Celebs: living a life of luxury, fashion and sitting?

When we think of celebrities we often think of private planes and jet-setting, massive homes in the Hollywood hills, and endless designer duds. However, sitting down and getting paid is not one of them.

I recently came across an article that discussed how much celebrities are paid to sit front row at fashion shows during various fashion weeks. WHAT?! I want to get paid to sit down. I think that the world's fascination with celebrities is almost an epidemic, and the fact that designers pay celebs to sit at their shows is a bit crazy.

But, I'm not a complete idiot. I know that designer clothing will sell better if seen on a hot celeb. I guess it's just the idea of it all that bothers me. Here are some going rates of celebs:

A-List
Rihanna ($100,000 or more)
Beyonce ($80,000-$100,000)
Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen ($80,000 each)
Julianne Moore ($60,000)
Maggie Gyllenhaal ($60,000)
Chloe Sevigny ($60,000 or more)
Jennifer Lopez (circa 2005: $80,000; circa 2010: $30,000)
Lindsay Lohan (circa 2006: $60,000; circa 2010; UNINVITED)
Colin Firth (pre-A Single Man: $5,000; post-A Single Man: $15,000)

B-List
Blake Lively ($50,000)
Leighton Meester ($40,000)
Hillary Duff ($40,000)
Other Gossip Girl cast members ($25,000 a piece)
Jared Leto ($25,000)
Cliven Owen ($10,000)
Kristen Bell (unpaid, but airfare, makeup and clothing are taken care of)

C-List
Kim Kardashian ($35,000-$50,000)
Amanda Bynes ($25,000-$30,000)
Eliza Dushku (unpaid, but airfare, makeup and clothing are taken care of)

D-List
Paris Hilton (free or UNINVITED)
Jersey Shore cast (UNINVITED)
America’s Next Top Model Winners (free)

The most surprising for me was that Paris Hilton goes FREE or uninvited. That's just hilarious. Oh well, I guess since I'm a Z list celeb, I won't be attending any fashion shows anytime soon.

Thanks Hugh!

All of Los Angeles and the world finally caught their breath today as Hugh Hefner donated the last $900,000 needed to save the Hollywood Sign.

If you're anything like me, you had no idea the Hollywood sign was in danger. Well, it was. A group of Chicago investors bought the land the sign sits on a few years ago, and had threatened to remove the sign. However, after the rest of the world heard of this, they immediately began to protest and raise funds.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said it perfectly when he described the sign as, "a symbol of dreams and a symbol of opportunity and hope." What if all things that symbolized these things, or a city were gone? Imagine no Eiffel Tower, no St. Louis arch, no Big Ben...the world would be a lot less beautiful.

This whole ordeal reminded me of a time when my neighbors removed an old brick post from the end of my street. While on the surface, it seemed stupid, it had dated back to the early 1900's when my street back home in Chicago was just a small farm. The brick pillar was the only thing remaining from the farm, and it set our street a part from all the others. After they tore it down, the street revolted and it was put back up almost instantly. Sometimes things seem like a good idea at first for various reasons, but if we lose sight of what things mean- like The Hollywood sign, or the brick post, then we are stripping the world of it's beauty.

Eat this, Not that!

It's that time of year again that us women dread: swimsuit season! (insert scream here). While we all might be up to our ears in Redbull and fast food while studying for finals, we know that as soon as school ends, we must resume our normal routines. With that being said, I came across an informative segment on yahoo.com called "Eat this, not that!". It features various tricks from a much larger book on how to eat things you still love, but that will be a little bit healthier for you.

For example, did you know that one serving of Kellogg's Raisin Bran has 19g of sugar?! I was appalled at this fact, considering it markets itself on being a healthier cereal. 19g of sugar is less than Lucky Charms, Reeses' Puffs and Cocoa Krispies. WOA! Also, SmartStart has 14g of sugar per serving. These cereals trick you with words like "whole grain" "fiber rich!" etc. But, all your getting is a highly sweetened cereal.

This book then tells you alternatives to indulge in. Instead of Raisin Bran, try All-Bran with only 13g of sugar (still high, but not bad). Instead of SmartStart, try Kashi Vive with only 8g of sugar.

We all like to eat what we want, but when we're trying to lose those pounds gained with the stress of school, it's nice to be able to look to books like this and find alternatives to what we love, that will still satisfy our cravings.

Happy Reading!

Wanted: George Washington

Wanted: George Washington
Where: New York Library
Why: Overdue library books

This is not a joke. According to the Associated Press, George Washington has two books overdue. He checked them out about 220 years ago, and apparently they just realized they were missing. This is serious. What ever will we do?!

Okay, as ridiculous as this article was, it got me to thinking about the future of libraries. Are they going to be necessary in the next 10 years? With the release of the iPad, the success of the kindle and ebooks, who is going to need to go to a library? This saddens me. I blogged a while back about how some things should stay the way they are, particularly books. And after this insane article, I don't see a future for library fines. Why would anyone want to check out a book and possibly have to pay for it being overdue, when they could just download the book to their iPad, Kindle etc? It just doesn't make sense.

Oh well, I guess only the future will tell if George will make a guest appearance and return his libary books...or if there will even be a library for him to return them to.

Why Texans Are Badass

I always knew Texas was a badass state...from the lonestar, to the cowboys, we pretty much rule down here. With the recent economic downfall, Texas has managed to escape most of the drawbacks. According to the article (linked in the title), Texas continued to create jobs through most of 2008, when most of the nation was struggling. We still have a pretty high unemployment rate - 8.2%, but when comparing to California at 12.5% or Michigan at 14.1%, we're doing alright. The leading industry of Texas, energy, is almost recession proof because regardless of what's happening, we all continue to consume energy.

This article was pretty interesting, and confirmed my assumptions that Texas wasn't doing as badly as the rest of the country. I think that if other states take our lead, and don't get overhyped about certain things, and consume in moderation, they too can fare off the recession.

I'll leave you with 10 reasons to love Texas, according to The Washington Post
10. Pickup trucks with deer antlers (fake, we think) on them.
9. Sweet tea.
8. LBJ
7. This bumper sticker (American by Birth, Texan by the Grace of God)
6. The weather (we kid).
5. Gigantic American flags at every car dealerships.
4. Lots of George Strait on the radio.
3. Brisket.
2. Rick Perry vs Kay Bailey Hutchison.
1. Panther football.

Paying For What We Want

Just this past week I had the opportunity to attend the French American Chamber of Commerce luncheon where the CMO of Alcatel-Lucent spoke. I’d never been to a big fancy, formal luncheon, and was super excited. After the lunch portion, it was time for the speaker, Allison Cerra. Her speech was very interesting, and caused to me to think long after the luncheon.

She proposed, along with Alcatel-Lucent, that consumers should pay their service providers – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint etc, for better internet/video streaming coverage. Some of what she said went over my head, but the point did not. Should consumers pay for what they want? Absolutely. I think with the internet and technology boom, we’ve all gotten too much stuff for free, and it’s bound to fail at some point. Why should advertisers capitalize on the internet, when service providers are going to eventually lose their customers? I think the playing field should be evened out, and everyone would be happy.

While I love watching things on the internet for free, I wouldn’t be completely opposed to paying.

Required: Defining Responsibility in Advertising

I was recently asked to define responsibility in advertising. So, I thought I’d start with the real definitions of advertising, and responsibility.

Advertising: the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.

Responsibility: capability of fulfilling an obligation or duty; the quality of being reliable or trustworthy.

To me, advertising is a combination of things, and one of those things is being socially, and ethically responsible. Advertising is a socially responsible form of communication with the intent to persuade, all while living up to a code of ethics.