Being famous can get you wherever you want, but some celebs choose paths that we never thought they would take—paths leading to writing, painting, or even some bizarre electronic worlds. Turning to creative detours can be, for stars, a way of showing that they are not only people of the red carpet or simply a means of releasing the pent-up energy. The result is great in some cases, it is delightfully quirky in some instances, and sometimes we are left wondering, Why? Let’s look at the 10 biggest celebrity side hustles, the ones with the craziest being last.
10. Marlon Brando’s Pirate Adventure
You know him as Don Corleone, but Marlon Brando also co-authored a swashbuckling pirate novel. Fan-Tan, which appeared posthumously in 2005, began life as a movie concept in 1979. It tells the tale of a sea captain in 1920s Hong Kong who becomes drawn into a robbery. It’s odd, adventurous, and quintessentially Brando—evidence that even movie gods on occasion fancy themselves actors of high-seas melodrama.
9. Paris Hilton’s Candy-Colored NFTs
The queen of the color pink and early reality television didn’t rest on perfume lines or DJ booths. Paris Hilton has dived headlong into the realm of digital art, creating pastel-colored NFTs through an AI partnership. Consider candy-coated dreamscapes in blockchain form. Whether visionary or simply very pricey digital stickers to you, they are inescapably Paris.
8. Snooki’s Fictional Shore Stories
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi didn’t just experience her Jersey Shore existence—she wrote it into fiction. Her first novel, A Shore Thing, tracks sisters clubbing in Seaside Heights, and the second, Gorilla Beach, adds Atlantic City and a Ponzi scheme. Snooki explained that she wanted to surprise everyone by writing a novel rather than a memoir.
7. Hunter Biden’s Expensive Abstract Paintings
Hunter Biden’s abstract art has been auctioned for hundreds of thousands of dollars, sparking debate about value, politics, and what makes art “serious.” His hazy, layered works have been compared to something you’d find at a luxury wellness retreat. Love them or loathe them, they’ve made him one of the most controversial celebrity artists of recent years.
6. Tom Hanks and His Typewriter Obsession
Tom Hanks is more than America’s dad—he’s also a typewriter-obsessed writer. He’s written short stories for Uncommon Type, each involving the machines he collects (he has more than 150). His latest book even gives readers a peek behind the curtain of a superhero film. It turns out the guy who brought us Woody has some stories of his own, too.
5. Adrien Brody’s Neon Pop Art
Adrien Brody, Oscar winner for The Pianist, now directs his dynamism into flashy, street art-inspired painting. His canvases blend spray paint, cardboard, and pop culture symbols, bearing phrases such as “Rise Above” and “BRODY.” Strident, wild, and hard to ignore—his painting is as over-the-top as his performances on film.
4. Lucy Liu’s Serious Art Career
While other stars experiment, Lucy Liu is highly regarded within the art community. Her medium is photography, installation, and abstract painting, and she’s been shown in prestigious galleries worldwide. Liu’s seriousness and dedication to her craft indicate that she’d still be working if she weren’t a celebrity.
3. Kendall & Kylie Jenner’s YA Sci-Fi
The Jenner sisters ventured briefly into dystopian fiction with their ghostwritten YA books Rebels: City of Indra and Time of the Twins. The novels chronicle super-siblings in a future universe, albeit the plots are… hazy, best. Nevertheless, the venture serves to affirm that in pop culture, no creative path is ever off-limits.
2. Ed Sheeran’s Paint-Splatter Sessions
Ed Sheeran doesn’t only compose earworms—he also splatters paint to song. He refers to them as “visual songs,” made while playing playlists in a London car park. He doesn’t sell them, other than for charity, and doesn’t try to pass them off as tortured brilliance. Just raw color, mayhem, and enjoyment—like his tunes, only on a canvas.
1. Carrie Fisher’s Sharp, Semi-Autobiographical Fiction
Carrie Fisher, always our Princess Leia, was also a witty, incisive author. Her 1987 novel Postcards from the Edge tracks an actress recovering from an overdose in rehab—loosely based on her own experience. Fisher herself said she employed humor as a means of survival from the most dire situations, and it shines through in her writing. Her fiction is sloppy, humorous, and brutally honest—just like she was.
What are all these side projects telling us? Perhaps that creativity does not end after winning an Oscar or reaching the top of the charts. Or perhaps, as Eleonora Sparaciari proposes, the actual mystery is not why celebrities do crazy art—but why we cheerfully shell out six figures for it. Either way, celebrity side projects confirm one thing: fame can come and go, but weird creativity never tires.