Stargazing In Montana

HELENA, Mont. - You might spot Brooke Shields toting her luggage through the airport in Bozeman, or Glenn Close en route to the downtown Bozeman coffee house she bought this summer, the Leaf and Bean.

You might bump into Kiefer Sutherland, Carol Burnett or Jim Nabors strolling in Whitefish, in northwestern Montana.

More and more of the glitterati are buying hideaways in the state as development spreads through the mountain valleys.

Some of the hideaways are not so small. TV magnate Ted Turner takes fiancee Jane Fonda to his 130,000-acre ranch near Bozeman, and singer Hank Williams Jr. owns a working ranch in the Bitterroot Valley of southwestern Montana.

Few of the big names live here full time.

But one full-time resident is Liz Claiborne, the fashion designer who founded the second-largest apparel company in the United States. She and husband Arthur Ortenberg own a home on Lindbergh Lake in the Swan Valley.

Rock musician Huey Lewis recently bought a home near Victor, in the Bitterroot Valley, and is sending his children to school in the tiny town of Corvallis.

Another year-round resident is author Tom McGuane ("Rancho Deluxe"), who raises quarterhorses and cattle on his ranch in the Boulder River Valley south of Livingston.

His part-time neighbors in the valley include NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, actors Shields and Michael Keaton, Academy Award-winning composer David Grusin, and Walter Haas, owner of the Oakland A's.

Actor Peter Fonda, Jane's brother, lives on a ranch in nearby Paradise Valley. His neighbors include actors Jeff Bridges, Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan and artist Russell Chatham.