Overseas

38
filipino globe celebrity
November 2006
The dead
are getting
richer and
why not?
How much is Marilyn Monroe’s
pin-up photo worth these days?
The good times roll for Elvis, Curt Cobain and Albert Einstein. They make millions a year.
POL ISIDRO in Los Angeles
They’re long gone, but they may
be worth more now that they’re
dead than when they were living.
From Elvis to Frank Sinatra and
Albert Einstein, dead celebrities
are making more money than
they ever did, ensuring their
iconic status and making them a
continuing business proposition,
according to Forbes magazine.
Elvis dominated the scene
for many years, thanks largely
to shrewd management of his
estate by former wife Priscilla.
When the estate sold the licensing
rights to a management firm
recently, the King of Rock ‘n Roll
pocketed a handsome profit.
Much of Elvis’ wealth comes
from that deal with CKX, which
paid US$100 million for 85 per
cent of Elvis Presley Enterprises
left to daughter Lisa Marie
Presley.
The purchase includes
publishing rights to some 650
songs and Graceland, Elvis’
famously tacky Memphis home.
But stripping out the one-time
profit from the deal, Elvis can’t
claim the No 1 spot on Forbes’
list. That place has been taken by
Curt Cobain, the former frontman
of Nirvana, who killed himself in
1994. His widow, Courtney Love,
and their child, Frances Bean,
sold 25 per cent of the band’s
catalog to former Virgin Records
chief Larry Mestel for a reported
US$50 million.
Then there’s proof that making
loads of cash is not exactly rocket
science. Albert Einstein has been
dead more than 50 years, but he
continues to inspire films and
stories and his image remains
widely used, for which his estate
receives royalties to the tune of
US$5 million a year. Einstein has
helped create an industry that was
worth US$400 million last year.
Marilyn Monroe’s much-loved
pin-up photo with her white
skirt lifted up from under a
manhole blower on a New York
street continues to be a bestseller,
accounting for much of
the US$8 million she made last
year. Recent uses of the blonde
bombshell were in ads that peddle
everything from Dom Perignon
(her favorite drink) to a Spanish
airline.
Campbell’s Soup once
fetched a quarter a can. Today, a
paperweight tagged with Amdy
Warhol’s pop rendering of the
can sells for US$16.50, courtesy
of the Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Visual Arts, which owns
his estate. It even gets royalties
from a Warhol-influenced pair
of Adidas sneakers. Last year,
it brought Warhol, who died in
1987, a whopping US$16 million
in royalties.
McCartney faces US$400m bill in ugly and costly divorce
LOI LIWANAG in Los Angeles
It’s as nasty as it gets. Not only
that, former Beatle Paul McCartney
could lose one-fourth of his
estimated US$1.6 billion fortune
in his split-up with Heather Mills.
As the divorce is fought out in
the tabloids, McCartney and Mills,
once one of the most celebrated
showbiz couples with their very
public devotion to each other, are
standing their ground over a final
settlement.
Ultimately, however, McCartney,
64, who started the proceedings,
could end up paying Mills, 38, up
to US$400 million.
The allegations range from
Mill’s “unreasonable behavior”
to McCartney’s abusive character
and drug-induced violence, enough
fodder to keep the British media
fed for one year.
“It’s not the money,” Mills, a
former ramp model who lost a leg
in a car accident, once protested.
“But in this situation, something
has got to give.”
Michael Douglas is known to
have paid off his wife US$100
million to marry Catherine Zeta
Jones, Tom Cruise parted with a
“fairly good amount” in his divorce
with Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt
is coy on how much it cost him
to gain his freedom from Jennifer
Aniston.
McCartney’s potential settlement
has drawn punters into the fray
with some of the most outlandish
betting on how much the final bill
would be.
No deal ... McCartney and Mills.