Fort Myers Florida Weekly

who is the biggest star living here?





Courtesy of The New Yor k Times, The Wall

 

 

Street Journal, and The New Yorker magazine,

all of which have done major pieces looking at Southwest Florida in the last year, we’re all famous. Or really, infamous, for having some of the highest rates of foreclosure in the nation. But it’s all the same to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which defines fame simply as “public reputation.” Late pop artist and long- time fame commentator Andy Warhol would agree.

“Don’t pay attention to what they write about you,” goes one of his famous sound bites. “Just measure it in inches.”

He also suggested that fame is a commodity everyone will enjoy “for 15 minutes” at some point in the future. We are moving toward that vision with reality television, celebrity “news,” and “American Idol.” Fort Myers’ own Vonzell
Solomon
was briefly a shining star on the latter program. Yet there are still a lot of people hungry for fame who aren’t getting theirs.

BRUBECK

BRUBECK


The University of Florida estimates there are 1,112, 073 people living in Southwest Florida — Lee County (614,833), Charlotte County (164,326) and Collier County (332,914). Yet there probably aren’t more than a few hundred celebrities living in the area, counting the confirmed ones and myriad rumors.

“Talk of celebrities may be ubiquitous, but fame itself is still the rarest of commodities,” wrote Jake Halpern, who explored fame in an article for The New Yorker, and later to a fuller extent in his book “Fame Junkies,” published in 2007.

GRAD

GRAD


In any case, our vote for the most famous person in Southwest Florida goes

to jazz great Dave

Brubeck,
a “living legend,” according to the Library of Congress. At 89, he was right here in Lee County this winter as usual, still composing music that floats across generations, capturing both popular taste (although not to the extent of rock stars) and critical acclaim.

He spends the winter here instead of at his New England home.

WHITE

WHITE


“The ice is a problem for him in Connecticut,” said George Moore, who manages Mr. Brubeck’s inclement venue over the winter. When Mr. Brubeck is in Florida, “he’s working.”

Here are other stars of Southwest Florida, part of the shifting chimera that is fame in America.

Music

There are a handful of bestselling authors in Southwest Florida. But they’re generally less renowned in popular culture (although perhaps get more respect) than singers or actors. Just by virtue of being in the pop music profession,

Rob Grad
might be considered more famous than, say, best-selling author Randy

Wayne White
(a Sanibel resident). In the 1990s, Mr. Grad sold nearly 150,000 albums with his L.A.-based band Kik Tracee.

FELICIANO

FELICIANO


“I was so young when it happened I had all these ideas about fame and what it would mean to my life,” he said. “It was an amazing experience, but it is what it is.”

The band fell apart, but in more recent years he’s come to Fort Myers to record music and play golf.

Dave Ellefson
of the 1980s metal band Megadeth is rumored to have a home in Southwest Florida. Drummer Steve Luongo,
now head of the John Entwistle Foundation, lives in the area.

Jose Feliciano,
famous for singing “I want to wish you a merry Christmas, from the bottom of my heart,” lives in Lehigh Acres. Alex
Lifeson,
guitarist for Rush, had a home in Naples at Pelican Bay, at least until a few years ago. J.C. Chasez
of the band NSync, is rumored to have a home in Naples.

CHASEZ

CHASEZ


John Mooney,
a renowned slide blues guitarist, lives on Pine Island. Cliff
Williams,
bassist for AC/DC, has a home in Southwest Florida. Ricky Medlocke,

lead guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd, lives in Fort Myers sometimes.

“I really like fishing for snook, reds and bass,” Mr. Medlocke

told Florida

Weekly recently. “One day I caught five 10-pound bass somewhere between the Panhandle and Marco Island.”

MOONEY

MOONEY


Charlotte County

There are celebrities in this small county, according to Punta Gorda Chamber of Commerce President John Wright, but they don’t want to be recognized. Mr. Wright might as well be considered a celebrity. He speaks 10 languages and is also a Scottish Laird (meaning he comes from a land-owning family, not that he’s royalty). Home improvement icon Bob Vila
once had a home north of Charlotte County. Natural health guru Dr. Robert Morse, based in Port Charlotte, claims country music star Shania Twain
as a client. She is rumored to have a home on Marco Island. Baseball star Cal Ripken Jr.
owns the Charlotte Stone Crabs minor league baseball franchise.

TWAIN

TWAIN


Books

Janet Evanovich’s
long-running Stephanie Plum series has been at the top of the New York Times best-seller list plenty of times. She has a home in Naples.

“I’m always working but I take time out for dinner dates on Third Street or Fifth Avenue with my husband and friends and occasionally a movie at the Mercato,” Ms. Evanovich wrote in an e-mail.

She likes living in Southwest Florida, but couldn’t decide exactly why.

“Hard to pick one reason,” she wrote. “I love the sun (as opposed to gloomy New England), I love the people (they look happy and they’re friendly!), I love eating outdoors year round (OK, so sometimes it’s under a propane heater but it’s still outdoors).”

STOKES

STOKES


Stephen King
has a house north of Port Charlotte in the Osprey/Nokomis area; novelist Michael Connelly
has a residence in Sarasota; novelist Tim
Dorsey
has a place on Pine Island; bestselling novelists Ben Bova
and Robin
Cook
have Naples homes.

