Celebs You'd Be Surprised Are Actually Neighbors

Hollywood is a small town full of celebrities, most of whom want to live someplace nice and maybe a little secluded from the prying eyes of the paparazzi. That limits the locations where they might settle down. The result: a kind of glamorous, kind of silly notion that big stars live right next door or down the street from other big stars. Celebrities can borrow a cup of sugar from each other, or host neighborhood cookouts, or file lawsuits! Check out these notable neighbors.

Oprah Winfrey is a billionaire, and so not so surprisingly she owns several homes, including ones in Maui and Telluride, Colo. She's also got a lovely place much closer to Hollywood, in the lovely enclave of Santa Barbara, Calif. Vast swaths of property don't exactly make it possible to shout out their windows at each other, but Winfrey is technically nextdoor neighbors with Parks and Recreation star and Brat Packer Rob Lowe.

They're two of the most famous and ardent environmental crusaders in Hollywood, and they used to live two houses apart on the same block in Studio City, Calif. Ed Begley, Jr., star of St. Elsewhere and a green-living reality show called Living with Ed, struck up a friendship with TV scientist Bill Nye, host of the Netflix science series Bill Nye Saves the World. 

Neighborly dynamics take many forms, and for these guys, the relationship became a friendly competition over who could live the greenest life, reported ABC News. For example, Begley drives an electric car, cooks on an outdoor solar oven, and his picket fence is made out of recycled plastic milk carts. Nye countered by installing solar panels, rain barrels, and a vegetable garden.

Celebrities can become embroiled in common neighborly squabbles just like the rest of us. Eric Dane, the erstwhile Dr. Mark "McSteamy" Sloan on Grey's Anatomy is married to TV veteran and "Noxzema Girl" Rebecca Gayheart. Their neighbor is Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins. 

Corgan allegedly didn't do his due diligence as a homeowner and in 2012 and allowed a eucalyptus tree on his property to fall onto Dane and Gayheart's house , where it triggered the sprinkler system and clipped a power line, reported ABC News. Dane wasn't home at the time, but Gayheart and their toddler were and had to negotiate a flooded house surrounded by broken electrical wires. Dane sued Corgan for damages, noting that he'd warned the rocker that his trees looked unstable. In a statement, Corgan denied that there was anything wrong with his trees, but he was glad no one was injured. Dane and Corgan's respective insurance companies settled all the property damage claim issues, but the legal matters continued. According to TMZ, the battle over these trees was actually about to go to trial when, finally, two years after the whole mess started, Corgan promised to cut down his most dangerous offenders.

Quentin Tarantino, a two-time Oscar-winning for screenwriter (Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained) was neighbors with fellow Oscar-winning screenwriter (American Beauty) and True Blood creator Alan Ball. That is, until Ball's vast array of exotic macaws drove Tarantino crazy. Likening their calls to "obnoxious pterodactyl-like screams" that go on for as many as eight hours a day, Tarantino sued Ball in 2011 because the noise allegedly left him unable to write at home, reported the Daily Mail. In the suit, Tarantino claimed Ball promised he'd build some kind of sound-dampening outdoor structure for the birds, but never did, The screenwriters settled their suit a few months later.

The Playboy Mansion is one of the most famous houses in the world and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has lived in the palatial Beverly Hills estate, with its legendary grotto and party lawns, for decades. The neighborhood is also home to many very large and very fancy homes, such as The Brody House, an estate designed by music mogul Quincy Jones that spans more than 13,000 square feet and features a waterfall in the garden. The house now belongs to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, actress Portia DiRossi (and it cost them only $40 million.)

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard seem to live a pretty charmed life, but even this beloved Hollywood couple catches a bad break on occasion, like that time in 2012 when Justin Bieber rented the house behind theirs. This was when the Biebs' career was at its teen idol fever pitch and he was partying hard to celebrate. "The music and the parties and the paparazzi, I mean, it's like living in Lebanon now," is how Shepard described the chaos on The View (via People .)

In 2009, 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan experienced an ordeal more befitting of Tracy Jordan, the kooky celebrity he played on the long-running comedy. According to A.V. Club, a light on the aquarium where Morgan kept his pet shark malfunctioned and started a fire in his apartment on New York's Upper West Side. Morgan wasn't home when it happened, but thanks to an automatic sprinkler system and the quick arrival of firefighters, the shark was okay. While the fire's destruction was limited, the effects of the water were far-reaching. It flooded other apartments in the building, including that of The View co-host and Morgan's 30 Rock wife Sherri Shepherd.

Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian have a lot in common—they're both the centers of multi-faceted media empires, they're both hounded by paparazzi, and they're not afraid of wearing as little clothing as possible. They're also neighbors. In 2015, Cyrus took up residence in a seven-bedroom house on the same Hidden Hills, Calif. street as Kardashian and her husband, Kanye West. (Cyrus already knew West, in part from singing on a remix of the rapper's "Black Skinhead" track.) Cyrus's house reportedly has a vineyard and a chicken coop, while Kimye's mansion is outfitted with a recording studio and private gym. It's quite the neighborhood. Comedian Kathy Griffin reportedly lives there, too.

Two generations of soulful British pop singers live next door to each other in London. According to The Washington Post, Sam Smith moved into a house in North London in 2015, exactly one year after the release of his hugely successful debut album In the Lonely Hour. It's situated right beside the home of '80s star Boy George, front man of Culture Club, whose hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon." When asked about his new neighbor, George reportedly told The Sun, "He's a lovely guy."

These stars explicitly decided that they wanted to live next door to each other. After all, who wouldn't want to get chummy with the dashing Hugh Grant or the gorgeous Elizabeth Hurley? It especially makes sense because Hurley considers Grant her "best friend." He's the godfather of her son, and she's godmother to one of his daughters. What some might find weird is the fact that Grant and Hurley are exes. They were partners for more than a decade but split in 2000 following Grant's high-profile arrest involving a prostitute in 1995.