money for nothing

posts about #moneyfornothing more →
The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
"The Internet Is Full Of Words Written For No Money At All"

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

Smitros
06/15/09

In reply to The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
I'll show up for a three-figure fee and act like a civilized person.

Who wants some of this?
Reply

Smitros was starred Smitros was unstarred

Spirit Fingers
06/15/09

In reply to The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
It must be frightening to be out in the world with no known marketable skills, other than how "cool" the rest of the world thinks you are. It would make someone really want to go to school and get a job.
Reply

Spirit Fingers was starred Spirit Fingers was unstarred

Tart of Darkness
06/15/09

@Spirit Fingers: Actually I think it is more frightening to be out in the world with an education and marketable skills and average looks no discernable charisma and no trust fund.

Charisma always pays more. What could Paris Hilton get with an education that she doesn't already have?
Reply

Tart of Darkness was starred Tart of Darkness was unstarred

Clare
06/15/09

What an odd coincidence; I was thinking about this very subject on Sunday, though not from the celebrity's perspective.

I was driving to the shore and I saw billboards promoting appearances by Kristin Cavallari and Paris Hilton at murmur at the Borgata, and I asked myself, "What is the point of going to a club that Paris Hilton is going to be at?" She's going to sit behind a velvet rope and avail herself of bottle service while you wait with the unwashed (or rather, Axe body sprayed and Ed Hardyed) masses for a $15 rail vodka and soda. You're not going to have a personal experience with her (from which you will inevitably contract chlamydia). What's the point?

@Tart of Darkness: WORD. I've always said that girl is stupid like a fox. She's played that "that's hot" persona to the limit.
Reply

Clare was starred Clare was unstarred

Tart of Darkness
06/15/09

@Clare: Has she not? I sort of adore her for it basically because she can get away with it.
Reply

Tart of Darkness was starred Tart of Darkness was unstarred

Spirit Fingers
06/15/09

@Tart of Darkness: I really don't get your meaning. Are you saying it's better to be a vapid twit who has money and charisma, than to be an educated person with marketable skills? At least with an education Paris could maybe run the Hilton fortune as opposed to just, well, drinking, snorting, and Valtrexing it away until she's too old to be trotted out and she just putters around aimlessly, botoxing and reconstructing things until, well, they freeze or shrivel. So, um, there's that to look forward to. Yay?
Reply

Spirit Fingers was starred Spirit Fingers was unstarred

Tart of Darkness
06/15/09

@Spirit Fingers: Yes. You do get my meaning. It IS better to be a vapid twit who has money and charisma than to be an educated person with marketable skills.

I am an educated person with marketable skills and I have never even come close to being able to have a lifestyle that involves a nearly infinite number of choices of what I could do and where I could go.

And consider how many educated people with marketable skills would like to be able to get botox and reconstruct things. We will get old, too.

And since she has plenty of money she can pay people to manage the fortune. Why not? I have to manage my own fortune and my lack of attention to it has caused me problems in the past. I have to pay $35 in overdraft fees if I accidentally buy even a dollar's more worth of groceries.

I think she's one lucky dog and I am a chump.
Reply

Tart of Darkness was starred Tart of Darkness was unstarred

Spirit Fingers
06/16/09

@Tart of Darkness: There's no way to convince me that it's better to be a vapid twit, hon. Sorry. I'm also sorry it's tough out there for the lot of us, but I'd rather struggle and have some meaning to my life, than have people disregard my intelligence and treat me like a mental invalid. I get that having money has perks, but really, your inner worth should be about more than how many clubs you go to, beds you hop into, or guttural sentences you attempt to utter, until you get old and no one cares anymore. Honestly, I think she's a deeply sad person, despite the money.
Reply

Spirit Fingers was starred Spirit Fingers was unstarred

Tremonius
06/16/09

@Clare: There definitely is an art there. I remember a lady I knew who played that part. A friend said, "You look at her, and she's hot, then you look again, and, you know? She's not." Mae West pioneered the part. You put on such a production of allure that everyone just buys it. Mae was forty when first she saw Hollywood.And they didn't have NetSexTapes then!

One Sunday evening Tom Smothers demonstrated talent with a Vegas review when all he did was walk around. Add the MTV quick-cuts and - Voila! - Janet Jackson can dance!

On an ordinary commute, were her photo never to been produced publicly, you would not look up from the Post if Paris Hilton sat across from you on the Metro.
Reply

Tremonius was starred Tremonius was unstarred

Tremonius
06/16/09

@Tart of Darkness: The question is, would you freely kill brain cells until your Clear Mind was the equal of Paris Hilton in order to enjoy her frivolity and frolic? Think about it ... while you can.

I met a lovely lady once who was an artist who said "I'd like to be [star steeped in stunning style whose name I don't remember]!" Not "be like her" or "have her advantages" but actually be her. Not many would purge their own identities, I thought at the time. That's why the subterranean cortex will endeavor if fortune alters circumstance to get back homeward; why lottery winners freely spend to drift back to those thralling days of yesteryear.
Reply

Tremonius was starred Tremonius was unstarred

partypants
06/16/09

@Spirit Fingers: That's all nice and deep and shit. But having meaning in my life ain't paying my bills. If I could be a vapid twit and live in blissful ignorance instead of being a broke person with 'meaning' then you bet your ass I would sell out. In a heartbeat.
Reply

partypants was starred partypants was unstarred

Spirit Fingers
06/16/09

@partypants: Nobody gets a free ride. Paris may appear happy on the outside, but nah, I've seen her face when the jokes start. Being a famously rich dummy who gets used by everyone she comes in contact with, ain't making her younger, smarter, or happier...it just makes her comedy.
Reply

Spirit Fingers was starred Spirit Fingers was unstarred

partypants
06/16/09

@Spirit Fingers: To have her life I'd wear a clown suit and hand out tomatoes for people to throw. If I'm going to be miserable I'd rather be miserable and butthurt with no money problems.

