In a world where anything and
everything about celebrities sells –
even celebrity trash – it's no wonder
that celebrity pictures are fetching a
fortune.
The past few years in particular have
witnessed an unprecedented rise in the
prices paid for exclusive celebrity
photos. Propelled by the public’s
desire to lap up even minute details
of celebrity life as well as moves by
celebrities themselves to control the
shooting and get profit from their
images, these photos are worth tens of
millions of dollars.
Forbes has compiled a list of the 10
most expensive celebrity photos, by
surveying sales of the top-priced
photos in the United States over the
past 10 years. (The estimates were not
adjusted for inflation).
According to Forbes, since the
entertainment magazines are
tight-lipped about such sales, it was
compelled to rely on published reports
and only considered photo sales where
information was available.
Coming at number one on the Forbes
list is the $4.1 million People
magazine paid for the pictures of
Shiloh Nouvel, daughter of Hollywood
actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie,
in June 2006.
The second place goes to the wedding
photos of Demi Moore and Ashton
Kutcher, for which OK! magazine
reportedly paid $3 million in October
2005.
Overall, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
dominate the list, with four of the
top 10 slots.
Photographs that chronicled the sad
saga of Anna Nicole Smith accounted
for another three.
Forbes – which looked into what makes
a photograph worth $500,000 as opposed
to $10,000 – found that interest from
one of the big celebrity weeklies such
as People, In Touch, US Weekly or OK!
is the most important thing.
All of the photos on the Forbes list
got their big payments from one of
these four publications. Exclusive
photographs can set themselves apart
in a field thick with competition – be
it in print, on television, or on the
Web.
Dan Wakeford, executive editor of In
Touch weekly, says there has to be
some element of surprise, news and
emotion involved for an image to spawn
a bidding war between the
entertainment outlets.
Wakeford reportedly paid $400,000 for
a shot of Anna Nicole Smith with her
son Daniel taken hours before his
death. He adds, “The death of Anna
Nicole’s son was the massive news
story of the moment – it consumed the
whole nation, and these pictures were
so newsy and so emotive. This was
every mother’s worst nightmare, and
through these pictures, America could
empathise with what Anna Nicole was
going through.”
For the photographs of Brad Pitt and
Angelina Jolie strolling along an
African beach, US Weekly is said to
have shelled out $500,000 to print
them in 2005. Beyond the picturesque
locale and its beautiful subjects, the
shots revealed a much-publicised love
story. Though no signs of affection
were present in the photos, they
served as validation of a
much-speculated romance between
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Jolie's
co-star in Mr and Mrs Smith. At that
time, Pitt had already split from
actress-wife Jennifer Aniston.
Of late, celebrities are increasingly
using a tactic to control the media
‘menace’. Big names like Gwyneth
Paltrow, Julia Roberts, and Britney
Spears have bypassed the scores of
paparazzi by tipping off a single
photographer or hiring their own to
capture big events such as weddings
and births.
This arrangement benefits the
celebrities in two ways – besides
keeping the crowd of camera-wielding
onlookers at bay at highly personal
events, it guarantees both an image
the stars approve of and a sum of
money they either pocket or, in many
cases, donate to charity.
In the spring of 2006, Angelina Jolie
and Brad Pitt sold pictures of their
biological daughter Shiloh Nouvel to
People magazine and donated the
proceeds to a selection of charities
serving African children. The payment
reportedly came to $4.1 million,
excluding the $3.5 million that Hello!
magazine paid for British rights to
the photographs.
OK! bought the pictures from the
extravagant wedding in Paris of Eva
Longoria, star of Desperate
Housewives, and NBA all-star Tony
Parker paying $2 million, placing the
shots in a tie for the third spot on
the Forbes list.
The Forbes study found that, beyond
the price tags, the types of pictures
being snapped have changed in recent
years. The paparazzi are increasingly
shunning staged moments and instead
moving to the streets and the trees to
capture unstaged shots – such as
celebs taking out the trash or walking
their dogs.
Francois Navarre, owner of X17 agency,
who employs teams to trail a cadre of
A-listers (like Britney Spears and
Lindsay Lohan) almost 24 hours a day,
says this kind of extreme surveillance
is necessary to beat the competition.
Though Ken Sunshine, a veteran
publicist whose clients include Ben
Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio, calls
the always-present flashbulbs
“obtrusive to the point of insanity,”
readers really enjoy the real-life
element of these images. Harvey Levin,
managing editor of Time Warner’s
entertainment news website TMZ.com
agrees, “We are covering real people
and not plastic figures that have
perfect hair, perfect makeup, and
perfect dresses on a red carpet, which
is fantasy. And, who wants that
anymore?”
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