When movie stars come to Pittsburgh, they often prefer to stay in accommodations with all the comforts of home.

Possibly even your home.

If the pack of teenage girls stalking a Mt. Lebanon subdivision in hopes of spotting Taylor Lautner has taught us anything, it's that stars really can be right next door.

Mr. Lautner, who rose to heartthrob status playing the impeccably chiseled werewolf Jacob in the "Twilight" series, is filming scenes for the thriller "Abduction" in the Virginia Manor section of Mt. Lebanon. Many fans believe he is living there also, though the Pittsburgh Film Office says that isn't so.

Regardless, it's not unusual for stars to camp out in private homes.

"If they're coming with their families, if they're coming for a long period of time, they're not going to want to stay in hotels," said Dawn Keezer, director of the film office. "For the most part, they're just looking for a clean, safe place to be while they're doing their job."

Nine years ago, Lee Deiseroth got a phone call from a Realtor friend, Roslyn Neiman, asking if he knew of anywhere that Richard Gere could stay in Fox Chapel during the filming of "The Mothman Prophecies."

"How about our place?" his wife asked.

And so for four months, Mr. Deiseroth and his family moved about five miles away to a vacant farmhouse owned by a friend.

"Basically we just moved some clothes out and left pretty much everything else there intact," he said. "Our housekeeper stayed so if we needed anything we had access to it."

Some stars stay in hotels, of course. Sienna Miller used the lobby of the Omni William Penn Hotel, where she was staying, to make coarse comments about the city while she was here filming the "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh."

Tim Burton also stayed at the William Penn when he was scouting the city for a "Superman" film, Ms. Keezer said, and he actually downsized from the hotel's massive Presidential Suite because he felt it was too large for him.

Jean-Claude Van Damme stayed at the Renaissance Pittsburgh, said Ms. Neiman, while other actors and directors have stayed at the Westin Convention Center and the Sheraton Station Square.

So many movies -- with so many cast and crew members needing housing -- have come to town in recent years that a local woman has become a "travel and housing coordinator," working consistently over the last few years to find places for Hollywood types to stay.

Anna Dobkin is currently working on the DreamWorks picture "I Am Number Four" and has placed cast and crew for movies such as "Love And Other Drugs" and "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." She has housed as many as 200 people for a single movie.

Recently completed condo and apartment projects that are not yet fully rented have been go-to spots for Ms. Dobkin. The cast and crew of "The Road" rented dozens of apartments in the Cork Factory in the Strip District in 2008, including one for star Viggo Mortenson and another for director John Hillcoat.

With the Cork Factory now fully rented, Ms. Dobkin has recently placed movie personnel in Piatt Place and Market Square Place, both Downtown.

Angel's Arms, a condominium project in a converted church in the South Side Slopes, was home for several costume designers and hair dressers during the production of "Love and Other Drugs."

They used the building's roof to host a Halloween party for the ages, according to building owner Tom Tripoli, using their professional talents to create a party he described as "a cross between 'Ben-Hur' and 'Close Encounters.' "

Some celebrities will ask for certain neighborhoods, such as Shadyside or Sewickley, said Ms. Dobkin. Others want a certain coffee maker or other appliances.

And then there's the one dreaded request in Pittsburgh: "Please don't ask for a pool," Ms. Dobkin said she silently hopes whenever she gets ready to place someone.

"The hardest request to fulfill in Pittsburgh is an outdoor swimming pool," she said. "People are so used to having pools in [Los Angeles], but the duration of use for an outdoor swimming pool in Pittsburgh is kind of limited."

So how exactly does one persuade homeowners to abandon their abode for months at a time?

There's the flattery factor, Ms. Dobkin said. "It's pretty complimentary that somebody wants you to move out so they can live in your house."

And also, getting someone to move out of their house for a few months happens to be a problem money can solve.

Ms. Neiman has heard of figures from $4,000 a month to $18,000 a month, depending on the stature of the star and the budget of the movie.

Mr. Deiseroth declined to say exactly how much he was paid for Mr. Gere to live in his house for four months, but said that the compensation was generous enough that the decision to move wasn't very difficult.

"It took care of a lot of Shady Side Academy tuition," he said.

Furthermore, because Mr. Deiseroth owns The Fluted Mushroom catering company, he was paid to provide Mr. Gere with several meals per week.

It was through one of his food drop-offs that he met Mr. Gere, even though the contract specified that the actor would have no contact with the homeowners.

"He could not have been nicer," said Mr. Deiseroth, noting that Mr. Gere left thank-you gifts for the family. One night, Mr. Gere even called to ask if Mr. Deiseroth and his wife wanted to come over and watch the Emmy Awards, but unfortunately Mr. Deiseroth was skiing in Colorado.

That said, hosting a celebrity is not without its hazards.

A fairly steady flow of strangers stopped by to leave flowers for Mr. Gere on Mr. Deiseroth's front steps, as well as notes, bottles of wine and an invitation to play golf.

And then one day a bag of sheets -- expensive sheets -- that the housekeeper had set out to be laundered went missing. The Deiseroths assumed that the laundry company had misplaced them until a friend of Mr. Deiseroth's wife heard at a manicure shop that a group of girls had been bragging about stealing Mr. Gere's sheets.

The only problem: The manicurist was refusing to identify the girls.

"It was Sheetgate," said Mr. Deiseroth, "and Sheet Throat would not divulge the perpetrators."

Eventually, the Fox Chapel police were called, the manicurist coughed up the names and the sheets were recovered.

"The irony is, he never even slept on those sheets," Mr. Deiseroth said.

Ms. Neiman, a real estate agent for Howard Hanna in Shadyside, estimates that she has placed about 20 actors, directors, producers and crew members in private homes over the last dozen years or so. The top consideration is usually location, she said. Mr. Gere was interested in Fox Chapel, for example, because "The Mothman Prophecies" was filming in Kittanning, an easy trip north on Route 28.

Jake Gyllenhaal was a notable exception, she said, when he was in Pittsburgh last year for "Love and Other Drugs."

"He wanted to be where he could walk around, be close to stores," she said. "He wanted to be where he could go to Whole Foods."

Ms. Neiman found a private home in Shadyside -- she lives close by and volunteered to walk his dog every day -- but the homeowner got cold feet about relocating. So Mr. Gyllenhaal ended up staying in a vacant unit at the Beechwood Commons townhouse development in Squirrel Hill.

His co-star in that movie, Anne Hathaway, also stayed at a home in Squirrel Hill -- the same home where Sharon Stone lived when she filmed her role in "Diabolique" in 1995. Katherine Heigl -- in town filming "One for the Money" -- is currently in a private home, as well.

Russell Crowe initially wanted a large estate for his family to visit, said Ms. Neiman, but he ended up first at actor David Conrad's loft in the Strip District. Mr. Crowe liked it so much that he decided to stay there for the duration of filming for "The Next Three Days."

When celebrities are looking to live in a house, they "almost never" take a place that's actually for rent, said Ms. Neiman. Sometimes she has luck with homes that are currently on the market, she said. The downside? Those homes often need to be furnished.

In Pittsburgh, it's easier to place celebrities in homes during the winter months, said Ms. Keezer, thanks to "snowbirds" who abandon their Pittsburgh residences for Florida.

Anyone who is interesting in renting out their home when Hollywood comes calling should contact the film office at 412-261-2744, said Ms. Keezer.

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