Celebrity lockdown hobbies: What David Beckham, Seth Rogan and more having been doing to keep busy

For many, 2020 was a year of hobbies and 2021 looks set to be much the same. While facing long periods of lockdown, quarantine or self-isolation, it has felt, at times, as though Netflix, gaming consoles and books just weren't going to cut it, leading to people around the word seeking out new diversions as they did the sensible thing and stayed home. Last year, I dabbled with a sourdough starter, tried my hand at calligraphy, challenged myself with a 2,000-piece puzzle and started learning Arabic once again. Some of my new pursuits were more successful than others ... the puzzle remains incomplete and hidden under a rug. Celebrities, it seems, have also caught the pastime bug. Here, we round up stars who have taken to social media to share insights into their new passions: Seth Rogen, 38, is best known for being a regular cast member in Judd Apatow's bro comedies. But it seem he is also a positively crafty man. The actor regularly takes to Twitter and Instagram to show off his pottery skills, with special focus on the glaze and painted finishes. He mainly makes vases, but has also made drinking sets and ashtrays. "There's inherently something meditative about it. I do like tactile things; I like to produce tangible work. With movies, we spend years on them and then they're very intangible. They don't have weight, they don't occupy a physical space," Rogen told The Cut . "I don’t like to keep my own movie posters around because those are just advertising for the product, not the product itself. I do really like being able to create an artistic expression that is a thing that I can pick up, hold, show to people. It is just so different from what I normally do which has no mass to it." British Olympic diver Tom Daley, 26, took up knitting and crocheting during the first UK lockdown last year, and loves it so much he's made a separate Instagram page for his new hobby, @madewithlovebytomdaley . "I started knitting at the beginning of lockdown and have been obsessed ever since," he wrote in September. "I have started to crochet now also!" The athlete has made scarves, tea cosies, hats, baby boots, jumpers, Christmas tree decorations, stuffed toys, plant pot covers and even swimming trunks. Busy Philipps, 41, lives her life on Instagram, which means fans have seen the highs and lows of her lockdown. The actress is open about not being able to cook, but has started making birthday cakes for her daughters' favourite celebrities' birthdays – not to eat with the stars or to send to them, just to honour them on their big days. With her two daughters, Birdie, 12, and Cricket, 7, Philipps has made cakes in celebration of Timothee Chalamet and Florence Pugh. At 50 years old, East 17 singer Tony Mortimer picked up reading last spring. Since then, he has read more than 70 books and has decided to try and write one of his own. "Books are just pure escapism aren't they?" the 1990s British boy band member told The Guardian . "The plot twists, the descriptions, the metaphors. It engages your imagination like no other medium! It makes your worries disappear!" "Finally coming to the end of reading my first ever novel," Mortimer wrote on Twitter on May 2, marking the beginning of his literary journey. "Such a small yet huge achievement I’ve already chosen the next nine books. I hope you’re all staying safe." By June 30, he was on his 28th book. "Just finished reading my 28th book of lockdown," he wrote. "I hope everyone is keeping well and safe out there." At the time, he said he was aiming for a round 100 reads in 2020. When a fan asked him what he was reading, he replied: "I'm reading literally anything and everything but mostly classics. Just finished Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None for a bit of murder mystery. Very clever plot from her." Now writing his own novel, he has given himself the target of 500 words a day. "I've got tens of thousands of words, but they're all over the place at the moment, so I'm trying to get them into some order," he told The Guardian . "I'm making it all up as I'm going along." Just taking one look at The Hills alumna's Instagram, it is clear that a grown-up Lauren Conrad, 34, is the picture of curated domesticity. So, it may come as no surprise that she has a vegetable patch at home, where she has been growing broccoli, onions, peas and more since early last year with her son Liam, 3. "We planted a vegetable garden on the side of our house a couple months ago. Liam has been visiting it everyday to eat snap peas off the vine and watch everything grow. Today we cut our first stalk of broccoli," she wrote on Instagram last year. Since, she has shared photos of pumpkins, green beans and mushrooms they have grown. The former professional footballer has truly embraced country life and regularly posts photos of himself in the fields near his Cotswolds home. However, over the summer it was bees specifically that got his attention, as he started keeping them and is even said to be thinking about marketing his own brand of honey. "Beekeeping started as a fun hobby early in lockdown. But now David has become a bit obsessed. He has all the gear, and even built a hive," a source told UK tabloid The Sun . "He finds it a total antidote to his mad London and Miami life." In June, he posted a video of himself building a hive with the caption, "New project ... watch this space," with the honeypot emoji and tagging wife, Victoria Beckham, who filmed the video. Beckham has also posted a photo of himself foraging for flowers and plants to make an autumnal wreath with daughter, Harper, 9. "Never thought I’d enjoy foraging as much as this, but don’t worry I wasn’t alone I was with my pretty lady, Harper Seven," he wrote. _________________ Read more: What is Masterclass? What to know about the online platform with courses taught by celebrities 16 celebrities with their own beauty lines: from Halsey's About-Face to Rihanna's Fenty 10 of biggest celebrity stories of 2020: From Meghan Markle to that 'Imagine' video _________________

Celebrity lockdown hobbies: What David Beckham, Seth Rogan and more having been doing to keep busy

From beekeeping to baking and pottery, these Hollywood stars have taken up a host of unexpected pastimes