Wednesday, April 19, 2006
As you may know, there are now plenty of big budget Hollywood films being made in the state, as New Mexico pursues a ‘tax-break and other forms of bribery’ approach similar to the way Ireland wooed the studios in the 90s.
Jessica Simpson was in town for a while, as were Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, and the celebs keep coming. And they need places to stay while there here.
Santa Fe is better suited than other places its size for this kind of thing, being a resort town with plenty of lavish second homes and short-term rental properties, but even so it’s not easy to find, say, a five-bedroom house with a swimming pool and super-high end finishes – as one incoming star wanted (or else he wasn’t coming). At least not in a big hurry.
But the money the star was spending – tens of thousands of dollars a month – sent every realtor in town rushing for their Rolodexes faster than you could say “10 percent commission”.
In the end the star apparently settled for a four-bedroom pad (with pool) – I’m pretty sure there are maybe no more than a dozen swimming pools in the whole town (this is a desert, after all), so that might have something to do with it.
But for every big name there’s at least 50 other real people who just need real places to crash for four months. Maybe we should go and live in a tent and let the house for a while.