Lifestyles of the Rich and Stupid: Updated
On the whole, I avoid picking on celebrities, because they are cheap targets and no one can possibly get paid enough to put up with the fame crap.
That said, there’s Michael Jackson.
I thought you’d enjoy seeing this link to the auction of his worldly goods, including this memorable work which proves that money can’t buy good taste:
I admire the technical proficiency of the painting, but WHO THE HELL BUYS SOMETHING LIKE THIS!?!?!
And you know he paid through the nose for it, so to speak.
My guess is he paid at least $50,000 to a portrait painter for it, so with an auction estimate of $8,000, no bargain there.
Then again, Jackson was notorious for not paying clients. Science fiction artist Michael Whelan said in interviews that he had a devil of a time getting Jackson’s people to pay up on the big bill for the art to a cover painting Whelan had created for one of Jackson’s albums. I’d love to link, but the interview is in an old fanzine: Interzone, I believe.
Jackson’s money people declared that Whelan should be flattered to do art for Jackson, and that the publicity would be good for Whelan’s career. Why should he expect to get paid?
Whelan did eventually collect on the debt.
Great pics of Jackson’s goodies at that article. I know someone who would love that Superman figure.
Here’s another article about lifestyles of the rich and stupid, saved from the old message board, “Mark Twain’s Quest for Bling”:
America’s most beloved writer, the man who brought us Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, spent most of his life on a wild quest for big bucks, investing in schemes, and oddball inventions. While writing satires that sneered at the Gilded Age uber rich, Mark Twain gave every indication that he would very much like to be one of them, and his harebrained plots usually left him broke. (EDIT: The original link to the quotes here have disappeared, but I’ve found another great article to replace it. Enjoy!)
“While Clemens expressed satisfaction with his writing and tended to crack himself up with his own humor, he measured his success by his personal production and income,” Krass writes…
“It would be fair to say that he probably would not have necessarily decided to earn his living as a writer unless he had failed as a silver miner,” Fishkin said, but “he learned things from all of his experiences and adventures that came in handy when he wrote.”
Perhaps the uncertain nature of the writer’s life helps to exacerbate this problem. Or maybe Mark Twain was just a little too much Tom Sawyer.
Get-rich-quick delusional behavior gets even worse if one actually has had some measure of success in one’s career. Some seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to chase down that magic formula that will repeat that success. The minute money comes in, they blow it. They live beyond their means, trying to impress their friends with how successful they are.
When income was sparse, one acquaintance (not in comics) lied his way into getting a wholesaler account with a manufacturing company, and then began selling the goods online for tidy profits. The requirement was that the account go to retailers with storefronts: he had no store, he was simply reselling on ebay.
This went well for a time, and he earned thousands of dollars in a matter of months, every single penny of which he blew in 120 days by indulging in high living. Dining out alone accounted for $6,000 of expenditures. Someone who earns $1,000 a month as a writer has no business spending $6,000 on food.
To make matters worse, he went on to lose a small fortune on those goods he was selling, because by then everyone had gotten into the online sales scheme he was running and suddenly he had huge competition. He was stuck with loads of inventory, much of which he had to sell at a loss.
This was just one in a series of bad moves. Financial planning? Retirement accounts? Mutual funds? Forget it. Some people are entitled to be rich. Smart people shouldn’t have to work hard!
What happened to the guy? We dunno. This was years ago, and while he generously shared his cautionary tale for my blog, he seems to have disappeared off the radar since.
This sense of entitlement is usually accompanied by utter contempt for people who actually do have money as well as an inordinate fondness of celebrity proximity. Duck and run when these people get anywhere near an actor. They whip out their cameras with such speed you can hear a sonic boom.
c
PS: This may or may not be related: Steve Geppi, Diamond Comic Distributor boss, experiencing financial woes, including unpaid back rent on his pop culture museum.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Those slops! Auuggh, my eyes!
On the other hand, if someone were to throw down $50K so I could do a similar painting… screw it, I’d paint them wearing a purple Twinkie suit.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
You and me both, baby!
But why?
WHY?
WHY DID HE WANT TO BE PAINTED LIKE THIS??? WHYYYYYY???
I can’t think of another person on the planet who would want to be painted in orange pumpkin pants DELIBERATELY!
This is such a well crafted painting, but for cryin’ out loud, there are far more flattering royal images I could think of to preserve for posterity.
Orange pumpkin pants…made of wrongness.
We could have a good deal of fun figuring out better ways to dress Michael Jackson in a painting. For $50,000 I would paint it, too.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
It always amazes me how people with a bit of money – like the guy you described – blow it so easily, and the stuff that the really rich spend it on. Not ever having had any great amount of money, I just wonder what coming into it does to your brain that makes people do this. I remember a conversation I had with some friends once, about what we would do if we won the lottery or got an inheritance. The best we could come up with was, “Pay of my student loans and … um … buy a new computer.” I don’t think in a million years it would’ve even occured to us to have a portrait painted, much less one in that get-up!
