"Our Favorite Outrageous Homes of the Rich and Famous"
Everyone dreams of living in the coolest, biggest, most amazing house imaginable. And everyone has thought about the wild amenities they’d go for if they could afford them. Heck, at this point we’re pretty sure that’s the entire driving force behind HGTV’s full schedule of shows. Big or small, there are some features that most of us can only dream of… but for the rich and famous, they can become a reality. Here are some of our favorite examples of completely outrageous and lavish – yet entirely awesome – celebrity homes.
10: Guillermo del Toro’s Horror House
For those unaware, Guillermo del Toro is a movie director whose resume includes directing the Hellboy films, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Pacific Rim, and he also wrote the screenplays for Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. In case you couldn’t guess from that list, he’s a dude way into horror and monsters. And if you ever find yourself getting invited over to his house, that’s going to be hammered home even more as soon as you set foot inside.
Del Toro’s home is, more or less, a giant museum of the the history of horror films. Alternatively, you could view it as a really nice haunted house that stays open 365 days per year. As soon as you walk in you’re greeted by a hellhound, which sets the tone for what he refers to as “Bleak House.” Statues of HP Lovecraft, as well as assorted famous creatures from horror films and literature adorn basically every inch of the place. Now, it should be noted that del Toro doesn’t actually live in the home. Which is understandable, as he’s got small children, and presumably a limited budget for the soiled bedsheets they’d go through from waking up surrounded by ghouls and goblins.
9: Neil Patrick Harris’s House is Where the Magic Happens
Neil Patrick Harris has had an interesting career. The Boy Who Would Be Doogie is one of the rare child stars to emerge from early fame and fortune unscathed and well-adjusted. Not only that, but he even managed to completely reinvent himself as a performer, thanks largely to a cameo in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, followed by not just a role on How I Met Your Mother but a number of acclaimed roles on Broadway. In 2014, he won both an Emmy and a Tony. And, oh yeah – he’s super into magic.
We’re talking a lifelong obsession, including producing a “magic-themed immersive theater project” recently. So it should come as little surprise that his love of magic would extend to his own home, right? Some people have man caves, but Doogie Howser has a hidden room – complete with a secret door – leading to a room where, as implied in the title of this entry, all the magic happens. Proving once again what a down to earth guy he is, he admits that the secret door was actually influenced by another goofy love of his: Scooby Doo. It makes sense, when you think about it. When he was actually a kid, he gained fame playing a child who acts like an adult. Now, he gets to be a grown up who acts like a kid. That’s a charmed version of adulthood right there.
8: Drake’s Live-In Resort (Complete with ATM)
Drake is best known for his role as that kid in the wheelchair on Degrassi: The Next Generation, but apparently he also does music. We hope that goes well for him and wish him lots of luck with that endeavor. Anyway, Canada’s favorite non-hockey playing son (just kidding, of course he played hockey) seems to be putting that sweet, sweet Degrassi money to good use, considering just how ridiculous his home is. We’re talking about a place that has basketball courts, tennis courts, an enormous pool with a grotto and a 30-foot waterslide, and… for some reason, a mechanical bull? Sure. Why not?
It’s got basically everything else you could think of, as well, including a giant wine cellar, a game room, a weight room, a screening room that’d be the nicest movie theater we’ve ever been to, and an ATM. Uh, we guess because sometimes you might find yourself desperately needing to make it rain but you’re short on cash? That’s a thing that happens to rappers pretty often, we’d imagine, right?
7: Celebrities Love Candy Rooms
When you’re a kid and start daydreaming about the kind of mansion you want when you grow up and hit it big on a scratch ticket, there are a few amenities you’re almost certainly going to put on the checklist. A movie theater, an arcade, the most awesome pool ever, and, naturally, a candy room. But most of us grow up and realize that’s not particularly practical. Most of us also don’t have millions upon millions of dollars and nothing to do with it. For those who do, well… they really love their candy rooms.
Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey have a candy room, and the dude who created Minecraft out-bid Jay-Z and Beyonce for a $70 million place that, of course, has a room devoted entirely to candy. Geez, you’d think it’d be the person who created Candy Crush, right? That particular house also has multiple fully stocked bars – and we don’t mean one of those small rolling carts or a fancy liquor cabinet. When we say bar, we mean an actual bar, with an elegant bar top and stools for falling off of after too much tequila.
6: Lady Gaga’s House is… Surprisingly Normal?
Now, first things first: when we say that Lady Gaga’s house is “normal” we don’t mean that it’s a run-of-the-mill pad, or that it isn’t extravagant. The thing is more than 10,000 square feet and cost $23 million, for goodness sake, and this is Lady Gaga we’re talking about. So when we say normal here, we mean in comparison to the artist who has worn meat as clothing in public. Got it? Cool.
