Favorite Cars of the Stars

Paparazzi photographers are not disappearing from our culture anytime soon. Because of their candid photos and the immediacy of the Internet gossip sites, there is more awareness than ever of the minute details of the lives celebrities live in public, including the cars they drive. Anyone with more than a passing interest in a given celebrity can probably name one of that star’s cars.

But they can’t possibly name all the cars—as you'll see in the following list of favorite types of cars owned by the rich and famous, some names are repeated because they have a collection of cars. You will also read of cars being given as gifts from one celebrity to another. (Stars: They’re Just Like Us, right?) Click ahead to see some of the most commonly spotted celeb cars.

By Colleen Kane
Posted June 7, 2011

James Dean has the most infamous Hollywood association with the Porsche. He called his beloved 550 Spyder the Little Bastard, and he also met his early demise in it, following a fatal collision. Legend has it that when actor Alec Guinness (later Obi-Wan Kenobi of "Star Wars" fame) got an eyeful of the car he advised Jimmy: “If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week.” The prophecy came true. That’s only the beginning of the rumored curse of the car.

But the morbid lore is not enough to scare Kevin Dillon, who drives a replica of James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder. Other Porsche drivers include Steve McQueen, who drove a 1970 Porsche 911S, as featured in the film "Le Mans," Tom Cruise, Jon Lovitz, Matthew Perry, Mary-Kate Olsen, Victoria Beckham, Lindsay Lohan, her ex Sam Ronson, and the actors who play doctors McDreamy and McSteamy. Patrick Dempsey drives a custom GT and Eric Dane has a Carerra GTS.

Mercedes has a questionable unofficial representative in Britney Spears. When Britney ran over a police officer’s foot in 2007, it was in her white Mercedes CLK convertible. She also ran over the feet of two paparazzi feet on separate occasions that same troubled year, using the same famous wheels.

Other CLK drivers include Lauren Conrad and Katie Holmes. Mercedes is also a car of choice for other paparazzi-dodging starlets like Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Tara Reid, Lady Gaga, Reese Witherspoon, and Miley Cyrus. Some fellas like them, too: Ringo Starr, Ryan Seacrest, Dwayne Wade, Michael Jordan and Lebron James.

Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupri recently put their custom-built 2007 Bentley Continental GTC convertible (pictured here) for auction on eBay. Oprah did it, too, with her 1996 Bentley Azure convertible, which sold for just under $68,000.

  
Other famous babes in Bentleys include Paris Hilton’s can’t-miss-it Pepto-pink number, and Victoria Beckham’s posh Continental GTC with monogrammed seats (a gift from Tom Cruise). Sharon Stone, Kim Kardashian, and The Game drive black Bentleys, Liz Hurley and Richie Rich drive silver cars, and Seal’s Bentley is gold.

Ferarris seem to appeal to the rebels and the troublemakers. In April, a Ferarri 97 F 550 (pictured here) originally belonging to Charlie Sheen sold on eBay for $72,000. According to the auction listing, Sheen sold it to pay for his wedding to Denise Richards. Hugh Grant hopefully behaves himself in his Ferarri, and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino recently got a F430 Spider.


Also driving the popular F430  are Mr. Mariah Carey Nick Cannon, UFC fighter Josh Koscheck, Lebron James, 50 Cent, and Geri Halliwell. Other Ferarri aficionados include Justin Bieber who has a matte black Ferarri, Heidi Montag who chose a Ferarri California, chef Gordon Ramsay who drives a 458, and Ralph Lauren who drives a ’62 Ferrari 250 GTO.

Some famous drivers of the Prius are environmentally aware types who often make it onto the green gossip sites—Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Larry David. Then there’s the camp of Prius drivers who also drive not-so-Earth friendly vehicles, like Dustin Hoffman, who has a Porsche.

Other drivers of Toyota’s famous hybrid vehicle include Ryan Gosling, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Mandy Moore, Tom Hanks, Owen Wilson, and Cameron Diaz.

Pamela Anderson is probably the celeb most associated with the Range Rover, perhaps because she’s appeared near her white SUV in so many paparazzi photos in various stages of camera-readiness. (Just try image-searching her name and the vehicle name, and at least the first few rows show various relevant images—but after that you might want to have Safe Search activated, or not.)

Other fetching Range Rover rovers are Christina Aguilera, Katherine Heigl, Elizabeth Hurley, Jordana Brewster. It’s also the people-mover of choice for celeb younger siblings Jamie Lynn Spears and Prince Harry.

David Hasselhoff, better known as The Hoff, drives a silver convertible MINI Cooper and he says its name stands for “Mobile Inter-National Icon.”  Pretty much every other celebrity MINI driver is female. That’s not entirely true: there is a photo of Kurt Russell in one, but Goldie Hawn was driving.

As for those ladies driving the dainty-sized car, the roster is pretty star-studded: Britney Spears, Katie Holmes, Emma Stone, Mindy Kaling, Renee Zellwegger, Kristen Stewart, and Lily Allen.

Audi seems to be the make most popular with, how shall we say, hunks and dreamboats. Drivers of the Audi Q7 include Antonio Banderas, Jake Gylenhaal, and Mr. Maggie Gylenhaal, Alexander Skarsgard. Also behind Audi wheels are Orlando Bloom, Prince William, and Joe Jonas, who drives an R8 Spyder similar to the one pictured here. Also: The Hoff.

The famous lady Audi drivers aren’t so bad themselves, but are less numerous: Mischa Barton and Kate Winslet.

It’s difficult to keep up with the Kardashians (if only there were some sort of television program dedicated to this subject), but it is has been claimed that the three sisters drive matching Cadillac Escalades.

Other famous drivers of the luxury SUV include Adam Sandler, Janice Dickinson, Mark McGrath, Tori Spelling, Colin Farrell, and Anna Kournikova. Rumor has it that David and Victoria Beckham’s Escalade was another gift from Tom Cruise (who apparently has quite a soft spot for the Beckhams).

Adam Sandler surprised his co-stars of the film "Grown Ups" last November with gifts of Maseratis: Chris Rock, David Spade, Kevin James, and Rob Schneider each got a new $200,000 car. The car normally goes about $120,000, so Sandler really tricked them out. David Spade remarked on the Tonight Show soon after that he was embarrassed by the gift and hadn’t driven it yet.

There isn’t enough space on the Internet to list all the celebrities who would not be embarrassed to get a free Maserati, so instead we’ll list a few who already own them: Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Gwen Stefani, Lindsay Lohan, and Tyrese Gibson. Kathy Griffin has a Quattroporte like the model pictured here, but powder blue.