Latest Gossip From Around the World
Latest Gossip From Around the World
Speculation is rife that Christina Aguilera and that guy she’s married to were paid $1.5 million for the first pictures of new son Max. Harlow Winter Madden is worth about half that, although no figure has been put on what the price might have been if the babies had appeared on the cover together.
Jennifer Lopez is set to make $4-6 million for her twins, which is similar to the high sum paid for Shiloh Jolie-Pitt’s debut, which earned a whopping $4.1 million. Her adopted sibling was not considered as cute at age four as a baby, and was worth about half that.
Why do babies make so much money for magazine covers? Is it because celebrities demand that much compensation for losing their private life? (Not that this stops them complaining later when paparazzi try to take pictures of the same child.) It’s because their covers sell.
“We just do tremendously well on the newsstand when we’ve got celebrity babies on the cover,” says Caperton (Kate, OK! magazine deputy editor), “because people love being with their favorite stars in these really important moments in their lives.”
Setting up a safe shoot with a guaranteed paycheck works out well for the parents, too.
“It’s more beneficial for celebrities to cooperate with a company like us to do their baby pictures versus not doing it, because then paparazzi will chase them and will not stop until they get the picture of that celebrity with the baby,” (Roxanne, Getty Images) Motamedi says. “But once the pictures are out, there is really no value of paparazzi chasing them and trying to get the baby shot.”
Is it because we love to see how mum’s looking post-birth? They usually look way better than anyone else. There is a reason new mothers rarely send out pictures of mother and baby together in those first few days – the baby looks cute and they look like they’ve been through Hell. Probably because they have.
Or is it just because we all love babies?
Of course, babies don’t have to be fodder for checkbook journalism. Vanity Fair didn’t pay anything for rights to the first photos of Suri Cruise, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. But that September 2006 issue still sold 60% more copies on newsstands than the average for that half of the year. The sell-through was such an anomaly that the title was forced to warn against comparing September 2006 sales with the abnormally successful issue a year prior.
Plenty of editors say paying up will pay you back. “It depends on what the cost is, but it’s a nice positive antidote to the more crazy celebrity stories that go on,” said Sarah Ivens, editor in chief of OK, part of Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell empire.
Oh, I like that idea. I’d much rather see a baby than Britney Spears looking like a train wreck. Interestingly, Britney the train wreck must sell more magazines than her son Sean Preston, when he featured on the cover of People sales were down 15%.
Interestingly, I love babies more than ice cream, but actually couldn’t care less about a picture of one. That could be anyone’s child, one baby is pretty hard to tell from another. That’s why they are so careful putting name tags on them in the hospital. Partly because they can’t talk, but mostly due to the fact it’s hard to tell them apart.
So, I’m sensing a business opportunity here. I have a particularly cute baby at my place. Blue eyed, smiles lots, has a reasonable amount of dark hair, but not like the crazy mop Suri Cruise had. Wanna hire her? Just in case your ugly celebrity baby isn’t up to the pictures. The bidding starts at $1 million – that should pay for her and her siblings to go to college.
Picture note by Celebitchy: Remember these baby pictures of Shiloh? They were a big deal when they came out in June, 2006 and were featured in People and Hello!.
Jennifer Lopez is as big as a house right now. I guess she kind of is a house for babies right now. Anyway, the very-soon-to-be-mommy is doing what many of us do when we’re feeling less than fab about our figure – we shop. And not for clothes!
J.Lo has apparently splashed out on a $120,000 nursery for the twins.
Sources tell PageSix.com that the nursery awaiting the forthcoming fraternal twins is an ocean-themed room stocked in English furniture and French-made cribs decked out in hand-embroidered bedding.
The tiny pair will also gaze upon 18-karat gilded trim and chandeliers in Jennifer and Marc Anthony’s Long Island home, as well as in the nurseries in their Bel Air and Fisher Island homes. The total cost of digs for two adorable babes? Over $120,000.
For other parents an ‘ocean theme’ means that you put up a couple of Finding Nemo posters.
I say, why not splurge on a gorgeous nursery for your babies if you cannot afford it. Jennifer has long wanted babies, and now they’re finally coming, and she’s understandably excited. Sure, non-celeb parents would probably use that money to, er, buy a mini van, or make house payments, or educate their children, but a glam nursery is what a successful music career can buy you, as well as a Mercedes mini van, mansion, and private school education.
You know, if I had unlimited funds for a nursery, I think the first thing I’d put in it (besides a nanny) would be some cradles that rock electronically. And the Wiggles, as in, the band themselves. Maybe they could be my nannies? And something that changes the kids diapers for me. Oh, I guess that would be a nanny. Hmmn, I’m getting a little Jennifer Lopez envy here! I’d probably get the kid some cool toys that I could play with too, like really elaborate Lego, and a slide.
Anyway, now that we know J.Lo will be having twins, we are basically just waiting for her to pop them out. And some people suggest Valentine’s Day would be a nice day to have a baby.
The very pregnant actress has been out on the town of late showing off a very sizable baby bump. She and hubby and dad to be Marc Anthony just this week attended a reception to benefit UNICEF hosted by Gucci during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2008 at The Salon at Bryant Park on February 6th in New York City.
So how did she know she wasn’t headed to the hospital that night? She is scheduled to give birth on Valentine’s Day! J Lo has reportedly scheduled a C-section for next Thursday at New York North Shore University Medical Center.
Here’s another reason for the J.Lo envy – scheduled delivery. I begged, almost on my knees but it was too hard to get down on the floor, for a c-section when I was pregnant with my last child. I simply could not stand to be pregnant a second longer, but I got told no way. How do people get these scheduled sections when they’re not pregnant with twins like J.Lo? Do you bribe the hospital staff? I was never offered the opportunity to have an elective cesarean, but people keep talking about them. What secret do they know that I don’t? Maybe she has to have the babies on a certain day because of the kidnap protection plan in place.
Note by Celebitchy: This week’s Enquirer has details of the baby items Lopez registered for at elite boutique Petit Tresor, and they include a bassinet at $800, an Enchanted Forest highchair to the tune of $485, Simplicity crib linen at $535, a Monogram crib bedding set at $950, and a black Baby Jogger stroller at $560.
The Enquirer also states that Lopez will hire a nanny that costs $100,000 a year and “several” baby nurses at $150 an hour, who will work in 12 hour shifts.
Lopez and Anthony are shown at Madonna’s Kabbalah fundraiser last week, thanks to PRPhotos.
