Celebrities and their DVDs (1 Viewer)

[Scott Temple]

I've often wondered about celebs and their DVD collections. How big are their collections? What movies do they buy? When a movie of theirs is released on DVD do they get a free copy or do they have to buy it like the rest of us? Being that the celebs are "in the biz" and make tons of money I imagine that most would have a huge library of films on DVD and probably an enormous home theater system to display them. I wonder if there are any celebs that haven't bought into DVD and are still clutching their VHS tapes?

 

[Don Solosan]

Back when Dave's was open on Ventura Blvd in Studio City, CA, I ran into Cuba Gooding Jr buying Godzilla movies. I also saw Nicolas Cage in there buying an armful of DVDs of some TV show -- Twilight Zone, I think it was.

 

[TheBat]

I have had expereince working with celebrities websites.. Usually they are busy with their lives.. so when I see that a dvd or something that isinteresting I forward them some info.. some collect the rare dvds or videos for their own collection.. some might even own something on video that is not really public and vice versa.. some are more into home theatre then others. since I worked on a website for a celebrities I have been able to get some free screeners to reviews for the site.

JACOB

 

[Mitch Stevens]

I think that most celebrities are just too busy doing whatever it is they have to do, or even just going out and having fun with their friends/family that they don't really have time to watch DVDs.

I've seen a lot of episodes of MTV's "Cribs" and the celebs that do collect DVDs usually don't have that many over 50 or so.

Most forum members probably have more DVDs than celebs do.

 

[Bradley-E]

They probably have their maids go to Best Buy and pickup DVD's for them.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

NOTE: The following snarky generalizations are presented for amusement purposes only. (OK, mostly.) I know perfectly well that not all celebrities are self-absorbed egotistical jerks. Just almost all the ones I know anything about.

How big are their collections?

Miniscule. Not only limited to their own films but not even all of them. Things they appeared in where they got a really good part, or got the girl/guy in the end or looked particularly good. (Male celebrities may also have copies of chick flicks they were in because two of their ex-wives got really turned on by them for reasons that totally escape them.)

What movies do they buy?

Hah! You're kidding, right? (See next answer)

When a movie of theirs is released on DVD do they get a free copy or do they have to buy it like the rest of us?

As with all other DVDs (and many clothes, meals and incidentals) they get freebies from the studio, sponsor, somebody's publicist, whatever. This falls under the bizzaro rule that people with incredible amounts of money get tons of freebies, while old ladies on their late husband's pensions have to clip store coupons and shoplift cat food.

Regards,

Joe

 

[StephenA]

One celebrity that I remember seeing on Cribs that had a pretty big DVD collection was Rob Zombie, though it was pretty much all horror movies. He also had the laserdisc and VHS versions of the movies. I think they all took up a big walk-in closet or pantry.

 

[RyanAn]

StephenA - Man, Rob Zombie had quite a collection, and like me - he had some incredibly bizare order for his films that no one else would know except him.

Fieldy from KoRn had a big locked cabinet full of movies. I personally love seeing pictures of people's collections, so it is neat to see shows like Cribs or How I'm Livin' show them. Other nice ones were some guy from Good Charolete and Ian, a VJ from MTV.

Kevin Smith also said that he has a few thousand DVDs and buys just about every new release every week and admits that he will probably never watch them - he just likes collecting. (He also had a very extensive, ie LARGE Laserdisc collection before he became famous)

 

[Amy Mormino]

I remember reading about a soap opera celeb (Michael Knight, who's played Tad on All My Children for decades now) who had so many DVDs that he didn't have space for all of them. He said he put them in those folder cases, which is the same thing that I do with mine since I'm studying overseas. It was interesting to see that someone who you think would have the money to store DVDs properly had the same space problems that I did.

 

[Brook K]

Ingmar Bergman has a theater with 35mm projector in a barn on his estate. He gets prints directly from a Swedish film distributor.

I think Hefner has 35mm projection in the mansion as well as a big film print & DVD collection.

Bill Clinton was supposed to have a big DVD collection available to the public at his Presidential Library, but I don't know if that ever happened.

I once visited a director/writer/producer at his home in LA, though he isn't a celebrity. This has been 2-3 years ago, he had a few hundered DVD's, really nice audio equipment, and a snazzy motorized drop-down screen for his projector.

 

[Dave Hahn]

I remember seeing a bio on Hefner a while ago. If I remember right, he has over a couple thousand movies on VHS and is in the middle of swapping them out with DVDs. He has a theater in The Mansion but watches almost all his movies in his "bedroom theater;" a huge round bed in front of a large projection screen. Almost every night of the year he will watch a film here with four of five of "the girls," all snuggled on the bed.

