There’s always been media catering to celebrities who want to brag about their homes — and catering to us plebeians who want to poke around — from the faux classy sheen offered by Architectural Digest, to the more down-market displays offered by shows dating back to “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” or “MTV Cribs.” No matter the personal style — austere, expensive minimalism or over-the-top everything — all of it is ostentatious and fascinating and says so much about how the 1% spend their wealth. This is the primary appeal of “Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis” on Freevee, which doesn’t feature the super famous so much as the “merely” recognizable, including Wilmer Valderrama and Mira Sorvino. And boy, do they have money, which isn’t true of the vast majority of actors who are members of the Screen Actors Guild. But it’s still eye-opening to realize you don’t have to be an A-list actor in order to have hundreds of thousands of dollars at your disposal to plunk down on a room remodel.
Lewis is a familiar figure to anyone who listens to his radio show on SiriusXM or watched his longtime Bravo reality show “Flipping Out,” a title that was a play on words relating to his profession as a house-flipper, but also his tendency to blow up — sometimes with reason, sometimes not. The show ran for more than 10 seasons before it fizzled out in 2018, when the interpersonal dynamics became almost unwatchably ugly. Lewis has since parted ways with two people who garnered considerable camera time on that show: His longtime friend and colleague, Jenni Pulos, as well as his partner of eight years, Gage Edward, with whom he shares a toddler daughter.
I mean, I should clarify: Lewis has parted ways with a lot of people he’s employed. People magazine has an entire story listing 17 of them, some of whom have since come back into the fold. That’s the thing about Lewis; even though he sometimes oversteps boundaries, he’s pretty honest about both his strengths and his flaws and he seems willing to mend fences where possible and readjust his relationships so they work for both parties involved.
Lewis is primarily an interior designer — his aesthetic is modern, clean and uncluttered (and also frequently unremarkable) — and his home office has now shrunk down to just one assistant: Shane Douglas, whose go-with-the-flow personality gels nicely with the intensity of his boss. That’s the first thing you notice about “Hollywood Houselift” — it’s less fraught and chaotic. Lewis tends to suck up the oxygen of any room he enters, but he’s also smart and self-deprecating and he just wants to get things done. Anyone who has been through a home reno will appreciate this. I dunno, if I had money and I lived in Los Angeles? I’d hire him.
Ditching the nasty interpersonal drama that fueled much of the previous show, “Hollywood Houselift” centers on an element that always interested me more: The weirdness of working with high-end clientele. This time out, instead of non-famous moneyed somebody-or-others, we’re getting a look at how celebrities operate under these circumstances — even when they know cameras are there.
These aren’t minor projects, but they are limited projects: A pool house, a front yard, redoing a bathroom or kitchen or bedroom. Presumably, the celebrities are getting some kind of financial compensation in exchange for appearing on the show, although that’s coyly left unsaid. Even so, many still balk at paying full price for anything.
The thing about L.A. is that no matter how rich you are, somebody else always has more. And in this rarefied bubble, wealth becomes relative. Either way, these are people — and that includes Lewis — entirely disconnected from the financial stresses the vast majority of Americans are facing at the moment, and it’s surreal to see the show’s participants act as if every price estimate is a personal offense.
Sorvino hires Lewis to redo her pool and deck area at her Malibu home, which suffered smoke damage from wildfires, and the conversations around money are very interesting. If you can afford property taxes on a Malibu home with ocean views (the home itself is worth millions), you can afford to pay the contractor what he’s asking. So it’s uncomfortable to watch her negotiate the price down, eating into the guy’s profit, just so Sorvino and her family can get a bigger spa installed at a fraction of the price. She also needs new outdoor furniture and wonders if she can get it for free if she promotes it on Instagram. Lewis shuts that down quickly — not, I suspect, because he has any personal objection to it but because Sorvino is no influencer, despite being an Oscar-winner and an otherwise seemingly nice person. You can bet other people are given those perks, though. People who can afford to pay but simply don’t.
Meanwhile, a sizable portion of the population — even those with so-called middle-class incomes — can’t afford homeownership. And renters across the country are seeing prices go up 40% or more, while wages remain unchanged. That disconnect is like a ghost haunting the show, where moneyed SoCal celebs complain about the cost of making their luxurious accommodations nicer. You want an upgrade? Then pay for it.
Most of Lewis’ clients are given a modicum of privacy around the value of their homes. That’s not the case with Melissa Rivers, and it’s unclear why. She and “Black-ish” star Anthony Anderson probably own some of the most expensive real estate featured on the show, but Lewis only spills the details about Rivers’ home, noting that it is located in a very exclusive neighborhood and that she recently bought it for $8 million and also: She’s divorced and her son is in college, so she’ll be living there alone. This level of information isn’t provided for anyone else and I’m not sure how to read the subtext. Is it that Anderson earned his wealth directly, whereas Rivers perhaps inherited a big chunk from her mother, the comedian Joan Rivers and therefore … what, is more worthy of Lewis’ passive-aggressive judgment?
Rivers spends $150,000 to redo the en suite bathroom to her primary bedroom and we don’t need to be passive-aggressive about judging that, we can just be aggressive-aggressive. This is a brand new home and the existing bathroom is pretty great. But it’s not to her specifications — so everything must go. Her tastes are expensive and when Lewis informs her she needs to up the budget, she demurs by saying she just made a substantial charitable contribution and needs to watch her money. Honestly, it’s the first time anyone on the show even hints that they allocate some of their wealth to anyone other than themselves, but it’s also a self-serving and disingenuous moment because she clearly can afford it. This kind of frisson is what makes the show so fascinating.
Then there’s Valderrama, who stars on “NCIS.” He and his fiancee, Amanda Pacheco, ask Lewis to redo a couple rooms and Valderrama gets off to a bad start, referring to the home as “my house.” Pacheco reminds him, no, it’s our house. But he proves to be an easygoing client with eclectic tastes; he doesn’t want the same clean modern look as everyone else and really gets into the whole process of making bold design decisions. That said, the “my house” faux pas turns out to be kind of true, because he’s the one driving the aesthetic choices.
I was also charmed by married couple Ashlee Simpson Ross and Evan Ross, who come across as the nicest nepotism babies you’ll ever meet. She’s the younger sister of Jessica Simpson, he’s the son of Diana Ross. They each have careers but I have questions about whether they’re generating the kind of money that allows them to spend big on a remodel. Perhaps! The mystery of it all is kind of intriguing. They really are darling and have funky, high-end tastes: The vibe they want for their bedroom is “Aspen,” which is both descriptive but also a specific socioeconomic frame of reference, yes?
As for Lewis, I have no idea if things have evened out for him personally, or if careful editing means we’re just not seeing as much of that strife on camera. But we do still get a glimpse into his world. Now in his 50s, he’s raising a young daughter through a joint custody arrangement (she’s not part of the show, which feels like the right choice) and he’s finally looking for a home to settle down in, not just flip. He’s said the same thing before (Lewis buys and sells the homes he lives in at a rate that would discombobulate most people) so who knows how serious he is — but he wasn’t a father until now and he clearly wants some stability, and a yard, for his kid.
It’s touching to see him want to take that a step further, with the intention of adding another child to his family. It’s just a matter of finding a gestational surrogate and hoping the implantation takes.
Nothing about this part of the show feels like a put-on or juiced for the cameras. Just a single gay dad, hoping to give his daughter a sibling. If the quest feels daunting to embark on alone, that’s never stopped Lewis before.
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'HOLLYWOOD HOUSELIFT WITH JEFF LEWIS'
3 stars (out of 4)
Rating: TV-14
How to watch: Premieres Friday on Freevee
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