Next-Door Celebrity Neighbors

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom – Oprah's the girl next door? An Elvis sighting in the neighbor's backyard? "The Donald's" limo parked outside? You wish, apparently.

When Tallahassee, FL-based real estate magazine publisher Homes & Land (H&L) took the slow housing market as an opportunity to Hollywood-up it's marketing, it discovered Oprah Winfrey, Elvis Presley and Donald Trump were the most sought after next-door celebrity neighbor.

In your American Dreams.

H&L culled from callers to its "Homeline" telephone service center, a survey of thousands, each asked to name the celebrity they'd most like to have as their backyard fence mate -- dead or alive.

Overall, after Winfrey, Presley and Trump came John Wayne; Tiger Woods; George Clooney; Paris Hilton and Dolly Parton in a tie (wouldn't that cause a neighborhood uprising); another tie with John Travolta, Denzel Washington, Clint Eastwood and Bill Gates; Pamela Anderson; the most appropriate tie -- Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie; tie, Tom Selleck and Julia Roberts; tie, Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson; tie, Bruce Willis and Martha Stewart (when he destroys the block, she'll tidy up); tie, Robert De Niro, Warren Buffet, Frank Sinatra and Princess Diana (Frances); tie, Jennifer Lopez, Kenny Chesney and Richard Gere; tie, Hugh Hefner and Jack Nicholson (Viagra flows in the streets); Jennifer Aniston and Al Pacino.

H&L found when it asked for "celebrity" neighbors most of those polled chose movie stars as opposed to sports heroes, music makers or others in the public eye. Tiger Woods, for instance, was the only athlete to make an appearance on the top 20 list.

Winfrey and Washington, were the only African Americans in the top 20, which was dominated by white celebrities. Woods is interracial and considers himself "Cablinasian" a portmanteau he coined from his Caucasian, Black, American-Indian, and Asian ancestry.

Five singers topped the charts including Presley, Parton, Chesney, Sinatra and singer-actress Lopez, the only Latino in the group. There were no Asian entries.

Women wanted more celebrity women next door than male celebrities and chose Winfrey, Hilton, Parton, Travolta and Clooney as their top five.

Men chose all men, Presley, Wayne, Trump, Woods and Gates, as their top most sought after next door neighbor? Bonding, apparently, was more attractive to them than the opposite sex.

Pulling anecdotal comments out of the poll, H&L found that many of the men who did want Anderson next-door claimed they'd "have a nice view from my window."

They don't call them Andersen Windows for nothing.

However, one 50-something voter from California claimed he wanted to live next-door to the Bay Watch Babe because he "liked her politics."

He likely lives in the Central Valley's agricultural region where lots of packaged nuts are produced.

Elsewhere in the poll, Anderson, De Niro and Pacino received only male votes. Princess Diana and Gere had all female votes.

Most sought-after next door celebrity neighbors ranked by age group included:

• Twenty-somethings. Women chose, Reese Witherspoon, Usher and Johnny Depp. Men opted for Tyra Banks, Beyonce Knowles and Jim Carey.

• Thirty-somethings. Women chose Queen Latifah, Rachael Ray and Tyra Banks. Men? Ozzie Osbourne, Eva Longoria and Scarlett Johansson.

After leaving their 30s, men appeared to lose interest in having celebrity women next door.

• Forty-somethings. For women it was Matthew McConaughey and Dr. Phil (McGraw). Men chose Jon Bon Jovi and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

• Fifty-somethings. Women wanted Sean Connery, Ellen Degeneres and Harrison Ford next door. Men opted for Alan Jackson, Ernest Hemingway, and Sylvester Stallone.

• Sixty-somethings. Women selected Richard Gere, Barbara Streisand and Eleanor Roosevelt. For men it was Winston Churchill, Joe Dimaggio, Mohammed Ali and Sophia Loren. Good for her.

• Seventy-somethings. Paul Newman, Barbara Streisand and Bob Barker were women's choices. Mickey Mantle, Roy Rogers and Jay Leno did it for men.

• Eighty-somethings. Women wanted Jay Leno and Bill Graham. Men pined for Chris Matthews and Roy Rogers.

Hmmm…

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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