Twenty-five years ago, most of the celebrities who visited or vacationed on our seaside slice of heaven were either Dodgers or dignitaries, and their presence here usually had some connection to spring training.
Those nostalgia-filled days, however, are now a distant memory.
This isn’t your father’s Vero Beach.
While we’ve managed to grow smart and preserve much of our Mayberry-like charm, Vero Beach isn’t the sleepy, secluded and seasonal community it used to be. And the celebrities who come here are no longer limited to baseball greats, political VIPs and other legitimate luminaries.
We’ve been discovered.
“It was always only a matter of time,” said Charley Replogle, owner of the Ocean Grill, as much a local landmark as any place in Vero Beach. “Well, that time has come. They’ve found us.”
As much as we’ve tried to fend off the South Florida sprawl that has infected the southern tiers of the Treasure Coast – Port St. Lucie seems to take pride in serving as the backdrop for a real-life version of “The Jerry Springer Show” – the TMZ crowd and the mind-numbing, pop-culture silliness it embraces have found their way to our shores.
We’re now attracting celebrities of a different ilk.
Just last week, in fact, the cast and crew of the E! Network’s “Total Divas” reality-TV show spent a few days in Vero Beach, where the WWE’s women’s wrestling stars filmed a “Family Vacation” episode that is scheduled to air later this year.
Arriving last Wednesday, they stayed at the Sur La Mer private beach resort near The Moorings, went boating and fishing, and filmed segments at various island locales, including the Riverside Cafe and Citrus Grillhouse.
“To be honest, I had never heard of the show, but my younger staff was very excited about it and were even a little star-struck,” said Scott Varricchio, co-owner of the Citrus Grillhouse, which catered one off-site dinner for the group and was filmed serving another at the restaurant.
“I’ve worked in New York City and cooked for some very famous people,” he added. “I’ve cooked for George H.W. Bush, the Clintons and the Gores, so, to me, this isn’t celebrity. This is just today’s world.”
That anyone would consider the “Divas” to be celebrities says a lot about today’s world, little of it good. But they’re not the first reality-show personalities to grace our still-quaint community, nor are they the least-talented.
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi of “Jersey Shore” fame – yes, the combined efforts of the internet, social media and reality TV have lowered the bar of fame to previously unimaginable depths – vacationed with her family here last summer.
Two summers ago, some guy who calls himself “Steve-O,” a former flea-market clown who appeared regularly on an idiot-TV series called “Jackass,” was seen hanging out at the Riverside Cafe.
“When you have 500 channels,” Varricchio said, “it’s not too difficult to be a TV star.”
And then there’s Kim Kardashian.
It was about 18 months ago that the most photographed member of the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” family reportedly showed up for dinner at the Ocean Grill with her baby daughter, North, and rap-star husband, Kanye West, a self-proclaimed future candidate for president.
As legend has it – the oft-told story might never be verified – West was wearing a tank top, flip flops and pants that hung low below his waist, prompting the restaurant’s longtime parking attendant, Eddie Mitchell, to tell him he wouldn’t be allowed in, dressed as he was.
So West and Kardashian took their child back to their SUV and drove off.
“I’ve heard it might’ve been somebody famous,” Mitchell once told me, “but I can’t say if it was them or not.”
Replogle, however, did confirm that a member of West’s entourage had called the restaurant earlier to arrange for the couple and their baby to slip through a back door and dine in a secluded alcove to avoid being recognized by other customers.
“Maybe it was Kanye, or maybe it was one of his handlers and he was coming later,” Replogle said. “We’ll probably never know. But it’s a nice story.”
He has no such stories to tell about the “Divas,” who didn’t dine at his restaurant.
“We’re decorated for Halloween,” Replogle said. “Apparently, the show isn’t going to air for a month or two, and the producers didn’t want the show to look dated.”
Replogle didn’t mind. He feared the cameras and lighting needed to shoot the segment would be an unnecessary intrusion on his other customers’ dining experience.
And justifiably so: Nowadays, you never know who’s going to show up for dinner at Vero Beach’s finest restaurants.
