The California media lunched on a delectable faux-story last week that Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger and his wife were paid over $200,000 for appearing in the State's Tourism commercials. The spots, one with the obligatory (but still funny) "you'll be back" line, have run since 2005.
Big scandal, right? Not really. The Governator insisted up-front that his appearances in the TV spots would be pro bono. After all, that's what a governor should do. Oh wait...no other governor should appear in a tourism spot because, ummm, nobody cares. But Arnold...that's different.
However, his membership in the Screen Actors Guild requires a "minimum" payment. It's a union rule...and there's just no way around it.
But, that gets us back to whether celebrity endorsements work...and whether they are worth the pain of the media wetting their pants over the spin of a completely fabricated story.
Been there, done that
Posted by: Jim Epperson | March 09, 2010 at 08:56