How do seemingly minor celebs afford lavish lifestyles?

[likemindedarseholes]

Reading a Heat magazine and James (formally of Busted) mentioned living in the Hollywood hills. Also these 'Cribs' style programmes where someone who had one hit or was in one reality show has a great looking house... what's the secret?
Are they rented houses? Did James from Busted invest well? And how do people like Katie Price spend it all, she must have made loads with all the books, perfumes, tv shows? How??

Agree that I think there's a lot more money being earned in invisible ways through behind the scenes writing/production etc. Also, a few good years when you're relatively young can make a huge difference - buy your first house outright, perhaps invest some money etc, and it will set you up much more for the long term.

In a much smaller way, I notice it with friends who a) started "proper" careers quite early AND b) were in relationships early - they had decent salaries and a team effort. Now, in mid 40s, they're much better off even if their salaries are actually the same as mine. Similarly, anyone who starts with a bit of family help - eg to buy that first home age 22 vs waiting until you're nearly 40 because you have to save for the deposit.

You’d be amazed how much songwriters can earn. They only really need one big song. Tony Mortimer from East 17 earn nearly £100k a year just from Stay Another Day. Slade still earn half a million a year from their Christmas song.

With James Bourne, it’s songwriting credits plus touring. Busted used to tour a lot and they all got paid an absolute packet when they did the McBusted thing.

They get more money than what you think. I know of someone who had a minor role in a film that's not mainstream and they were paid £100,000

There was an article about this a few years ago in one of the papers. It was mostly about reality ‘stars’; broke down how much the payment was for photo shoots/promotions (nowhere near as much as you’d think).

At the time Katie Price was at the height of her fame (so about 10-15 years ago) and was the only one who was truly making money. The article mentioned people like Danielle Lloyd, Kerry Katona and a few others who don’t DO anything but still went on 5 star holidays etc.

I'd imagine most reality stars live off credit cards. And at some point, end up on Only Fans/other desperate measures.

Katie Price owes millions. Yet plays the "mental elf" card and gets away with it time and time again. She's a very clever woman and nowhere near as stupid as she makes out she is.

@VivienneDelacroix

Loads of the houses on Cribs weren't actually theirs. They were hired.

It's like most 'influencers', it's all a front. But it becomes a competitive fantasy. The tabloids and gossip magazines/channels keep fueling it just to so the readers/viewers can gloat over the inevitable breakdown and collapse when it "all goes wrong".

Oh wow. Well that is another reason (added to the very long list) of why I would never go to Dubai and am silently disgusted with the number of people who do.

I also made the mistake of googling Dubai porta potty . Grim

Oh god, I just googled Porta Potties.
Just awful!!!!

Even on real housewives franchises, alot of the houses are rented for filming. TOWIE lot are usually involved in some dodgy business / finance schemes. Also it's very easy to take insta photos somewhere lavish on the same day and post them over a period of time. (one of the top hotels in Paris actually does a photo shoot session in their hotels than influencers can pay for, they spend a couple of hours there, get photos and can pretend on IG they are staying there). Also the reason why so many reality stars are constantly in Dubai is providing services to wealthy men out there. I'd say what you see online and the reality are very very different things.

I employed (and later fired) an ex minor celebrity. A DJ who'd fallen on hard times, and had been working as a hotel cleaner.

They were propelled to fame because of their talent and personality, but not their money management skills. But their managers encouraged the lavish lifestyle, including a lot of lease and rental options that don't build income.

They want a millionaire to look like a billionaire,etc, because it makes them look like a good manager.

Could be wrong but there is a distinction between musicians who were successful before and after streaming. Pre-streaming, many artists could be wealthy from sales, now from touring unless in the few. The wealth from streaming seems to flow to the platform rather than the artist, except the few.

Busted was huge at the time! He would have made a lot of money. Depending on your contract singers, bands get money for airplay of their songs years after they were hits…
A friend of a friend is a minor part actor, but has steady tv and sometimes movie work, and she earns on average £300k a year depending. Deffo enough for a posh house and a nice car

The wise ones (either with good manager/financial advisor or a good solid family) will have invested, probably in property but also in various businesses etc (that don’t rely on them being famous), they will then have capitalised on thier fame (free stuff/ad campaigns/merch etc) while they could all the while knowing that had solid investments that would set them up for life.
If they were the songwriter then they already have a steady income stream, even less well known songs will create some ongoing income.

So really the ones you don’t think were very successful (because they weren’t splashing the cash back in the day) are the ones who were putting it away for a rainy day.

Another friend writes songs for artists, say b/c on the celeb singer scale but as the writer and/or producer can make £60/70/80k if that song charts and then has years of residuals and payments for when the songs are added to complication playlists.
Friend did one ( pretty shit they’d admit,
A
Remix not an original even !) Xmas song for someone and makes A small fortune between Oct -Jan time when all the 24hr Xmas music stations and others stick it on their playlist.

A lot of it is smoke and mirrors, as other people have said -- management hiring places to make them look good, brands getting them to promote with 'collabs' etc. So a fairly minor girlband singer or up-and-coming model/reality star can appear to be draped in expensive dresses and sporting designer shoes, but it is as much about being 'seen' wearing them as anything.

With pop singers, the money is in writing, not fronting a band. So someone like James, who wrote three Number One singles for his own band and a lot more for other people, will have probably made enough money in 10 years to live off the interest, if he was advised sensibly on how to invest it.

Nirvana's former producer wrote a very interesting article about where all the money actually goes when a band gets an advance.

mpg.org.uk/knowledge-bank/the-problem-with-music-by-steve-albini/

Fish (formerly of Marillion) is also very financially astute and has written some interesting stuff about how he managed his money, but I can't find links for any of it right now.

I had a look at the porta potty thing too. I had very little faith in the human race before that and even less in it now.

The Oxo actress said she used to do those ads year after year because one advert, basically a few days' work a year, paid her as much as a commitment to nine or ten months' filming of a BBC or ITV drama series.

In the case of 'OK' or 'Hello' level of celebrities, I suspect it falls into 1 of 3 categories.
1: All smoke and mirrors. The "lovely farm house in the Cotswolds" isn't theirs. It's their managers brother in laws' place, a hotel, an air bnb.
2: They received solid financial advice at their peak, and invested wisely, rather than fritter it away at the time.
3: Their partner that no-one has hardly heard of, is independently wealthy in some way, and they live off that.

Successful song writing is lucrative. I remember reading that Jona Lewie was able to retire after writing Stop the Cavalry.

And while Shaky gets £5-10,000 from ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’, the man who actually wrote it gets over £100k each year.

It makes me laugh though to hear the rebellious anarchic music stars who act like crazy carefree teenagers condemning "the establishment", whilst secretly making sound financial decisions and property investments!

@brokengoalposts are you talking about Darious from popstars?

Busted were a pretty big deal in the 00s and I believe they made a comeback a few years ago with McFly which was also successful? I imagine they made enough to still be fairly wealthy if they didn’t splurge it all on drugs and other stupid shit which he clearly didn’t. They’ll still get loyalties when their songs are played too and maybe he’s a songwriter for other artists.

@Pazuzu

I had a look at the porta potty thing too. I had very little faith in the human race before that and even less in it now.

What the hell's wrong with those men? FFS.

@Andgettingcaughtintherain

It’s going to come up at some point it always does on threads about how that group of people make money, so I am warning you now DO NOT Google Dubai escort or portapotty. Just don’t.

I just did 🤣🤣 I wish I could say I was surprised/shocked but I'm not. Theres very little that some people won't do for money!!