Article about Melbourne Cup celebs being paid for their appearances
 

http://www.smh.com.au/news/spike/hig...400353973.html

High life not always a bed of roses
By Andrew Hornery
October 29, 2005

An all expenses paid, champagne-fuelled day at Australia's most glamorous racing carnival complete with limos, adoring fans, limitless prawns and your choice of designer outfits. Oh, and a cool $US200,000 ($264,000) for your troubles. Sound tempting?

As petite Hollywood star and Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria will no doubt know after Derby Day today when she finally steps down from her towering stilettos, you should be careful for what you wish for.

On the outside the life of a celebrity heading to the races during the Melbourne Cup carnival looks like a charmed lot, but digging into the complicated contracts and never-ending negotiations between agents, publicists, journalists, editors, photographers and marketing executives, the gleam soon starts to rub off.

Longoria is heading for Flemington today where she will the guest of Myer. She is the first of many celebrities headed for the races in Melbourne over the coming week including Carson Kressley, Stevie Nicks, Ron Moss, Kelly Clarkson and Luciano Pavarotti.

Depending on how hot they rate on the fame radar and how clever their agents are, each of the celebrities will be paid handsomely for their appearances, either in contra or cash. But there's a catch. The further up the celebrity fame tree they live, the more complicated their day becomes.

"We are certainly very happy with what we are getting from Eva. She and Myer are a really good fit," Myer's spokesman John Gillman explained.

"Eva has been bombarded with requests from various media and invitations to go to a lot of marquees. She will only be at Flemington for six or so hours, there simply isn't enough time for her to oblige the invitations. She will only be in the Myer marquee."

Needless to say, Longoria, like the other celebrities with their respective marquees, is contractually obliged not to enter any other marquees besides their host's. Emirates and Motorola are both touting exclusive celebrities in their tents, while the traditional celeb hot spot, Moet, is taking a more demure approach this year, banning soap stars from the guest list in favour of home grown socialites such as Penne Peacock, Erica Baxter and Louise Daniel, who will even be dressed by their hosts in the latest threads from Christian Dior.

Over at Myer, Gillman admitted Longoria's crammed itinerary had been planned down to the last minute, including where she should be seen and who she should be seen talking to.

"Those celebrities are given a road map, told 'do not pass go' and kept on a very tight leash," said one marquee organiser, who asked to remain anonymous as she was still trying to build her guestlist. "Sometimes you can pull it off and get them in, other times it's just too difficult. The minders are like pitbulls, they jealously guard their guests because of the amount of money they have spent getting exclusivity."

Last year Myer's key guest was Kressley, who arrives in Sydney tomorrow for a couple of days before heading to the cup again. There's been no word if John Laws will be looking up Kressley. Laws ignited an ugly row when he called the TV fashion guru a "pillow biter". Golden Tonsils claimed it had all been intended as a joke, later publishing an apology in the gay press.

Heh. "pillow biter." :D

Excuse me while I vomit into my hat.

"The more complicated their day becomes"? Yeah, they sure are busting their asses to earn over a quarter of a million dollars. It's hard work to extend one's hand to lift a glass of bubbly, dontcha know? Fecking disgusting.

Don't hate the playa, sweetie, hate the game. :xoxo:

Right on sista, you took the words out of my mouth :nod:.

Well, look at the heading of the article...

Show me the hiiiiigh life! :lol:

It says they're being paid "either in contra or cash." So if you opted for the contra- would that be accommodations in a 5-star hotel? With your own masseuse, hair and makeup peeps? A goody bag of La Mer products? Can you just make a $200,000 wish list of stuff? :p

The diva needs L'Occitane candles, Nag ChampRa and a cheeseburger sent up to her suite! Stat!

Well, they do not get that in cash dear. They have to pay out to their agent and Uncle Sam (and perhaps Australian tax as well). Moreover, depending on their contract, they have to fly themselves and their crew out and buy the wardrobe (though some contracts include this) - so of that $250,000, she may see $50,000-$75,000 - which still ain't bad but is hardly the whole $250,000. And - before you judge too harshly, remember, if you had the chance, you would sell $500 a yard fabric at how much an hour to your clients :wavey: I am sure many would vomit over that.

