A Star is Born, or was born... whatever.

Down the road from us is another old house, older than ours -- 1790s. Recently the owners held an antiques sale on their front lawn, so we stopped in and introduced ourselves as the new people in the "old yellow house down the street."

"Oh, the Tuttle house!" Yes, the Tuttle house. "I've been in that house," which seems to be what everybody in Rockaway says, leading me to wonder just WHAT the elderly lady who lived here a decade ago did in her spare time.

As people who own old houses do, we chatted about -- old houses. We learned a little more about ours. . . .

"Did you know that Sherwin Williams filmed a TV commercial in that house?" said our newly found neighbor.

Really? Who knew?

Seems that Sherwin Williams was scouting for an old house, a "classic American house," and it came down to ours, and the 1790s house down the street, whose owner says she didn't want the tumult and upset of filming in the month before Christmas. This was about 15 years ago, by most neighbors' reckoning.

But the owner of Our Old House welcomed the company, and Sherwin Williams spent about a month here, painting and filming, and now I wish I could remember having seen a paint commercial involving a "classic old American house." But I can't.

I have the excuse of having had small children at the time, and falling asleep on the sofa before prime time every night. I was more likely to see a Crayola commercial than a Sherwin Williams one.

So our house has had its 15 minutes of fame. Or maybe a whole 20 minutes, as it's also mentioned in a book about Tours of Historic Morris County.

I think we are lucky this house allows us to live here, as we are not famous at all.

Do you think Sherwin Williams keeps copies of its old TV spots?