Anyway, think of all the things you’d assume Gaga would have in her home. You know, like a walk-in refrigerator for her outfits. And now think of the last thing you’d ever expect. Did you come up with a bowling alley? Because Lady Gaga’s house 100% has a bowling alley (in addition to stables, a bocce ball court, and an 800 bottle wine cellar, of course). We just find this fairly amazing because we’re desperate to know if she bowls, how often she bowls, and what she wears when she bowls. Does she wear bowling shoes? Is she in a league? Does she have a rug that really ties the room together? These are the things to which we’re desperate for answers.
5: Celine Dion’s (Former) Water Park House
You didn’t really think we’d let Drake hog all of the Canadian extravagance on this list, did you? Fellow Great White North native Celine Dion used to live in one of the most incredible houses we could ever even imagine, and because it was in Florida, yes, that means it included, basically, an amusement park. Well, a water park, to be specific. We’re not talking about a big pool and a water slide, either. Not only is it an oceanfront property, but it’s got three pools and actual, giant, amazing waterslides as far as the eye can see. Well, as long as you’re looking at them, anyway.
Her Jupiter Island home isn’t just 10,000 square feet, but it also has a guest house… with eight freaking bedrooms. When your guest house is a mansion in its own right, you know you’re doing pretty well for yourself. Dion actually put the house on the market in 2016 and struggled to find a buyer for more than a year, because apparently rich people hate splish splash-inspired fun? But it’s ok, because the house has been purchased, so we know that her park will go on.
4: Paris Hilton’s Dogs Live Better Than You
Paris Hilton, for those who’ve blocked her from your minds, was basically a Kardashian before the Kardashians were a thing. The party girl and heiress to the Hilton hotel empire got famous for making a terrible sex tape and being vapid and wildly out of touch with reality. So it really shouldn’t be a surprise that she’d go ahead and build herself a private night club inside her own house, right?
But that’s not even the craziest part of her house. In fact, the craziest part isn’t even in her house: it’s a smaller replica of her house. Now, rich people buying fancy dog houses for their furry friends is not unusual. Heck, our old pal Drake apparently has an air conditioned dog house on his property. But Hilton went above and beyond for man’s best friend, building the Doggy Mansion, custom designed and built to match her own abode, right down to the crown molding and furniture. It’s two stories high, and for some reason we can’t quite understand, the dogs have their own closets. No word on whether there’s a private doggy nightclub or not, but it doesn’t really matter, because we’re pretty sure we wouldn’t be on the guest list. We’re more cat people around here.
3: 50 Cent’s… Home for the Elderly?
Okay, so no, 50 Cent’s house wasn’t an assisted living facility when he lived there. But the home – which he himself bought from Mike Tyson – was purchased in 2016 by a “nursing home management company” with the intent being to turn it into an old folks home. Which is just hilarious, really, when you go from Tyson, to 50 Cent, to your great aunt Ethel as the residents of this enormous home.
Of course, as absurd as that chain of residency seems, double that absurdity and you’ll be in the ballpark for the amenities that 50 Cent had placed in the home as part of a multi-million dollar renovation. We’re talking about a nightclub (complete with stripper poles, naturally), a helicopter pad, and craziest of all, a full casino. Apparently, the place cost more than $70,000 per month to maintain, which could be part of why 50 Cent filed for bankruptcy and ultimately sold the place. It’s a real shame, too, because we’re just not sure how he’s going to get by without those nine kitchens this place had.
2: John Travolta’s Live-In Airport
John Travolta has a minor obsession with planes. You may have noticed that at some point, like when he named his son Jett, or when his character in the Look Who’s Talking films went from being a taxi driver in the first one to an airline pilot in the sequel. That’s… that’s not a career path you often see, though we guess in both cases you’re transporting people from here to there. Plus, it’s a movie about a baby who sounds like Bruce Willis, so reality kind of goes out the window on that one.
Anyway, the plane obsession for Travolta – a licensed pilot, as if you didn’t know – extends to his home in Ocala, Florida. It’s actually part of a full development for flying enthusiasts like Travolta, called Jumbolair Aviation Estates. And we’re not talking about people who just have a little Cessna they take up on the weekends, either. Travolta himself had a Boeing 707 that he’d fly around, and which you can see in the video above basically has its own “garage” attached to the house. We bet the wait at the baggage claim is still terrible, though.
1: Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Old West Town
Alright, we’ve mentioned man caves in passing within this list. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s “man cave” is pretty much the man cave to end all man caves. Now, if only we could stop saying man cave. Especially since, really, his version is immense, and outside the confines of his actual house and, oh yeah… it’s a full Old West town. The NASCAR driver decided to go just a tad above and beyond to create a cool place for he and his friends to hang out, and what he came up with was Whisky River.
Whisky River, as it were, looks like something you’d find in a Disney theme park. It’s extraordinarily detailed, with a saloon, a barber shop, a post office, a bank, a pharmacy, and a sheriff’s office, complete with jail cells. Apparently, Earnhardt doesn’t spend a lot of time at Whisky River. But now that he’s announced he’s retiring at the end of the year, we think it’s a safe bet he’ll be slapping on his spurs and letting folks know this town is big enough for the both of them, so come hang out and do a few shots, it’ll be fun.