Yeah, silly me, I thought they got one lump sum. :rolleyes:

Christ.

Well, you implied it - but and in any event - do you lecture your rich clients this way?

Of course I don't, but that doesn't mean that I don't get disgusted by the ways some people treat money sometimes. Heaven forbid if I find it silly that Ms. Stevie and Miss Longoria have their already rich asses pampered even more just for going to a bloody race.

LOL - you sound more jealous than disgusted :wavey:

Also, have you ever done anything like that? I have and it is exhausting, though the pay more than compensates for that. But, you make it sound like they just show up and the "hard work" is "extend[ing] one's hand to lift a glass of bubbly" - it is way more than that "dontcha know?" :wavey:

As if I give two squirts of duck ****.

Exhausting? :laugh: Tell that to people who work for a living and don't get a booty of $50-$75,000 plus perks for a couple days of "work."

Exhausting. Ha.

It is exhausting, I have done it. But, you will never admit that because you hate rich people unless you are earning you living off of them.

I don't care how "exhausting" it is, they're overpaid and overpampered for doing such "exhausting" work.

At least you now apparently concede it is exhausting :laugh: - which it is.

As for being overpaid - I think no one including you, wants that subjective test applied to them by others not making that kind of money.

Have you ever worked in a coal mine or a steel mill or an auto plant?

Your idea of "exhausting" is much different from mine, lemme tell ya.

I'll be the judge of what I find to be overpaid. Even I'm overpaid compared to others; I'm not oblivious to it. You can use all the "subjective test" rhetoric that you want, but it doesn't change the fact that I find it abhorrent that public school teachers aren't even paid that yearly and these people get it for a couple days of "work" at the races. She mingled, had photos taken, shook hands, and doled out an award. Praise Jesus, let's give her enough cash to buy enough LaMer for a year.

:laugh: 72 hr. brain surgery separating conjoined twins is exhausting, the soldiers fighting in Iraq is exhausting, paramedics, 911 operators and air traffic controllers may be exhausted. There is quite a differance between pampered exhaustion and making life and death decisions exhaustion. :laugh:

Have you ever done such a thing?


Such is life - now about that mark up on the Louis Kahn ottoman I wanted you to get for me :wavey:

See - that is just it. No one is saying those are not also exhausting and probably more so. But, that does not make flying like 20 hours across the worls, three hours of make up and prep time, meet and greet all day long, and then the after stuff a joyride at 57.

Is it so beyond reason that it could be exhauting?

No, it just seems a bit disingenuous to complain that such a thing is exhausting when there are so many jobs out there that are actually backbreaking on a daily basis, particularly when the pay-off is $200,000 for one day of "work."

Ummm - she was complaining - where was that?

Seriously, you all just cannot fathom getting paid that much and actually getting tired. I can assure you it happens as I have done that shiitte before and got paid WAY less than that.

Moreover, she did not get $200,000 - as noted about she will get like a 1/4 or 1/3 of that.

Interestingly, at what point does one earn the right to complain that the work is tiring. Do only manual laborers have that right? If she did this for free (which she may have done as none of us have seen her pay stub and this is free press at an event put on by I believe her promoter :shrug: ) - would she then have the right to say this is tiring, etc.

[QUOTE=dissention]As if I give two squirts of duck ****.



LMAO - That was funny! :laugh:

Ok - time for me to throw in my 2 cents. What Stevie is really getting paid in is TOUR PROMOTION. $50 - $70 Thou is alot of money to the average Joe, not to millionare rockstars. :D The big payoff is the Tour money/merchandising and it has been stated in most of the articles, she is launching a tour there. Its not relevant but did you know that Sharon Osbourne makes bands on the small stage during the day at Ozfest pay a :eek: 200,000 promotion fee to open for Ozzy on the Ozfest tours. Those bands don't make a dime. That Sharon , she really is something. Kiss charges 50,000, small potatoes compared to Sharon

Oh Lux - you've been gone so long and you came back just to attack me by telling me to shut the fu*k up. Is your self-described medication no longer working dear or have they let you out of the loony bin and I was first and foremost on your mind. Thanks for the consideration dear :shrug: :wavey:

Dayummmmmmm. She told you, boo. :lol:

What can one expect from a hog but a grunt :shrug:

Okay, so she makes $50,000 for one day of work, bare minimum. That's about the median annual income for a four-person family in about half a dozen states: http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/4person.html

At the point that you're doing it every day because you have to to earn a living but the pay is barely worth it.

