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.
