The super rich holiday merry-go-round - Daily Telegraph

To borrow an overused phrase from F Scott Fitzgerald: The rich are different and never more different than at this time of year. As everyone else unveils their chalk-white limbs, the wraps come off the fortunes of moneyed folk, vying to spend ever more obscene amounts of cash. So we feast on reports of their grotesquely lavish summer holidays with one part awe and two parts loathing, gnawing on the descriptive minutiae. Ten bathrooms? Who needs 10 bathrooms? The answer, of course, is nobody not even the rich.

Only last week it emerged that despite owning an 11 million mansion 30 miles away in Beverly Hills David and Victoria Beckham decided to spend 93,000 a month on renting Steven Spielbergs Californian beachside home in Malibu for the summer. Looking out over what has been dubbed ''the most exclusive piece of sand in the world, the seven-bedroom, 10-bathroom mansion was custom-built for the film director, who counts Pierce Brosnan, Dustin Hoffman, Danny DeVito and Goldie Hawn among his neighbours.

Victoria saw pictures of the 25 million house and told David it was the perfect place to relax and recover after the birth of baby Harper, said a source. David didnt think twice and signed a lease straight away. They have moved in with sons Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz to spend some 'quiet time with their new daughter and to get in some swimming and surfing.

True, all the Hollywood players have no shortage of cash, but its their motivations that intrigue us. Whereas the Beckhams mindsets are probably as uncomplicated as their collective cerebral masses (Its bigger than our house and more expensive than our house and I want it), we cant help but wonder what Spielberg estimated by the Forbes Rich List to be worth a little over 1.8 billion is doing renting out his property in the first place. Does Steven really want Victoria snooping about his cupboards? Wrinkling up her nose up at the Jackson Pollocks and leaving festering packs of alfalfa in the fridge?

Big shots rent out their properties for many reasons, explains one celebrity estate agent who prefers not to be named. Some, like Spielberg, dont look at these properties as 'homes. Because he lives in LA, hell only go there a week or two a year, so theres an element of 'being nice about renting it out to other celebrities for the summer. Besides, its a major compound so why not make some money? Itll cost upwards of 150,000 a year to run.