Yes. If she were doing it for free, I think she'd have every right to complain. Although then I would have to wonder why she did it at all...

Where exactly is the line where one is entitled to complain? I don't know. But it for damn sure ain't anywhere in the vicinity of $50,000 a day for a one-time promotional event.

Of course I like you as well. In fact, I like you a lot. Moreover, I highly respect your opinion and consider you one of the smartest people I know.

In the end, clearly getting that much money for going to a fab party and working the room is great work if you can get it. I was just responding to Diss' assertion that all she was doing was toasting champagne, which is not all she was doing - that was all I was saying.

Now now - we are not to be sexual - just friends.

So you admit that she's basically just going to a "fab party" and "working the room"?

That's pretty much what she is doing; having her picture taken, toasting bubbly with rich peers, and doling out an award. For tens of thousands of dollars and numerous perks. What work! You then bring up a long plane ride and other such crap, as if we're supposed to sympathize with such exhaustion when she's got chilled champagne waiting for her when she lands. As our favorite biker chick so eloquently put it, if she's suffering from exhaustion, she's being pampered for every minute throughout.

I'm not even getting into this one, but it strikes me funny cause I always have to go "hmm" when I hear Lindsay Lohan or Anna Nicole Smith hospitalized for exhaustion...I'm like, WTF? Exhausted who, what, when, where, how and to what extent...come live my life and let's see exhausted. Then again, I'm sure those laying bricks in the hot sun all day would say the same to me and I get it, I do. But seesly, how does this happen? :lol:

How much did Mick get appearing at Gelson's to hock his wine?

























:sorry:

Looking at the pics of her at the races (that can't be considered "Australian cowgirl, can it???), I'd say she needs the money to pay for her podiatrist - she's got the platform boots on again, instead of her orthopedic shoes, and that could be owie after an hour or so.....

Oh. My. Stars.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I say, nice work, if you can get it.








ok, now I'm really not getting into it...

I have no doubt that travelling and schmoozing and smiling and posing for photographs all day can be "tiring" in its way. But, of course, that has to be kept in perspective.

And I think it's understandable for a celeb to say they're tired, just so long as they don't make it sound like they've got it rough or work harder than anyone else.

Which no one was saying here :shrug:

I was just qualifying my thought. :)

This is one of funniest threads in recent memory. Stevie never once said she was miserable or exhuasted. It appears she is having fun and it is clear it is part of her "job" to go there and promote the tour. She is doing interviews, getting her picture taken, getting all dolled up and the only person who said it was exhausting work was Strand.

It appears this is all about some kind of class and money disparity and how much hostility there is harbored for celebrities and the wealthy.

For the record, exhaustion is exhaustion. Sitting in a plane for over 5 hours makes me exhausted, grouchy, and miserable. First class or not. I don't like it. Being hounded and questioned by 100 people when I am dressed up and having to be nice is exhausting. It is claustrophobic and invasive. Sweating my ass off lifting heavy things in a hot filthy factory for 10 hours a day, six days a week is exhausting. It makes the body ache and the feet scream. I've done all these things.

The difference is, getting paid a lot of money to become exhausted and grouchy doesn't almost always come with the added bonus package of hopelessness and soul destruction. You make a lot of money for being exhausted and at least there is light at the end of the tunnel. You don't have to do it day after day without any indication that things will get better. It is not about different flavors of exhaustion, it is about what that exhaustion does to your mind, heart, and soul.

You are awesome.