What a life

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

That was a typo. There is a large DVD collection housed there, but it is in the private residence attached to the library and not available to the public. And most of the titles are from Vivid.

A private 35mm projection system used to be a serious Hollywood status symbol and a number of old-time stars and directors had them (pre-video, pre-laserdisc, pre-DVD) Those were the days when having a "home theater" meant really having a home theater. But this thread is specifically about DVD collecting, and that is more about the films than the bragging rights involved in having the place to show them. (Most home projection setups were used for viewing dailies or recent films from borrowed prints of current, or at least recent, films.) The White House has had a theater for decades, as well, but unless they've got laserdiscs or DVDs, chances are they don't have a very extensive film library, since they mostly watch prints that have to be returned to the studios after they've been viewed.

Those in the biz who really did care enough about the films themselves to want to own and study them (especially other people's) tended to develop that habit before they were celebs. Some continue it afterwards (Kevin Smith) others don't. But I doubt anyone who wasn't already a real film afficiando (which excludes most actors, I fear) would start collecting films after becoming famous. It was people like that who kept the laserdisc industry alive in this country after the general public passed on the format and before DVD came in and took over.

(Oh, and on my one and only visit to Dave's in Studio City I met Brent Spiner, who I think was picking up a copy of I, Claudius, among other things. Wonder if it was a gift for Patrick Stuart, who played Sejanus in the mini-series? He was in L.A. at the time. He'd been sitting a couple of tables over from the HTF crew when we had dinner at Jerry's Deli a couple of nights before. I told Spiner I thought he was terrific in Independence Day. Got a laugh. I think he was happy to hear about anything besides Star Trek at that point. )

Regards,

Joe

 

[Ruz-El]

I think alot of the Directors have some sort of projector system, you hear alot of stories about Tarintino and Scorsese screening there own prints of different movies.

Speaking of Scorsese, I'd speculate that he has a huge collection, period. I remember seeing a documentary on him some time ago (shot after "Last Temptation Of Christ") and he had assistants whose jobs where to track down films he wated to see in prepparing for a new film, everything from classics to modern films. He had them doing everything from buying VHS copies, to taping them off of Turner Classics and regular TV. If he was that avid in the 80's, I'd pressume that it would of carried over into the LD and DVD ages.

 

[Bob Cashill]

Benicio Del Toro was a big LD collector, and I'm sure he's made the switch by now.

Marlon Brando's modest DVD collection is being auctioned at Christie's New York this week. You can view it at its Rockefeller Center digs (I did, on Monday) or take a look online. Titles included SPARTACUS, CITIZEN KANE...and BATMAN AND ROBIN. Seriously (and just like me).

 

[streeter]

As an auctioneer I would have left out Batman & Robin, too! Anyone dare ask for the complete listing?

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

That's a pretty safe assumption. Scorsese is one of those directors who would probably also qualify as a true film historian. That man knows his movies.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Frank Darabont, Guillermo del Toro, and Alfonso Cuaron all have very large film/video collections.

When I saw GDT's DVD collection, I believe I actually released an audible gasp even though I myself have a rather large (+1,800) DVD collection. He had no idea how many he had, but I'd estimate it was over twice the size of mine. He also had a huge VHS & LD collection, and a comic book collection that completely consumed his home office.

I suspect the new generation of directors who have risen to notoriety around the same time as LDs & DVDs have more extensive collections than their 'old school' counterparts.

 

[StephenA]

RyanAn: I don't really remember how he kept the collection, I just remember how big it was. I think everyone has their own weird little way of keeping their collections.

 

[Scott Temple]

I've heard that Tarintino has his own print of Bob Clark's "Black Christmas" (1974). Must be nice. Supposedly, it's his favorite film, or at least his favorite horror film.

Thanks to all who have been replying.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

From what I've read.....

George Lucas: Keeps about 400 DVDs worth of movies on his Kaleidascape (sp?) movie harddrive, and replaces a movie with a new-one when he watches it. Said theres are very few movies he's seen more than once since college.

John Waters: Although suspected of having a large DVD collection, he has said his "adult" content is all tape and probably always will be, said DVD porn "Doesn't fast-forward properly".

Vin Diesel: Doesn't like movies and loves theater. has a troupe or therspians on retainer full-time, who will put-on a play version of whatever Vin wishes to watch, including daily TV news shows and lottery drawings.


PS: That last one was made-up, and has been submitted to the 'Random Vin Diesel facts' website.