Movies, TV and extended family

The comedian Steve Martin
is rumored to have a “beachfront sanctuary” in the Naples area but his publicist couldn’t confirm that. Actor Kevin
Nealon,
a former “Saturday Night Live” regular, is said to live in Fort Myers.

SCOTT

SCOTT


Former Playboy Playmate of the month, Suzanne
Lee Stokes
was born in Naples in 1979, according to her bio on the Internet

Movie Database. Her parents “own an alligator farm and wildlife refuge in the Everglades.”

NBC Today show’s

Willard Scott
has broadcast from his home on Captiva Island. Former ABC Nightline anchor

Ted Koppel
also had a place there, although he hasn’t been spotted around town recently.

The mother of Tom Cruise was rumored to have, at one time, lived on Captiva Island, as were the parents of actor Christopher Walken and novelist Dan Brown.

SHEINDLIN

SHEINDLIN


The legendary departed

Robert Rauschenberg
lived and produced art on Captiva Island for years before he died. His name is so recognizable and his influence so broad, in art, music, movies — practically everything — that his death hasn’t diminished his fame. Film director Gerard Damiano
made “Deep Throat,” maybe the first movie considered pornographic to go mainstream. He spent his final years in Fort Myers near his family.

Artists who die young may have a better chance of being catapulted into a higher echelon of fame than artists who die old. But Mr. Rauschenberg and Mr. Damiano, who were legends in their own fields, have a fame that may linger for years and flare up in the future. For example, Caravaggio, a 17th century painter known for his dirty realism and flamboyant lifestyle, was dismissed by the art world as a passing fad after his death in 1610 at age 38. But an art historian at the University of Toronto told

JACOBSEN

JACOBSEN


The New York Times this year that the painter is experiencing a rebirth of popularity worldwide. He calls it “Caravaggiomania.”

Business, politics

FOX network political commentator and radio personality Sean Hannity
is rumored to have purchased the top floor of a beachfront resort in Naples. Mr. Hannity has broadcast television segments from Naples.

The world’s most famous investor,

Warren Buffett,
was rumored to appear at Mel’s Diner in Naples. His secretary didn’t confirm that he has ties to the Southwest Florida area. The manager at Mel’s Diner in Naples, Kostika Terezi, said he hadn’t seen him. But the tough-peppy Judith Sheindlin
— Judge Judy from the popular television court show — is a regular at Mel’s. And so is 2000 presidential candidate Steve
Forbes.
He usually orders the hot turkey sandwich.

“Steve Forbes is very, very quiet and very, very family oriented,” Mr. Terezi said. “He’s a down-toearth guy. What a nice family.”

He added that former Boston Celtics basketball star Larry Bird
used to come in and order the foot-long hot dog. It’s been more than a year since he’s seen Mr. Bird. Mr. Terezi, after working at Mel’s for 15 years, has his own measure of “public reputation.” Those are the two words the Merriam-Webster Dictionary uses to define fame.

Sports

Comedian Bill Murray
is a partner in the Fort Myers Miracle minor league baseball franchise. Atlanta Braves pitcher Derek Lowe is rumored to have a residence in Southwest Florida. Same with Peter Jacobsen,

the 2004 senior U.S. Open Champion; and former NFL quarterback Jim
Kelly.
Sportscaster Chris Berman
can often be seen dining at the Sanibel Steakhouse when he’s not on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown

Patty Berg,
founder of the LPGA Tour, died in Fort Myers in 2006 at age 88. Former Boston Red Sox left fielder

Mike Greenwell
lives in Alva and owns Mike Greenwell’s Family Fun Park in North Fort Myers.

Fame in any era

“Fame Junkies” author Mr. Halpern traces celebrity culture back to the Stone Age. Anthropologists believe there were “top hunters who enjoyed a special celebrity-like status.”

American fame as it appears now took shape during the Industrial Revolution. Fame spread far and wide along with communications technology. The internet and mobile devices let us keep track of stars more easily than ever, and act on impulses we’ve always had, Mr. Halpern concludes. “Namely, the impulses to admire others and to be admired ourselves.”

Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, is quoted as an expert on celebrity culture: “(The popular 1980s television program) Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous marked the beginning of the television obsession with celebrity lifestyle… the formula worked, because it allowed us to imagine ourselves in their shoes.”

Fame is touching more and more people with seeming randomness.

“To be famous, you need not write well, or act well or sing well,” wrote blogger Floyd Elliot. “You need, in fact, do none of these things at all. The collective attention is like lightning, and strikes where it will… Megan Fox’s face has launched a thousand blog posts; Emma Thompson’s has not. And just by the way, I think Thompson’s face eminently more attractive.”

There will always be room for someone more famous.

“You have to find someone who does it all, I suppose, or who is really, really big in one area,” said actress and South Fort Myers resident Deborah
Smith Ford.
She gained some measure of “public reputation” for her look alike role as Trinity from “The Matrix.” She also played the mother in a film called “Bully” directed by Larry Clark. Mr. Clark is most well known for directing “Kids,” one of the most disturbing, poetic American movies ever made. The film is fiction, but it portrays an urban New York City wasteland with documentary reality, one filled with teenagers whose lust and greed is literally making them sick. Mr. Clark paints that landscape in even starker terms than the well-crafted news stories that documented Southwest Florida after the housing bust — another landscape riddled by variations on greed. In either case, it’s not the type of thing anyone hopes to be famous for. But we are — for that and a lot of other reasons. And we have the column inches to prove it. 

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