kira Sedgwick on Abbot Kinney in Venice
3. Danced with Juliette Lewis at a Z-Trip concert @ the Palladium
4. Sat at the bar in Cafe Gratitude next to Carey Mulligan
5. Sat in a sushi restaurant one table over from Harland Williams and his date who looked half his age
6. Chatted with 2 dudes from Odd Future at an afterhours in Koreatown.
7. Drank pints of beer with well-known pornstars at Spring Street bar in DTLA.
8. Was seated at a wedding reception next to the writer/creator of the series The Booth at the End
Also my wife met Robert Downey Jr when he was shopping for real estate in the building she used to work in.
And we're not even in the entertainment industry...these are just chance meetings. I've never lived in NYC so I don't know if this kind of thing is commonplace there too or not.
Nashville might be a good answer, but I would imagine that's mainly confined to people in the country music industry, no?
Not particularly. Many pop stars live in Nashville and in the suburbs, movie stars, reality tv stars, and professional sports players. The reason why you may not hear about it as much is because the Paparazzi are not as present as L.A. or NYC. Another city that many musicians and artists have a home is Asheville, NC.
Anecdotal, but I've found you can't spend too much time in LA without bumping into celebs. In the few years I've lived here I have:
1. Stood in line behind Jane Lynch at a cafe on La Brea Avenue. Sat down and noticed that Steven Speilberg and his family were sitting one table over.
2. Bumped into Kevin Bacon and Kira Sedgwick on Abbot Kinney in Venice
3. Danced with Juliette Lewis at a Z-Trip concert @ the Palladium
4. Sat at the bar in Cafe Gratitude next to Carey Mulligan
5. Sat in a sushi restaurant one table over from Harland Williams and his date who looked half his age
6. Chatted with 2 dudes from Odd Future at an afterhours in Koreatown.
7. Drank pints of beer with well-known pornstars at Spring Street bar in DTLA.
8. Was seated at a wedding reception next to the writer/creator of the series The Booth at the End
Also my wife met Robert Downey Jr when he was shopping for real estate in the building she used to work in.
And we're not even in the entertainment industry...these are just chance meetings. I've never lived in NYC so I don't know if this kind of thing is commonplace there too or not.
Not particularly. Many pop stars live in Nashville and in the suburbs, movie stars, reality tv stars, and professional sports players. The reason why you may not hear about it as much is because the Paparazzi are not as present as L.A. or NYC. Another city that many musicians and artists have a home is Asheville, NC.
Ditto Atlanta. Tons of professional athletes in ATL.
Also, quite a few celebs have vacation homes in the Savannah area.
The definition of celebrity is subjective, however, for my own definition, I definitely routinely saw them while living in Atlanta, but have yet to see one in SF.
As others have said, though, here in SF you may rub shoulders at parties and social clubs/events with the next Larry Ellison, the current Larry Ellison (or his son, heh), or someone of influence globally in business, politics, or culture. However, this is not always apparent until you engage conversation, if you're ever in that position. Whereas in Atlanta you'll be sitting at a restaurant next to a celebrity in town for a movie shoot, or occasionally the celebrity that permanently lives in Atlanta. Elton John keeps his US pad in Atlanta (in a building with numerous other celebrities and dignitaries) and while only in town ~60-90 days out of the year, those in the gay community know him for his parties and appearances (he doesn't keep to himself).
It was always interesting having Jane Fonda around town, as well (she threw several parties including one for Ted across the street from where I lived for a time). She ended up moving to LA, though. I ended up eating next to Charles Barkley at one particular restaurant two separate random times, which led me to think he kept a place in Midtown.
Atlanta also lends itself more to the show-off plasticky culture that comes with superficial fame/status. Even at the office building I worked in (in Buckhead) there was a valet out front where people would park their Ferraris, Lambos, and Bentleys. It was a daily occurrence to see a line of 5-10 $150K+ cars in a row for those eating at the restaurant in my building or working there. Lots of money in Atlanta, however, the irony is there is exponentially more money here in the Bay Area/SF and I actually rarely see fancy cars or people truly flaunting their wealth outside of home (and a $30M home here in SF is gorgeous, but a lot less flashy than your average $3M home in Atlanta).
My list would probably go like:
LA/NYC (depending on definition of celebrity)
Miami
Atlanta
Nashville/Chicago
Houston (seems to be more popular nowadays when it was off the radar not 5 years ago)
Then obviously the small towns that attract 2nd homes and scenes (Aspen, Park City, the Hamptons villages, Cape Cod/the Vineyard, Santa Barbara, etc).
What celebrities outside of a few rappers that still live in Miami?
Well, the list of celebs who live/have lived in South Florida include Michael Jordan, Oprah, Madonna, Donald Trump, Billy Joel, Lil Wayne, Pharell, Diddy, Rosie O'Donell, Kanye, Kim K, Serena Williams, Lebron James(obviously), A-Rod, Gianni Versace(the namesake of the clothing line, that is referenced in the popular song from Atlanta's very own Migos), OJ Simpson, Shakira, Matt Damon, Sylvester Stalone, Bill Gates, Lenny Kravitz, Cher, and I want to say Bob Marley lived in Miami briefly, because most of his family(most if not all of his sons and daughters) lived and grew up in Miami. But I don't know if Bob himself lived in Miami. And while I'm not sure Beyonce and Jay-Z have an official vacay home in Miami, I know that they were looking for a home in Miami. And Bey and Jay had this NYE party at the Versace Mansion in South Beach:
Oh yeah, I've just confirmed Beyonce and Jay-Z did infact have a home in Indian Creek Village. It's one of those rich, fru-fru, Islands in Miami-Dade County:
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
