Six Surprising Celebrity Side Hustles
Sometimes being rich and famous isn't enough, you know?
Everyone’s favourite dick-slinging dude, Jason Segel, was in the news quite a bit over the weekend. Firstly, gossip mags went into a spin over his recent break-up with Michelle Williams, who, according to the always sensitive glossies, was worried he’d “end up like Heath Ledger”, thanks to his apparently insane boozing. Secondly, in happier news, he announced he was writing a series of young adult novels.
“It’s about kids facing their biggest fears, that’s about all I can tell you,” Jason said vaguely, although Vulture added that it’s supposedly based on a script he penned back in 2011, which he described at the time as a “kids’ adventure movie in the style of Goonies or Labyrinth.” To which our reaction is, great, more kids’ fantasy nonsense.
Anyway, let’s take a look at some other celebrities who’ve taken a side-step from their glamorous Hollywood careers and surprisingly headed back to the working class (well, not really, but you know what we mean).
Kanye West; Fendi intern
“Today, at work, I made this proud sparkly vest.”
We all know how much Kanye loves fashion; he’s regularly spotted at runway front rows in places like Paris and London, and even ranted scarily one time about kilts. A few years ago, he took that love of clothes to a whole new level. In an interview with Hot97 last year, he revealed he’d moved to Rome in 2009 and completed an internship program at Italian fashion house Fendi that involved “walking to work, getting cappuccinos”. He further confirmed the news in an epic Twitter rant, saying, “I moved to Rome and worked at Fendi for 4 months under cover. I was there to give ideas for the men’s collection. I snuck to Giuseppe Zanotti factory and learned to design women’s shoes for two years.”
Brian Wilson; health food shop proprietor
“It’s okay, you’d don’t need a prescription for this LSD.”
By 1969, Brian Wilson, the enigmatic mastermind of the Beach Boys, was in a bad state. He’d just discovered cocaine and partied endlessly, the cancellation of the group’s Smile sessions had left him inconsolable, and he voluntarily admitted himself into a psychiatric hospital where he was plied with lithium and underwent electroconvulsive therapy. Amongst this madness, Wilson bought himself a health food shop in West Hollywood called ‘The Radiant Radish’. It was haphazardly stocked with vitamins and pet products, kept confusing opening hours, and was manned by Wilson himself, usually in his pyjamas. Needless to say, the store closed just a couple of years later.
Nick Offerman; woodworker
Ron Swanson, Offerman’s character on Parks And Recreation, is a real man’s man: he hunts, rocks a fat bushy ‘stache, has been married twice to women named ‘Tammy’, and worships at the altar of bacon. Surprisingly, real-life star Offerman isn’t so different: he runs his own commercial woodshop on the side, where he makes furniture, boats and canoes.
Offerman + handmade moustache comb.
He delved further into his obsession in a heartfelt piece for Huffington Post: “In my day job, performing for folks is a gas, and I am very tickled to make a nice living as a professional jackass, but it is the production of sawdust and shavings that brings me the most profound satisfaction. I love nothing more than to escape to my shop and set up a wenge (African hardwood) canoe thwart in my bench vise and set to shaping it with nothing more than a freshly sharpened spokeshave and a complacent smile. I crank up some Neil Young or Tom Waits or Bob Dylan or Iron and Wine, and lose myself in the making.” Oh man, we would love to see that.
Lana Del Rey; babysitter
This is the exact same face we’d make if we still had to babysit stinkin’ kids when we were internationally famous.
In her epic video for ‘National Anthem’, Del Rey borrows the Kennedys’ ‘Camelot’ iconography to paint an idyllic view of ’60s domesticity. Her real-life isn’t so glamorous, though. In an interview with MTV last year, the lusty chanteuse revealed that she was still babysitting for some 10-year-old kid a couple of times a week. “I think people would be surprised to know that I live a very quiet life, a very private life,” she said. “I still do a lot of the same things every day when I’m at home. I still have my same babysitting job.” When pressed to disclose if her charge realises his babysitter’s credentials, Del Rey said, “Actually, yeah. He’s very with it…”, which, good for him.
Francis Ford Coppola; winemaker
The Godfather of Grapes.
Remaining true to his boozy Italian roots, the legendary creator of awesome movies and awesome children runs a couple of wildly successful wineries in California’s Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley. While the Sonoma property is more of a tourist trap, displaying Coppola’s Oscars and the desk where The Godfather‘s Vito Corleone made someone an offer they couldn’t refuse, the Napa winery is for the serious oenophile, producing award-winning drops from some of California’s oldest grapes. Just last week, Coppola bought another nearby winery — the 32-acre Geyser Peak facility — in order to expand his production capacity and grape supply. Sounds like Monopoly with grapes. Coppola’s not the only famous person to get into the wine biz: Maynard from Tool, Fergie, AC/DC, Sting and Drew Barrymore also produce their own drops.
Daniel Day Lewis; shoemaker
Day Lewis gravely ponders his favourite handmade moccasins.
A few years ago, the notoriously intense British actor spent a summer in a Florentine cobbler’s workshop learning the fine art of shaping, gluing and nailing shoes from Italian ‘shoemaker to the stars’, Pasquale Di Fabrizio, a guy whose handmade footwear sells for up to $4,000 and who once even made elevated lifts for Danny De Vito to use in Batman Returns. Day Lewis reportedly took such a liking to the craft that he created a private workshop in his Wicklow Mountains estate in Ireland. Not content with just being the Irish Al Bundy, the actor also reportedly dabbles in carpentry so much that his son thought it was his real job. Sigh, kids.