Jessica Alba sold her baby’s pictures for $1.3 million to OK! Magazine recently. Matt McConaughey and his model girlfriend sold theirs for a whopping $3.5 million to the same magazine. Now, I’m hearing that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s twins’ photos are up for bid and we’ve got People and OK! willing to pay upwards of $16 million dollars.
WHOA. On one hand, I can understand the need for a celebrity to want to sell the photos. Maybe it’ll cool off the paparazzi, meaning, they wont be hounded for baby pics if they’re already out there. On the other hand, I don’t know. The exclusive first photos will be shared, and the public will see them but I’m sure the candid ones are the ones that will be sought for. The ones where they are hounded walking down the street or coming out of their car. Those are the ones that people want to see. The NORMAL photographs. And, it wont be People or OK! photographers getting those. Then comes the question about why. I cant help but wonder why celeb parents are asking or accepting such high offers? Is this not exploitation of their children? Yes, no? I remember reading once, how Christina Aguilera was upset and disappointed at the low sales of her People cover with her newborn, Max.
Although there’s always been a nascent interest in the spawn of the rich and famous, the real baby boom has taken place more recently. “In the last few years the public has been increasingly interested in every aspect of celebrities and their lives,” Dina Sansing, Us Weekly’s entertainment director, said. “It’s not just about seeing stars in movies or on television shows, we want to see them in the grocery store, shopping for clothes and playing with their children.”
“Now more than ever, we want our celebrities to be real and think of them as family,” noted Rob Shuter, executive editor of OK! magazine.
SOURCE: http://www.newsweek.com/id/142280
Are we REALLY that interested in seeing celebrities as “normal” people? (People, by the way, whom I just call ones like me, but with a fatter savings account.) Even if it means them having to sell photos of their privileged offspring for millions of dollars? I admit. I’m guilty. Personally, I don’t really buy People magazine but I bought it when I saw the gorgeous Ms. Aguilera on the cover with baby, Max. Same with Nicole Richie and her baby girl (who is UBER-cute, by the way.) And I also admit to perusing Perez Hilton.com the other day to catch flix of Jamie Lyn Spears’ baby. I just like babies. Sue me. But I really have a problem with these ALREADY rich celebrities capitalizing on nothing more than the product of their fucking. Harsh? Maybe. But if this is the trend nowadays, I think that since these children will have a silver spoon in their mouth, a trust fund and access to the best shit whatever shit that may be, how about their parents do some good and give the money to charity? I’ve heard tell of a few doing that, though at the moment no names come to mind BUT not ALL celebs are evil, right? Some still have souls and hearts, right?
UPDATE: Nicole Kidman has opted out of selling photos of her daughter, Sunday Rose. She has turned down many lucrative offers and I just want to say GOOD FOR HER. But this comes as no surprise to me. She and Tom Cruise are known for suing the media and tabloids over false stories and reports and giving the money won in a settlement to charity.
.... Says What?