Where's Taylor?

WESTERLY, R.I. — Those who haven't glimpsed Taylor Swift around Watch Hill this summer are happy to talk about it.

Everyone seems to know that the pop superstar walks on the beach, strolls to the St. Clair Annex for breakfast or ice cream and dines at the Olympia Tea Room or the Cooked Goose when she's in town.

But those who actually see her, the ones who smile at her across the counter or show her to her table, take her order and serve her and her entourage — they're not talking.

The international paparazzi caught her twice in Rhode Island this summer, on June 14 kissing Tom Hiddleston on seaside rocks, and at her usual July 4 party for the beautiful, talented and famous at her 20-room mansion on Bluff Avenue. She was rumored to have spent more Rhode Island time with Hiddleston around Aug. 14, before he returned to Australia to resume filming "Thor: Ragnarok." 

And yet, shopkeepers along Bay Street apparently saw her more last summer. She had started her 85-concert world tour in May 2015, but John Seidel, 64, who with his wife, Lori, operates the Bay Street shop A Summer Place, said she came in last summer "and bought some clothes and things for the house."

"She's very nice," he said. "A real delight." He said he admired how smart she was and how she has conducted her career. "I'm excited for her," he said, possibly referring to how earnings of $170 million landed her at the top of the 2016 Forbes list of highest-income celebrities.

The Seidels would take a morning walk around 8 a.m. and see her on the beach with her manager and others, he said, but "we haven't seen her this year."

At the olive oil boutique on Bay Street that Stephen and Suzanne Capizzano opened this year, Stephen Capizzano said he has seen "absolutely nothing. Nothing at all" of any Taylor Swift phenomenon.

He welcomed any of her family, friends and staff to "come in and enjoy, just like everyone. For instance," he said, turning to a woman who had picked out a bottle and wanted to pay for it, "you are my Taylor Swift today."

Marie Despres, 74, of Vernon, Conn., who summers in Weekapaug, flushed with the fleeting celebrity. Then she resumed buying what turned out to be her second bottle of peach-infused balsamic vinegar. She had bought the first after tasting it drizzled over ice cream. But her daughter loved it, so she gave away that bottle, causing Capizzano to observe a quality Despres had in common with Swift: generosity.

Swift's publicist recently posted on Twitter that the star had donated $1 million to help the victims of Louisiana flooding. 

"This bottle I'm keeping," Despres said. She promised to come back and told Capizzano: "You just remember, I'm Taylor Swift."

Jane Bird, 27, who was minding the Christina Stankard jewelry store for her friend Christina Stankard, said she thinks "it's really funny that people always ask for directions to her house, and they know she's not there."

Maybe the tourists and teens won't see their star, but they can see what she sees.

During a lull in business at Diane's of Watch Hill, a clothing shop, Andrea Herring, 59, of Westerly and Anne Marie DeMarche, 52, of Charlestown talked about Watch Hill's history of harboring celebrity.

"Watch Hill always was and always will be a very quiet, private community," Herring said. Unlike Newport, "these beautiful outstanding mansions" of Watch Hill are tucked among the coves or hidden by the hills. If you're driving around to look at the mansions, "you have, like, one second between the trees and the bushes" to catch a glimpse.

Herring said she loves the hoopla that comes with people like Taylor Swift. "It makes for a very fun atmosphere." Also, "it brings money into town, and it does give us recognition."

DeMarche looked up one day recently and saw Conan O'Brien walking along Bay Street. (His parents had a summer house on Avondale Road, which he bought in 1997.)

Another time, DeMarche recounted, "OMG, there's Regis Philbin and his wife."

"A lot of celebrities frequent the Ocean House," Herring said. "A lot." She mentioned Oprah Winfrey.

But Jessie Gehlmeyer, media manager for the Ocean House, the five-star resort at the other end of Bluff Avenue from Swift's house, couldn't say who any of those celebrities might be. "We are not at liberty to discuss any of our guests — or neighbors," she said. "We certainly respect their privacy. It's of the utmost importance to us."

Marion Markham, who lives next to the Ocean House, said she can tell if Taylor Swift is in town, because the singer-songwriter's security staff doubles or triples.

"It's like a fortress," Markham said of the Swift mansion, for which the star paid $17.75 million in cash in 2013.

As for the star, "I've never seen her, but I've heard her," Markham said.

The lifelong summer resident of Watch Hill who now owns her grandfather's house, Markham was walking down her block late one night. "I got a chance to hear her sing."

Swift might have been rehearsing or doing a photo shoot, Markham said. There was a band, and it was acoustic music. "It sounded like it was live."

Noel Livingston, 14, took a moment from helping out at Lolo, a Bay Street boutique, to tell of her celebrity sightings on July 4, when she was able to see into Swift's yard.

Livingston said her grandfather is friends with one of Swift's neighbors, and they had a good view of the party, whose guests included actress-singer Uzo Aduba of "Orange Is the New Black," supermodels Karlie Kloss and Gigi Hadid, Australian model-actress-recording-artist Ruby Rose and the pregnant Blake Lively and her husband and fellow actor, Ryan Reynolds.

Markham expressed a respect heard around town: "I just hope that as a neighbor, she will be here for a while."

dnaylor@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @donita22