The Spanish-style house at the top of L.A.'s Hollywood Hills would not halt a tourist with a star map, but this unassuming abode plays host to some of the town's most happening gatherings. Neither a mansion filled with grand halls nor a museum filled with priceless antiques, the elegantly furnished home says a lot about owner Jacqui Getty, a contributing editor to this magazine. Mostly, though, it shows a refreshing ambivalence toward the giant G-E-T-T-Y at the end of her name.
"I just got the paintings down [to L.A.]," Jacqui laughs, wide brown eyes feigning shock. She's referring to husband Peter's rich arsenal of Basquiats, Ruschas, and Pollocks that have been cloistered in San Francisco since their wedding six years ago.
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While this might have proved a marital sticking point to a more desperate girl, 40-year-old Jacqui hasn't fretted much over the missing Basquiats. "I've created a home that everyone feels comfortable in," she declares of the house, which was built in 1922.
The home was bought for her by Francis Ford and Eleanor Coppola, grandparents to Jacqui's now 20-year-old daughter, Gia Coppola. (Their son Gian-Carlo, Gia's father, died tragically while Jacqui was pregnant.) Mother and daughter moved in when Gia was four, the family fresh from the Rome set of The Godfather Part III, where Francis had brought the whole Coppola clan, including Gia's aunt Sofia and uncle Roman.
When she later married Peter Getty, eldest son of philanthropists Ann and Gordon Getty, the union was blessed by the Coppolas, with Francis walking Jacqui down the aisle. "He's not my real father, and he didn't have to, but he took real responsibility," Jacqui says, admiring his deep familial dedication.
Going Getty could have changed even the most well-grounded of girls, but Jacqui has stayed her artistic, bohemian self. "For someone who's been exposed to such a cultured and sophisticated life, there's something that remains open and innocent," says close pal Demi Moore, who first met Jacqui in a vintage shop in Kentucky in 1988 while there with Bruce Willis, who was filming In Country. "She doesn't try so hard, and that applies to her house, her clothing, her friends. It's endearing."
The same is not always said of her society counterparts in San Francisco and Los Angeles who spend time catfighting their way to the top of the social altar. Still, some people transcend that desperation, like Peter's mother, Ann, an iconic San Francisco fixture. "I love her to death," says Jacqui. For a couture shopping spree in Paris prior to her wedding, Jacqui showed up at Chanel in a grungeworthy down jacket and sneakers, but polished Ann didn't bat an eye (though Chanel's atelier thought it had the wrong client). "She's so cool like that," says Jacqui.
For Jacqui, family is and has always been the priority. "I'm not ambitious, but I'm driven; I kick butt like a kung fu fighter when I want to. I have a work ethic," she says, noting her 5:00 a.m. call time tomorrow morning for the latest Wes Anderson film, The Darjeeling Limited, where she has spent much of her time recently outfitting Owen Wilson in the bathroom of a tiny Staten Island restaurant.
Gia, a boyish Lolita who bears a striking resemblance to her aunt Sofia, is studying photography at Bard College in upstate New York. But the Getty-Coppola clan of L.A. is much more interested in having fun, and most of the entertaining occurs either at their Hollywood bungalow or the John Lautner–designed house in Malibu they rent every summer. "It's a love shack," observes photographer Lisa Eisner of the Hollywood home, which is always open to everyone, from Gia's friends to Jacqui's. "They share their proverbial wealth, and there's a magic mixing of kids and parents. Jacqui says she learned it from Francis." The three are allergic to formality, and the house often functions as a crash pad for their friends, where adults, kids, celebs, artists, and even the odd pig or parrot mingle in a freestyle, nonconventional form. "She's cooking, there's music and laughing, everyone is artistic. It's just a great scene," says Pamela Skaist-Levy, cofounder of Juicy Couture, who has been a friend for more than 20 years.
This spontaneous cocktail makes the Getty-Coppola home a hot ticket for those who don't take themselves too seriously, from the Olsen twins to Nicolas Ghesquière to Leonardo DiCaprio to a diaper-clad toddler. "Anytime she has a party, everyone shows up. They know it'll be the most fun," says Eisner. Their Halloween party is an annual event for hipster Hollywood. "The house is so trashed afterward," says Eisner. "There's dancing, and the whole house is bouncing up and down. If you're not in costume, you're not getting in."
"I just love people who are creative and interesting," explains Jacqui of her unscripted social life.
In fact, very little in her life is staged. "At Peter's 40th birthday in Malibu," recalls friend Liz Goldwyn of the party in 2005, "she was wearing a floor-length Matthew Williamson dress, and she ran into the ocean at midnight in the dress!"
Peter, who is involved in the music industry and sits on the board of the family's trust, shares his wife's spontaneous eccentricity, though Jacqui says he is "so guarded" and often found with his nose in a book.
Jacqui first met Peter when Gia was just an infant; he was dating Lauren Hutton. His intellectual side won her over several years later when they got reacquainted at the Coppola family Easter party in the Napa Valley. "We're so opposite," she says. "I'm like, Hey, let's go have fun! And he's like, By the way, the science theory on this is ..."
Skaist-Levy, who often uses Gia as a muse for Juicy's Couture Couture line, says, "When I think of L.A. style and It girls, Gia always comes to mind. She's like a modern-day, punk-rock Audrey Hepburn."
With Gia on the East Coast, Jacqui is diving back into the world of costume design; she's styled videos for the Beastie Boys, Faith Hill, Bob Dylan, and the Strokes. She's inspired by friends like Milena Canonero ("my mentor"), who just picked up her third Oscar for Marie Antoinette, and Madonna's go-to stylist Arianne Phillips.
"I really trust her taste," says Moore, who says Jacqui found the man-eating Thierry Mugler dress she wore in Indecent Proposal. The two women often shop together and inevitably end up spotting — and buying — the same things. "Neither of us cares if we have the same jacket," says Moore. They also share a lust for Lanvin flats, which both collect with limitless zeal. "Her look is so casual and natural," Moore continues, "but if you look closely at the details, there's the incredible Hermès bag and the extraordinary Balenciaga jacket." Or, as the case may be today on break from a freezing New York film set, a Derek Lam mink sweatshirt and skinny black pants. When questioned about the enormous, flawless, emerald-cut diamond on her finger, Jacqui coyly buries it in her lap. Moore likens her friend to a fashionista Mary Poppins. "She has the smallest closet I've ever seen, and whenever I can't find the right bag, coat, or earrings, somehow out of the bowels of somewhere she comes up with the perfect thing."
"I know fashion really well. I shop like a maniac," admits Jacqui. But she's just as capable of the do-it-yourself approach, like the time she made her husband a Willy Wonka costume. "I mean, what do you get Peter Getty for Christmas?" she gasps. "You have to be creative!"
