There is nothing like a visit to the doctor or dentist to catch up on celebrity gossip. Where do old copies of Hello, TV Choice, and 
OK! go? Not for recycling as pulp, but to waiting rooms up and down the country.
So it is in a state of anxious anticipation that many of us get to learn for the first time the trivia linked to the famous and beautiful.
It is curious that what these magazines love to report on are not the extraordinary achievements of the glitterati, but the mundane details of their lives. For some reason it is assumed that readers are more interested in what these celebs do that is normal rather than remarkable.
The acting career of Julia Roberts is one of high-profile, award-winning achievement. And yet in an interview for the September issue of InStyle, Roberts, 46, shared something refreshing about her life with her husband Danny Moder and their three kids. Roberts it is reported does the grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning, and she doesn’t think it’s a big deal:
“It’s not anything that millions of other moms don’t do all the time, so there’s nothing so great about me doing it.”
And Now magazine reported on David Beckham’s interest in housework. No mention was made of his prowess on the soccer pitch, the story was about the world’s most famous footballer being such a ‘clean freak that he personally organises the fridge, vacuums to a rigid pattern and even wears an apron to go about the daily chores.
‘Victoria Beckham revealed the secrets about her hubby’s obsession for cleanliness. “David is very tidy and I’m not,” Posh said. “Even our fridge is colour coded. If he does the cleaning he vacuums in straight lines – in a pinny.”’
Posh also revealed that David gets cross if his family mess up the carpet when he’s finished. ‘If anyone walks around after he’s done it, he gets funny.’
Of course if the mundane can be done in a slightly unusual way, then the celebrity writers find it irresistible.
The television personality Audrina Patridge is not as big a name as David or Victoria Beckham but she goes one better when it comes to the vacuuming. She does her household chores in high heels. ‘It works my calves and butt’ she said and keeps her ‘bikini-ready’.
The American actress, singer and model Eva Mendes trumps that. She told a celebrity reporter about how she does her housework stark naked. She owned up to feeling so comfortable without clothes that she enjoys doing the housework without a stitch on.
‘I do everything in the nude, even the gardening. We’re Cuban, and it’s a hot island. Why not go nude?’
Some celebrity couples make sure their children are grounded by insisting they do their share of the domestic tasks. Paul and Linda McCartney famously sent their children to the local comprehensive and whether on their Sussex organic farm or on their Scottish estate lived in a small house with every one doing their share of the chores.
There are some celebrities it is hard to imagine in rubber gloves and overalls. The grand-dame of them all, Joan Collins, once said she was proud that she never conformed to the role of a meek housewife. ‘I have never been the mousy, stand-two-paces-behind, obedient little woman type… Wanting to cover oneself in jewels or couture or make-up and cherish being a woman, I don’t think there is anything wrong in that either.
‘We should celebrate being women and having the opportunities to do things that our mothers and grandmothers were not allowed to do. They were expected to stay at home and do the cooking and the cleaning.’ Although she observed that many women now go to work as are expected to do the cooking and cleaning as well.
The financial security that comes with success brings the opportunity to make choices, to create a balance in life between normality and fame. It is a chance to take some of the drudgery out of life while keeping in touch with reality. Perhaps to do the ordinary housework, but leave the major cleaning to the professionals.
Those with busy, rewarding and demanding, but less high profile careers, can seek a similar balance.
Few people want to be waited on hand and foot and never cook a meal, wash a dish, or clean a bath. Stories are told of celebrities who go down this path and are profoundly unhappy as a result. They find themselves living in the gilded cage of fame unable to connect with the real world.
But many people with busy lives appreciate some help with the chores of day to day living. This is why cleaning companies like Starlet Cleaning prove so popular. Available at the end of a telephone we can provide a bespoke range of cleaning services London wide to fit a range of needs. And while clients don’t have to be celebrities – Starlet always treats their customers as if you were.
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