Plenty of real celebrities – people who’ve actually earned their fame by accomplishing something worthwhile in their particular field – also visit and vacation here.
Among those who have spent time in our community are the mega-star likes of Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson, Jay Leno, Jennifer Lopez and Taylor Swift.
The list of others includes: former “Today Show” host Jane Pauley; TV news commentator John Stossel; TV chefs Emeril Lagasse and Rachael Ray; former NFL quarterback Doug Flutie; actors Vin Diesel and the late John Candy; retired boxing champion Oscar de la Hoya; Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench; golfer Kenny Perry; Tennis Hall of Famers Stan Smith and Mats Wilander; author John Feinstein; and former country music star Barbara Mandrell.
In addition, homegrown country music star Jake Owen has brought several of his chart-topping peers to town for his annual concert at Historic Dodgertown: Chris Young, Eric Paslay and the members of Lady Antebellum, Florida-Georgia Line and Little Big Town.
And Owen’s childhood buddy, former top-10 tennis player Mardy Fish, has put on local exhibitions that featured Grand Slam champions like Andy Roddick, Serena Williams, Andy Murray and the Bryan brothers.
Also, the Distinguished Lecturer Series at the Riverside Theater and Celebrated Speaker Series at the Emerson Center regularly attract prominent politicians, journalists, authors and other dignitaries.
“We have a lot of wealthy, well-connected people living in this community, and they know a lot of these celebrities,” Replogle said. “Quite often, when they come here, they’ll stay in private homes.
“But it also helps to have a couple of four-star, oceanfront hotels.”
Both Replogle and Varricchio said the arrival of the Vero Beach Hotel & Spa and especially Gloria Estefan’s Costa d’Este Beach Resort & Spa contributed mightily to the increase in celebrity sightings here.
Many of those sightings, they said, can be traced to Estefan, who, since purchasing a home and opening a resort hotel here, has been one of Vero Beach’s best ambassadors to the entertainment world.
How many celebrities have stayed at Costa d’Este?
Maggie O’Brien, the hotel’s marketing director, wasn’t saying.
“We do have a lot of those types of people stay with us,” she said. “But one of the reasons they stay here is because, in addition to our location, amenities and service, we have a wonderful reputation for protecting the identities of our guests.
“So I’m not able to divulge that information.”
As for celebrities who’ve stayed at the Vero Beach Hotel & Spa, General Manager Duncan Clements did not return messages left on his voice mail. My guess, though, is that he, too, would be reluctant to identify the celebrity guests who’ve stayed there.
Fact is, celebrities go to Palm Beach to be seen. They go to Vero Beach to not be seen.
That’s why, despite what you might’ve read in some publications, it’s unlikely Vero Beach’s barrier island is destined to become Florida’s version of The Hamptons, even with its oceanfront location, proximity to Miami and upscale accommodations, restaurants and shops.
There are no paparazzi here; no TMZ snoops slinking along Ocean Drive in search of a scoop. And I doubt the celebrities who come to Vero Beach – the real celebrities, anyway – want to see any.
“You don’t just drop by on your way to somewhere else,” Varricchio said. “You have to want to come here.”
More and more, though, celebrities of all kinds are including us in their travel plans. They know we’re here. They know what’s here. They’re telling their friends.
So it doesn’t matter, really, that not all of them are established movie stars, successful recording artists, revered sports icons, respected journalists or best-selling authors.
It doesn’t matter that most of us, particularly those of us over age 40, know nothing about the pop-culture personalities who now pass for celebrities, or that too many of them have no marketable talent, other than being willing to do something outrageous to get their 15 minutes of fame.
In the end, it doesn’t much matter that nobody connected to the “Divas” would talk about why the show chose to come here, though a well-placed source said one of the production managers grew up in nearby Stuart.
What matters now is that a growing number of celebrities – even those known as “Divas” and “Snooki” and “Steve-O” from low-brow, reality-TV shows few of us would ever watch – want to spend time on our seaside slice of heaven, soak up our Mayberry-like charm and spend their money in our hotels, restaurants and shops.
The Dodgers are gone, and so is your father’s Vero Beach.
But, hey, we’ve been discovered.
