Sometimes the Hollywood machine makes me ill with the degree of money being thrown around. Now I am not talking about stars getting giant paycheques for movies. I won’t even get John started on his rant about the master hack Chris Tucker getting $25 million for Rush Hour 3.
Hollywood celebrities get paid for much more than just the movies they are in. Every talk show, magazine shoot, tv commercial, product endorsements, and a bazillion other paths of income that just give them more money than anyone could really need.
Now apparently shilling out your rights to baby pictures is quite lucrative.
The first photo of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt shattered records when People and Hello! pooled their resources and paid $4 million for the first glimpse of the world’s hottest baby obsession since the Dionne Quintuplets. Now People and Ok! are driving each other to bankruptcy trying to land the first photos of the Brangelina twins
Because apparently Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie don’t already have enough combined wealth.
I can understand getting paid for everything you do. You are in demand, so call your shots. I get that. Hey now you’re a Rock Star get the show on – get paid. But since when did getting knocked up get you so much money? These publications are desperate to be the first for that boost in sales for that month showing the pictures that no one else has, but do they really rake in THAT much money that it makes it worth paying upwards of $15millon for a photoshoot?
It just sets an example and a standard that can prove to be very costly in the future. What happens when someone more popular than “Bradgelina” eventually surfaces and asks for more? You know someone will pay it.
On one hand, signing a contract with one publication to get the first pictures will allow a measure of privacy for the celebrity family in the babies’ earliest days rather than being bombarded by requests or worse, paparazzi treading close to illegal activities to invade your privacy. Of course this doesn’t guarantee that it won’t happen anyways.
To me, its kind of like the Tickle Me Elmo. During the Christmas season a few years back (10?) the demand for this toy was insane. People were paying thousands for a $30 toy that would be widely available 2 months later. It was the demand to get it first that made people crazy
What do you think? Is it too much? Is it reasonable for them to ask $15m for first look?
Are the celebrities holding the publications ransom, or are they just working within the business?
