All American Talent Celebrity Network
Some samples
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Speaker’s fees are outrageous. The University I work for, always on the brink of financial disaster, paid somewhere between $40,000-$60,000, depending on what they negotiated, for An Evening With Alice Walker. Now I’ll grant she’s a great writer (at her best), but Og Almighty- that’s 10 full scholarships plus books plus stipends for a THREE HOUR engagement. They paid at least that much for William Shatner a few years ago. (The fee is in addition to “first class transportation and accomodations” I must add; if I’m paying somebody $40K for a day of their schedule, they can pay for their bus ticket and Econolodge their damned selves!).
I used to work for a large non-profit mental health agency that wanted Patty Duke to come speak at their annual state meeting. They were prepared to provide first class accomodations and travel and an honorarium and she told them that, mental health being a vital part of her life (she’s bipolar), she’d be delighted to speak at a reduced rate. $17,500 to be precise. The people on the board honestly thought she was off her medications before they found out that she usually got $25K.
I recently watched an interview with Jonathan Winters on which his wife expressed her irritation that he only works when he feels like it and thinks it would be fun (paraphrasing her)- “so he’ll go speak at some Fisherman’s League in the midwest for $4,000 and turn down $100,000 to speak at a GM board meeting, and I tell him Jonathan! That would put our grandchildren through college and it’s one day’s work!’ and he said ‘yeah, but for the $4000 I get to go fishing’.” It’s a major way B List celebrities keep up their income.
Jimmy Carter has a Col. Tom Parker type agreement with his agent that forbids him to charge less than $50,000 for a speech to anybody but church groups. We tried getting him to speak at the two colleges I worked at in Georgia for years, pleading with him, but nope, even though one was 10 miles from his house in Plains, was Rosalind’s alma mater, he had attended it before joining the Navy, he’s worshipped as a god in the community and the school’s a library is named for his father.
From that same site:
Anthony Robbins: starts at $100,000
Ken Burns- $30k to $50k
Danny Bonaduce- $10,000 to $20,000 to talk about HEALTH AND WELLNESS! 
(The case against?)
Interesting how they break the categories down. I buzzed through the “inspirational” speakers list real fast – yeah, Lauren Hutton, she’s the first person to come to mind – hm, John Stossel, no fee specified, wonder what that means – fee listed for Ben-&-Jerry, none for Jerry alone…
Shit, I’ve got to go to work. I’ll have to waste a ridiculous amount of time there later.
Oh man, I can waste a lot of time on that site.
“Joe Carter is currently in his 16th and final season as a major league baseball player.”
ummm, he retired in 1998.
Larry Linville? I’d pay to hear him. Would be interesting since he’s dead.
I filtered for all speakers demanding $100,000 and above. Carol Leifer?!
If you want an interesting read, check out the Janeane Garofalo page on this site. Despite the fact they are supposedly selling her appearances, they basically trash her for being hypocritical and untalented. But they think she’s cute.
That’s an astounding celeb bio (though IMO largely accurate).
I think this site must be pulling celebrity data out of it’s ass and given how careless the bio info is I’m wondering if they represent anyone. They can’t be representing all those people.
Check out this biography of Jimmy Walker. I know him from James Evans “Kid DY-NO-MITE!” Jr. on Good Times, and I even knew that he was once a Black Panther and that he gave Jay Leno and David Letterman their starts as comedy writers, but I had no idea that he was Irish, was once the mayor of NYC and has been dead for almost 60 years.
Do you think I’d get in trouble for trying to hire Tina Fey to come over and give a lecture to me…in my dining room…over a lovely pasta dinner…with some wine… 
What’s the harm in trying? And if you’re successful, let me know. I’ll start saving now just in case.
I notice that Scott Bakula is suspicously absent from the list…I think I smell a conspiracy…
:smack:
I mean to add that i was suprised that Scott Adams fee is 30k-50k. Still pricey, but you’d think he would eb a speaker in high demand and might charge 100k.
A disclaimer says that all prices are subject to change without notice.
David Sedaris gets about $30,000 per appearance I read a year or so ago, and he’s booked for two years in advance. John Grisham gets $75,000, though he actually waives or slashes his fee when it’s for a good cause. Where does the money come from to pay these people?
Twenty-five years ago Bob Hope cut his fee in half to appear at a benefit in Selma, Alabama. His fee, slashed, was around $25,000 and the benefit raised about $25,000. He graciously reduced it further so it wouldn’t be a total wash, but he still walked away with well over $10K for a day’s work.
And Jane Goodall only gets $20,000.
That just doesn’t seem right.
I wonder if a translator is included in Big Tom’s fee.
I think they got the wrong Baldwin, too.
Some good finds in the bargain bin, though: for $10,000 I could get both Anka Radakovich and Elizabeth Wurtzel. I wonder if I could make them wrestle?
Speaking of Norman Lear characters and mistaken identity, this reminds me of when Carrol O’Connor died a few years back and his obituary on one online news source was accompanied by a picture of Sinead O’Connor.