Brad Pitt does, and he’s only had a home here for a few months. As reported on Nola.com (not to be confused with our honorable host Nolanotes.com), Brad Pitt “pines for his old New Orleans Home.”
The thing he misses the most, he said, is bicycling through the streets of New Orleans at night.
“Living in the French Quarter is a thrill for us,” he said. “We have some semblance of real family life. People have been very, very gracious with us. If we’re on the front deck, people go by and say, ‘Hi.’ Then they go on their way, very friendly.”
That celebrities are treated somewhat nonchalantly in New Orleans is nothing new. Musicians Lenny Kravitz and Peter Buck keep French Quarter digs, as does director Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola’s nephew, Nicolas Cage, is now his uncle’s neighbor, having bought the Lalaurie house on Royal and Governor Nichols.
Other celebrities who call or have called New Orleans home include Trent Reznor and Bob Dylan. Harry Anderson recently abdicated on his role as French Quarter impresario, giving up on the city after the re-election of Mayor Nagin last year.
Pitt’s comments echoed an interview with Reznor I remember reading a while back (1999? 2000?) whose favorite New Orleans activities were rollerblading in Audobon Park and jet skiing on Lake Pontchartrain. And not being bothered by people.