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For the stars, a house tour is a publicist's dream, simultaneously humanizing and idolizing, free from nasty questions. "They feel very safe," says Nancy Glass, executive producer and host of many of HGTV's celeb tours. "It's not a gossip show. We don't ask who they're sleeping with. We ask what they're sleeping on." (Stalker-conscious stars will often ask that some details be left out.) Arguably, nobody needs friendly attention more than Cribs subjects like Tommy Lee and Snoop Doggy Dogg. "You don't have to deal with the lawsuit and pending cases and flops," says executive producer Dave Sirulnick. "Cribs is all about the glamour. It's all about the bling-bling and the ego stroke and look what I have." Sirulnick contends that pop-star materialism is nothing new--"Look at Graceland"--but Cribs celebrates it lustily. (In a pointed self-referential comment from MTV's upcoming "hip-hopera" Carmen, a down-and-out character watches Cribs in a roach-ridden motel room.)
The shows often give their subjects enough floor space to hang themselves. "There's faith and spirit here," actor Gary Busey tells E! about his seaside Malibu home. "It's humble." Then he shows off his Oscar-nomination certificate and a plaque given him by Bill Clinton. Cribs can be sweet--it's somehow touching to see aging rocker Bach in his teenage-boy-like bedroom, plastered with Kiss posters. It can be sleazy. Or it can be both, as when OutKast rapper Big Boi tours his kids' bedrooms, then treks downstairs to the "boom-boom room," complete with stripper pole. And some revelations are just, well, uncategorizable. Larry King "has a gorgeous portrait of himself made entirely of jelly beans. It's a great design element," says HGTV's Glass, who has just filmed a segment on King.
Each show has an attitude that matches its network: Cribs has a Total Request Live hangout vibe; HGTV tours are serious about design and decor; Celebrity Homes has that characteristically E! combo of cheekiness and fawning that network president and CEO Mindy Herman calls "the Wink." But each one says a little something about how being a star has changed since the caviar-dreaming days of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. For instance: They're not just posh stars; they're domestic artists. It's not enough to be rich now; you have to be authentic and hands-on. Just as today's conspicuous luxuries, like SUVs, convey an air of utility and industry, so do celebrities on HGTV emphasize how they earned their opulence by hunting their own antiques and devising design schemes. (What greater luxury than the time to cruise estate sales?) They're more spiritual than you and I. So much so that they often require paraphernalia from multiple religions. Boy George's gothic Roman Catholic fixtures compete with a statue of Ganesh; Tomcats siren Jaime Pressly has "like, 800 Buddhas" and Hindu-themed statuary. But they're still down to earth. On E!, Baywatch Hawaii star Stacy Kamano bakes packaged cookie dough (household hint: "First, you need to get scissors"); The Waltons' Michael Learned tells HGTV she once kept her Emmy statuettes in the garden (household hint No. 2: They rust).