February 18th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I am feeling guilty for paying $50 for an Aquaman doll, even though it was 2/3 off. I writhe, I writhe.
I just can’t wrap my brain around these other people people with their thousands spent on, well, dining out and gold plated faucets.
It’s unusual for me to eat out more than twice a month, unless I am at a show.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
By the way, there is an ad that is showing up on my site for the Carder Method, a painting technique.
Highly recommended. You should click the link. I bought that course myself.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Never mind all that, what’s he doing with the Beatles song catalog? Or has he already sold his half back to Sony?
February 18th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I put my finger on why it looks SO wrong to me — there’s no codpiece to go with the slops.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
OMG, VT wins…this man has no dick.
At Snopes, Jackson and Beatles catalogue:
http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/jackson.asp
There’s an odd story floating around about how Jackson has written in his will that he is going to leave the catalogue to Paul McCartney, but since Jackson may have to sell it off before then to pay his debts, who knows what the real deal is.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
PS: you put your finger on it…VT you have no shame.
February 18th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Why no… no, I don’t actually have any shame, now that I think about it. Guess I worked Faire for way too long to have any left. It all got eroded by beer, the hot sun, and my ribald sense of humor. But many people think that’s the best thing about me.
February 18th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Tee hee! I did love my Renfaire days, too!
BTW, some sources identify this artist as the artist of the painting:
http://www.normanoakstudio.com/about.html
February 18th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Telling Michael Whelan that he should be “honored” to do work for Jackson? And that that, and the publicity, should be enough for him?
Excuse me? Which album was this, and how well did it sell? What is it such a “big deal” that I hadn’t heard of it before?
Cripes. I hate people who pull that stunt. You hired me for a *job*, you are obliged to *pay* me. Favors or give-away art/work is for my FRIENDS only, and at my choice, at that. *You* don’t tell me that’s what’s going on.
Oh, bah.
February 18th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
No fooling! It was for the cover of the Victory album. Since this was back in 1984, the ONLY place I saw this mentioned in print was in an old ‘zine. I later asked Whelan about it, and he confirmed. Pre-internet days. these stories didn’t get around much and Whelan rarely does interviews.
February 18th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I am deeply annoyed. I cannot find that zine. It predated Interzone anyway I think, and I just had it not two weeks ago. time to clean the shelves again.
I think it was in that stack of old books and ‘zines Kelly Freas gave me, so it goes WAY back. About 1986 or so.
February 18th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
To be fair, Victory was a Jacksons album, not just Michael. So Whelan got to paint ALL the Jacksons, including Jermaine and Tito! Now that’s an honor.
http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc152/sinosukephoto/Jacksons-victory.jpg
(Boy, that’s just…a strange cover.)
February 18th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Eek! You are correct sir! My bad. That’s what I get for not having the article right in front of me. I remember that Michael Jackson hand picked Whelan for the piece because he thought his work looked like Maxfield Parrish. When Whelan spoke of not getting paid, he always referred to Jackson’s people as the stumbling block.
Now it is open knowledge that Michael Jackson had a bad habit of not paying bills. Or his money people did. Whatever. In the end, Whelan got paid, but he had to fight for it. I saved that article all these years because I wanted it to remind me that even the artists I admired most and thought the most business savvy had these problems.
February 18th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Frankly, I don’t think MJ’s “money people” are *really* MONEY people. Real experts with money handling wouldn’t have let him get into some of these stupid financial straights.
“I’m Michael Jackson! I can have whatever I want! Money isn’t important!”
February 19th, 2009 at 11:39 am
On a somewhat related note, the NY Times just put up an article about celebrity portraits: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/garden/19portrait.html
February 19th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
My, that was an interesting article.
Every time I feel insecure about my painting skills…anyway, those celeb portraits were something else.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
And for the record: I like fantasy portraits. I really do. I’ve done a few. I have lots of friends in the Renfaire scene.
I just can’t get past the orange slops. It’s like they’re trying to hypnotize me or something. Gack.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
I can’t think of another person on the planet who would want to be painted in orange pumpkin pants DELIBERATELY!
Really? What jumps out at me is his face. This looks like a portrait that was painted back when Jackson was still at least partly human. He was a handsome man at one time. Then… something… happened to him. Plastic surgery? I don’t buy it. I think he was bitten by a zombie.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
[...] I mentioned Michael Whelan’s adventures doing cover art for a Michael Jackson album cover, and then having trouble getting paid for it. It was pointed out to me that the cover art was for the Jackson Five album Victory, and not for a [...]
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:11 pm
[...] those of you hoping to walk away with a genuine painting of Michael as 16th century monarch are going to have to wait. Jackson’s managers staved off the sheriff. Still, this website has his worldly goods for your [...]
August 5th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
[...] Blog migration has moved the original location of posts. If you came here looking for Lifestyles of the Rich and Stupid with info about Mark Twain et.al. go HERE. [...]