By Pat Healy

     When people get famous everybody wants a taste of them, and it seems that more and more stars are enabling their fans to dig in by opening restaurants. But what makes these stars want to take their talents from the studios into the kitchen?

     This year alone has seen the opening of eateries launched by such stars as Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears and Moby.

     Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of the legendary rock act Aerosmith joined the ranks of celebrity restaurateurs as well. In 1997 the two New England natives became partners in the Norwell-based upscale pizzeria Mount Blue.

     "They use it for family and comfort," said Jayne Bowe, another Mount Blue partner. "They’re in and out of here all the time. They have a million other appearances to do."

Tyler and Perry, who were once known as the "toxic twins" because of their pharmaceutical intake, have houses nearby in Marshfield and Duxbury, respectively. The band cleaned up its act in the mid 80s and are now more like the tasty twins.

     Perry has even come out with his own line of hot sauce. Partnering with Dedham’s Ashley Foods, Joe Perry’s Rock Your World Boneyard Brew came out this past June.

Of the endeavor Perry said, "If you’re gonna play, play it loud. If you’re gonna cook, cook with fire!"

     Bowe says her cooks have incorporated the sauce into a few of the recipes at Mount Blue.

She also said she imagines she’ll see Tyler and Perry when they are in town for their three-day stint at the Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts later this month.

     Paula Greenfield, vice president of The Celebrity Source, a Los Angeles-based public relations firm that recruits and coordinates celebrity involvement in marketing, said a home base is one of the main reasons celebrities open restaurants.

     "These are people that are on the road a lot and a good restaurant is very important to them," she said. "They go a long time without a home-cooked meal, whatever that is to famous people these days, and a memorable meal really stands out to them. Their restaurant is their home-cooked meal."

     The décor of Mount Blue is decidedly un-Aerosmith. There is a guitar of Perry’s and a few platinum Aerosmith records on the wall and a replica of Tyler bursting through a door hangs high in the rafters, but the place is mostly decorated from New York boutique shows. Wrought iron sillouettes of stars hang against dark oranges and blues. Small, concentrated spotlights illuminate spaces on the dark wooden bar with glass ashtrays that look like oversized melted cough drops. Elvis Costello plays on the radio.

     "This is not an Aerosmith-driven restaurant," said Bowe. "They link us up quite a bit, which is nice, but it’s done without being a total rock n’ roll situation."

Bowe said that most of Mount Blue’s customers aren’t there because they’re Aerosmith fans, they’re there for the food. And when members of the band do come in, the customers and staff members are excited and appreciative, but hardly ever hounding.

     Bowe noted that Tyler’s favorite dish is the Spicy Southwest pizza.

     Greenfield said celebrity-owned restaurants are usually created as meeting places where the stars feel comfortable.

     "As always in Hollywood, a lot of important deals are made in restaurants," she said. "You don’t want to suggest a place to meet where you’re not going to be happy, so why not create an atmosphere where you feel comfortable, secure and confident."

Dr. Carole Lieberman, MD a Beverly Hills media psychiatrist, suggested there are deeper reasons why stars open restaurants.

     "I think there is a psychological reason for it," she said. "Obviously it’s not that they need the money or need something to do. It has to do with the fact that people seek stardom because they didn’t get enough love, attention and nurturing as children, so they want to get this from the outside world. By opening restaurants they are trying to unconsciously correct what they lacked most as children."

     Drew Peterson, general manager of Bambu, the Miami Beach restaurant of which Cameron Diaz is a partner, said the partnership benefits more than the star.

     "Cameron is a partner in a public relations sense only," he said. "She visits here and there when she’s in town, but she doesn’t oversee the menu. The celebrity factor is not the focus of the restaurant. We’re about cuisines and we’re about ambience."

     Greenfield said stars also go into the restaurant business because the timing is right.

     "I think they realize that opening a restaurant is something they never thought they could do, and their success is so great in another field that they have an opportunity to legitimize themselves in another area, "she said. "It’s usually a business venture that because of their celebrity is guaranteed to be a pretty big splash."

     At the opening of Britney Spears’ Nyla, named for state abbreviations of her adopted home (New York) and her original home town (Louisiana) a reporter asked her why she decided to expand her career to that of a restaurateer. Spears’ reply was simple.

     "Why not?"