Read Online Stories From Candyland by Candy Spelling - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Candy Spelling
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platform behind the scoring table, and two lanes for the rooting section; and a lot of Aaron’s favorite awards, photos, and memorabilia were on display there. We also had a closet of bowling shoes in every size for men, women, and children. Well, we thought we had every size—until Tom Selleck came to bowl one night. We didn’t have shoes large enough for him that first time, but we did for his next visit. I think Tom won with and without bowling shoes. I was watching, but not keeping score. Anyway, Aaron didn’t miss a chance to challenge a guest. We even had special red-and-greenbowling balls we would move down from the attic and into the bowling alley every December.
Next, I have three gift-wrapping rooms. When people visit for the first time, they almost always ask to see the gift-wrapping room. I show them my favorite space, a fifteen-by-fourteen-foot room adjacent to my office and near the kitchen door. Our companies often employed a thousand or more people, and Aaron worked with hundreds more at the networks, studios, talent, and PR agencies and elsewhere. Holidays aside, when we had thousands of gifts to give, we often had a few gifts a day to wrap. I love selecting gifts and wrapping, and I even opened a gift and wrapping store in Beverly Hills with a partner, Lehr and Spelling. I had to give it up, though, because there was too much happening with building the house; my running a business at the same time was too much for Aaron. So it was logical and practical to have a room dedicated to wrapping and distributing gifts. I have dozens of rolls of paper, hundreds of ribbons and bows, thousands of different decorations to individualize each package, glue guns, scissors, tape, and bubble wrap, and I never stop buying cards and fun souvenirs to put on the gifts.
Just for the record, my two other gift-wrapping rooms are more industrial-size, for big packages, and equipped to rival any professional mailing center.
And, yes, Tori and I did once change my grandson Liam’s diaper on the table in my gift-wrapping room. We werewalking to the kitchen when she realized he needed his diaper changed. The flat table in the gift-wrapping room was the perfect surface.
So, I’ll admit that the bowling alley and gift-wrapping room add to my house being classified as a “celebrity house.”
But there’s more.
On an average summer day, tour buses stop in front of my house at least every ten minutes. I hear the microphones and megaphones:
“It’s the largest house in Los Angeles, with one hundred and twenty-three rooms.”
Wrong (except for the largest house part).
“It’s the house where Tori Spelling grew up.”
Wrong. (She lived in that house for a very short time. She actually spent most of her life in our previous house, also on the same street but a few blocks away.)
“There’s a full-size bowling alley in the living room.”
Wrong.
“The house is for sale for one billion dollars.”
I wish.
“Dynasty
was shot in this house.”
Wrong.
The house has quite a reputation to maintain.
Celebrities, whether people or houses, have to be on guard all the time. One bad photo can wreck an image, or maybeeven a career. Celebrities have to put on makeup when they go out, to avoid a bad photo getting taken. We rush any repair trucks in through a service gate before the tourists can spot that we, too, have plumbing problems. It’s all about the image, darlings.
Before Tori and Randy established their own careers, they, too, were celebrities by birth. It was sometimes difficult to keep them grounded, and harder to make them understand that many of their life experiences were unique to them.
I always wondered what our kids thought when strangers walked up to Aaron and said, “I love you” or “I love your work.”
I can’t count how many people approached them as children to tell them their favorite episodes of
Dynasty
or
The Love Boat
, and recited dialogue line by line. Our kids rarely watched
Next, I have three gift-wrapping rooms. When people visit for the first time, they almost always ask to see the gift-wrapping room. I show them my favorite space, a fifteen-by-fourteen-foot room adjacent to my office and near the kitchen door. Our companies often employed a thousand or more people, and Aaron worked with hundreds more at the networks, studios, talent, and PR agencies and elsewhere. Holidays aside, when we had thousands of gifts to give, we often had a few gifts a day to wrap. I love selecting gifts and wrapping, and I even opened a gift and wrapping store in Beverly Hills with a partner, Lehr and Spelling. I had to give it up, though, because there was too much happening with building the house; my running a business at the same time was too much for Aaron. So it was logical and practical to have a room dedicated to wrapping and distributing gifts. I have dozens of rolls of paper, hundreds of ribbons and bows, thousands of different decorations to individualize each package, glue guns, scissors, tape, and bubble wrap, and I never stop buying cards and fun souvenirs to put on the gifts.
Just for the record, my two other gift-wrapping rooms are more industrial-size, for big packages, and equipped to rival any professional mailing center.
And, yes, Tori and I did once change my grandson Liam’s diaper on the table in my gift-wrapping room. We werewalking to the kitchen when she realized he needed his diaper changed. The flat table in the gift-wrapping room was the perfect surface.
So, I’ll admit that the bowling alley and gift-wrapping room add to my house being classified as a “celebrity house.”
But there’s more.
On an average summer day, tour buses stop in front of my house at least every ten minutes. I hear the microphones and megaphones:
“It’s the largest house in Los Angeles, with one hundred and twenty-three rooms.”
Wrong (except for the largest house part).
“It’s the house where Tori Spelling grew up.”
Wrong. (She lived in that house for a very short time. She actually spent most of her life in our previous house, also on the same street but a few blocks away.)
“There’s a full-size bowling alley in the living room.”
Wrong.
“The house is for sale for one billion dollars.”
I wish.
“Dynasty
was shot in this house.”
Wrong.
The house has quite a reputation to maintain.
Celebrities, whether people or houses, have to be on guard all the time. One bad photo can wreck an image, or maybeeven a career. Celebrities have to put on makeup when they go out, to avoid a bad photo getting taken. We rush any repair trucks in through a service gate before the tourists can spot that we, too, have plumbing problems. It’s all about the image, darlings.
Before Tori and Randy established their own careers, they, too, were celebrities by birth. It was sometimes difficult to keep them grounded, and harder to make them understand that many of their life experiences were unique to them.
I always wondered what our kids thought when strangers walked up to Aaron and said, “I love you” or “I love your work.”
I can’t count how many people approached them as children to tell them their favorite episodes of
Dynasty
or
The Love Boat
, and recited dialogue line by line. Our kids rarely watched
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