Only the rich can afford principles. The rest of us just want to fucking eat.
Reply

partypants was starred partypants was unstarred

Spirit Fingers
06/16/09

@partypants: Not sure what else to say to you, only that money isn't a cure-all. Good luck!
Reply

Spirit Fingers was starred Spirit Fingers was unstarred

Conchie Birdie
06/15/09

In reply to The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
jesus am I the only one in America who doesn't like robert pattinson? or zac efron?
Reply

Conchie Birdie was starred Conchie Birdie was unstarred

Tart of Darkness
06/15/09

@Conch: I can't tell you if I do or don't like them. I don't know who they are.
Reply

Tart of Darkness was starred Tart of Darkness was unstarred

forwardmotion
06/15/09

@Smitros: I'm in!
Reply

forwardmotion was starred forwardmotion was unstarred

Tremonius
06/16/09

@Tart of Darkness: Takes courage to say that. I never do, and I don't know many of the names tossed about here. I only come here for the cartoons.
Reply

Tremonius was starred Tremonius was unstarred

BadUncle
06/15/09

In reply to The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
Maybe companies can go back to making qualitative links between respected celebrities and their brands. God knows how many golf games OJ had to play as part of his endorsement contract with Hertz.
Reply

BadUncle was starred BadUncle was unstarred

Tart of Darkness
06/15/09

@BadUncle: Back during his trial a friend of mine who was a world class bigot said that part of OJ's defense strategy was to charm the jury into seeing him as sort of a "pal" that they couldn't possibly convict. I was outraged that she would come up with such a stupid and prejudiced theory, but I have since read that some of the jurors DID expect to be rewarded by him in some way -- like an autograph or maybe getting to go to a club or his "Not Guilty" party. That's when I realized that celebrity transcends EVERYTHING.
Reply

Tart of Darkness was starred Tart of Darkness was unstarred

Tremonius
06/16/09

@Tart of Darkness: I have never understood why it is some who so willingly concede the utter depravity of a cracker cretin jury in voting their race in freeing the killers of Emmett Till among many others would not even consider the polar opposite of a dumb racist black jury doing the same for one of their own. That year-long charade beginning in '95 reminds me of a target detection exercise at BCT long years ago, when my buddy Bryant turned to watch the demonstrator's laborious climb to a hiding place, murmuring, "That's one long trip for nuthin', dude ..."

Of course the slimeball played up race to the idiots in the box. Members of the jury during one of their outings were quoted in discussing a picnic for them all after the trial, and one asked "Should we invite OJ?" to titters.
Reply

Tremonius was starred Tremonius was unstarred

bytememehard
06/16/09

@Tart of Darkness: Don't forget at one point the jury sent Judge Ito a note asking if they could return a verdict of "handsome".
Reply

bytememehard was starred bytememehard was unstarred

FormerEnglishMajor
06/15/09

In reply to The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
So all these celebs who actually DO get paid are those who appeal to the 18 and under set.
Reply

FormerEnglishMajor was starred

TedSez
06/15/09

In reply to The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
K-Fed still gets paid to show up at hot nightclubs -- those bathrooms ain't gonna clean themselves! Zing!
Reply

TedSez was starred TedSez was unstarred

forwardmotion
06/15/09

@TedSez: Ba-dum-bump!
Reply

forwardmotion was starred forwardmotion was unstarred

NigelAstydameia
06/15/09

In reply to The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
Really, I'm not sure why anyone would pay Kim Kardashian for anything, except maybe to hatch eggs.
Reply

NigelAstydameia was starred NigelAstydameia was unstarred

Weegee's bored
06/15/09

@NigelAstydameia: Glad to hear I'm not the only one who believes that.
Reply

Weegee's bored was starred Weegee's bored was unstarred

zibby
06/15/09

In reply to The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
Paris Hilton? Wow. I'd pay her to stay the hell away.
Reply

zibby was starred zibby was unstarred

Tart of Darkness
06/15/09

@zibby: You probably couldn't get enough money together to pay her to stay away.
Reply

Tart of Darkness was starred Tart of Darkness was unstarred

zibby
06/15/09

Hey, I'd go to Goldman if I had to!
Reply

zibby was starred zibby was unstarred

Tart of Darkness
06/15/09

@zibby: :) I do sympathize. I wonder how much you would have to pay to have her stay away? Maybe we can get an investigative reporter like Harvey Levin to find out.
Reply

Tart of Darkness was starred Tart of Darkness was unstarred

DahlELama
06/15/09

In reply to The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
Finding out that Spencer Pratt makes something like 100k an appearance for this crap makes me think it's time for another flood--God seriously needs to start over.
Reply

DahlELama was starred DahlELama was unstarred

Tremonius
06/16/09

@DahlELama: Yeah, except for the breeding part. See, Noah hooked the big guy into "two times each" booking arrangement. God didn't know that meant they would all just come roaring back someday. At least, that's according to the Gideon I found in a little motel in Chiapas one year ...
Reply

Tremonius was starred Tremonius was unstarred

dandles
06/15/09

In reply to The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
I'm sure Selena Gomez is happy to show up at the opening of a tuna can.
Reply

dandles was starred dandles was unstarred

SpicyTamale is a GA peach
06/15/09

@dandles: link?
Reply

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

#moneyfornothing

Gawker

SUBSCRIBE TO Gawker

The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up

"The Internet Is Full Of Words Written For No Money At All"

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment