Designer garments, iPads, automobile leases, trip packages, child garments, diapers … In the event you’re a star, you’ll obtain all of this and extra without cost, with out ever having to endorse and even request something.
To tweak a well-known Mel Brooks line, it’s good to be a star. Manufacturers like Apple, Calvin Klein, and Burberry are consistently placing their merchandise into the fingers of the wealthy and well-known. In any case, there’s an off likelihood {that a} celeb is perhaps photographed or simply seen holding or carrying the model, a state of affairs that quantities to ultra-cheap advertising.
A New York journal story estimates the astonishing quantity of schwag a B- and even C-list superstar takes residence annually:
On common, a daily red-carpet walker will obtain about $100,000 in free items and companies yearly, some in all-gratis pop-up retailers and a few unasked-for within the mail.
(LIST: 10 Superstar-Endorse Merchandise We Wouldn’t Purchase)
Check out the U.S. median family revenue figures, and also you’ll observe that the worth of the celeb haul of freebies is almost double what the everyday family earns yearly.
The $100K factoid is one in all many included within the journal’s sprawling multi-part package deal masking the “Celebrity Economy” this week. Earlier than being consumed with jealousy that you just’re not in on the schwag-a-thon, it’s value contemplating that not every little thing is given to celebrities. Actually, it seems as if being a star is sort of an costly out-of-pocket endeavor.
A abstract of 1 A-list actor’s expenditures reveals that she (or he) spent $11.4 million final 12 months, together with over $5 million in taxes, about $1.8 million for the mortgage and maintenance on “just” two residences ($80,000 on gardening, $24,000 for swimming pools, $15,000 on telephones), $300,000 on youngsters bills, $875,000 on jewellery, and $2,500 on financial institution charges.
(MORE: Why the Wealthy Shoplift Extra Than the Poor)
Perhaps, then, in a minimum of a method, celebrities actually are “just like us.” People dropped round $30 billion on financial institution overdraft charges final 12 months, so it’s good to know that the wealthy and well-known are additionally recognized to pay completely pointless charges.
Brad Tuttle is a reporter at TIME. Discover him on Twitter at @bradrtuttle. You may also proceed the dialogue on TIME’s Fb web page and on Twitter at @TIME.
“Well bless their hearts.”
