Celebrity RVer

Jeff Daniels, star of the movie RV with Robin Williams, is an avid RVer. “I don’t think you can call yourself a true American until you’ve been behind the wheel of an RV,” he says.

Daniels began RVing years ago when he would go on golf trips, renting an RV with friends. Also, “as an actor on movies you’re in RVs all the time on set,” he told View, the magazine of Camping World. “I did a couple of independent films. . .so I just got an RV, a Dolphin, and just bought it for a year to see if I was a ‘renter’ or a ‘buyer.’”

Turns out he was a ‘buyer.’ Today, he owns a 1998 Gulfstream Tour Master, and although he loves the coach he never refers to it as an RV. “We call it a bus and if you refer to it as an RV we stop the bus and make you get out and walk around it and then allow you to get back in.”

About traveling his RV, he told View,“You know, there’s something very Zen about it. For example, Kathleen (his wife) and I went from Michigan to Vancouver last May to shoot ‘RV’ and so a week before (the trip) I tell the RV (production folks) ‘don’t fly me out, Kathleen and I are going to drive’ and they went ‘WHAT?’ but we’re already on the road! I love sleeping in truck stops, I love pulling in behind some convenience store.”

Daniels says he gets a lot of thinking while driving his rig. He carries a notepad alongside of him and writes down thoughts as he gets them. He even penned three or four songs while rolling down the highway in North Dakota.

The New York Post’s popular “Page Six” gossip column recently asked, “What do Brad Pitt, Matthew McConaughey, Sean Penn, and Colin Farrell all have in common? They all own trailers! Their custom-built Airstreams can cost up to $170,000.”

The article then gave the following description of each celebities’ RVs:

- Brad Pitt’s vintage Airstream 345 - nicknamed the “Luv Sub” - has a special place in his heart because he used to sleep in it after he split up with Jennifer Aniston. The 35-foot-long RV is powered by a 5.9 Cummins Diesel engine and has an aircraft-style aluminum body.

It has a queen-size bed, shower, full kitchen and can sleep up to six people…ideal if he wants to take a road trip with his partner Angelina Jolie, and their four kids!

- Free-spirited Matt McConaughey owns an $80,000 International Ocean Breeze Airstream where he currently lives with his pregnant girlfriend, Camilla Alves, at a Malibu RV park. The part trailer/part seaside cottage can sleep four people and boasts a queen-size bedroom, full bathroom, kitchen, and dinette.

- Whenever hellraiser Colin Farrell is filming Stateside he likes to park this $120,000 Classic Airstream on the set. Built for long vacations, it can sleep six, has a queen bed, full bathroom, shower, kitchen and dining area plus pantry.

-Into The Wild director Sean Penn likes to escape to his Safari Airstream when he wants to get back to nature. The old style trailer survived a fire at the home Sean used to share with his ex-wife Madonna in Malibu. It can sleep four, has a bedroom, shower, kitchen, dining area plus bunk beds - and costs a cool $70,000 new.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, that Halloween icon and quirky symbol of all things spooky, isn’t exactly a typical RVer.
One could picture her comfortably riding in a hearse maybe, but not a Winnebago Chieftain motor coach.

That’s not far from the truth. In reality, Elvira’s alter ego, Cassandra Peterson, has made only one trip in a motorhome.

Read more about Elvira’s RV experiences in Julianne Crane’s article, “Elvira not immune to life as a roadie” in The Spokesman-Review.

Listening to speak to a packed room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, it’s clear that the Texan fancies himself a bit of an everyman.

Much like his new character Dirk Pitt in the film Sahara, based on the popular Clive Cussler adventure novel, McConaughey finds himself at ease in almost any situation. That would explain why he’s spent most of his time promoting the movie in a Ford F250 pickup truck, dragging an Airstream trailer (in which he’s been living ) emblazoned with the Sahara promotional poster.

“We’ve gone 32 days, 6,000 miles (9,654 kilometres) at this point,” he says. “We’ve been in RV parks, every truck stop could be an hour stop. We do barbecues in the RV parks, we meet people.”

The unorthodox approach is at least partly explained by the fact that the 35-year-old actor had more than usual at stake with Sahara. He also served as executive producer and saw it as a launching pad for a potential franchise.

More importantly, McConaughey says, there was something about Pitt’s educated swashbuckler that captured his imagination.

“I was always a fan growing up of James Bond and Indiana Jones,” he recalls. “I remember watching the Mosquito Coast and the Allie Fox character and thinking, ‘Where’s that guy? Where’s the symbol of that guy that goes off to a foreign land and believes in something that nobody else does?’”

Listen awhile to his relaxed drawl, and you get the impression he really is comfortable in a trailer park, clinking bottles with NASCAR fans and relaxing around a campfire.

Actress and tabloid topic, Pamela Anderson, has big plans for her Airstream trailer. Anderson has hired a high-speed specialty conversion shop to take her humble aluminum house on wheels to something–well–a little less conventional. Can you say, “vibrating bed”?

In a news release, specialty converter Will Castro of Specialty Autosports says, “This thing will be off the chain. Pam gave us a lot of wild ideas to get started with and she’s going to have a lot of fun showing off her new toy.”

For my money, I suspect most of us don’t have room in our fifth wheel for a dance pole.

Check a video clip here.

Photo: Pam Anderson and Will Castro pose in a drafty doorway.