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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With David Kirby
Aired July 27, 2002 - 09:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: What would you pay to spend your vacation in your favorite star's home? Well, from Mick Jagger to Jane Seymour to pop culture mainstay Charo, plenty of big names rent out their pads.
Well, as the "New York Times" reported in yesterday's Escapes section, David Kirby wrote that article. He joins us now with more about living in the stars' digs.
And is this real? I mean, are they really renting out their places, or are we just going to rent from some pretty famous landlords that just say they live there, but really rent it out to make some cash?
DAVID KIRBY, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, they are making some cash, some good cash. But they actually do use these homes. They're their own personal vacation homes. And they're filled with all their personal belongings. It's not a sterile rental environment where everything has been removed from the house. It's really where they go on vacation.
ROBERTS: OK, so Mick Jagger, Jane Seymour, who else can we rent from if we want to?
KIRBY: You can rent from Merv Griffin, he has a manor called St. Clarence House in Ireland. You can rent from Randy Travis, he has tow properties in Maui and two properties in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There is an island in the Caribbean owned by Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, and also Chris Blackwell of Island Records has an amazing property in Jamaica that was once Ian Fleming's estate. He also has quite an amazing home in Sundance, Utah, right next to Robert Redford's house.
ROBERTS: Hey, David, does it depend on where the actual real estate is and how big the home is for what we're going to pay to rent it, or does it depend on who the star is that's actually renting it out? Are we just paying to say we stayed at Jane Seymour's place, or that we stayed at Richard Branson's place?
KIRBY: I think you're paying a little bit of a premium just to be staying in any of their places. But as far as I can tell, the price of the property seems to depend more on the location and the size than the cachet of the star who owns it.
ROBERTS: OK, and so how much are we talking about here? How much payola are we going to have to shell out?
KIRBY: The -- quite a bit. The range is actually rather wide. The -- on the low end, we have Charo's house in Maui -- excuse me, in Kauai (ph), which starts at $7,700 a week, and it goes all the way up to Richard Branson's island, which in high season is $141,000 a week. That does come with a staff of 22 and all meals and drinks.
ROBERTS: Well, I was going to ask you...
KIRBY: And your own island.
ROBERTS: ... does this come with some type of staffing? So we get 22 there. What about the other places?
KIRBY: And there you get the staff. It -- all -- each house is different. Mick Jagger's house comes with a staff of six, and its own private Jeep. Other houses just come with basically the pool maintenance and the maid service, but you can always arrange for extra staff and cooks and things like that.
ROBERTS: And I guess it costs extra to have Mick come and sing to you, right?
KIRBY: I don't think any amount of money will get you that.
ROBERTS: And, I mean, is there any chance that these celebrities stop by to visit their tenants, or is it just (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
KIRBY: Extremely rare, it's not going to happen that I've heard of.
ROBERTS: Well, now, where can...
KIRBY: But you get to look at their blenders and ashtrays and things like that.
ROBERTS: Now, if all of us have tens of thousands of dollars lying around to go rent these places, where could we find out who's available, who's not, what's booked up?
KIRBY: The best place to go, there are several Web sites that list these houses, one in particular lists a good number of them. It's called VillasoftheWorld.com. And if you go on, you click on Celebrity Villas at the bottom of the page, that's how I found it to do the story for the Escapes section. And it's a great resource.
ROBERTS: Well, that's right, the story appeared in "The New York Times" yesterday in the Escapes section. David Kirby's the one who wrote it. David, thanks so much for joining us this morning. None of us, I don't think, are going to be able to afford to go to these places, but we love to read about them.
KIRBY: Well, keep working and saving.
ROBERTS: I know, it's always fascinating, though, to know how the rich keep staying rich. You know, they just rent out their places.
KIRBY: Yes.
ROBERTS: All right, David, thanks so much.
KIRBY: Thank you very much.
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