Any fan (or closet fan - hey we all understand guilty pleasures) of modern pop culture knows that The Smoking Gun can be counted on for the most unforgiving glimpses into the lives of celebrities. Among their usually more mundane stories is to leak contract riders evidencing the outrageous demands from such stars as Jennifer Lopez, Paul McCartney, and "Screech" from Saved by the Bell. They even gave us a peek in to the neuroses of the most disgraced Vice-President in U.S. History.
To this list of victims we can now add Rudy Giuliani, and what an insight it is!
thesmokinggun.com now states that Rudy is in fact among the most demanding of all these divas, most notably having strict guidelines regarding media interaction on his "speaking tours":
Giuliani is very picky about how he is to be photographed at gigs, apparently concerned that "direct, on-camera flash bulbs" result in none-too-flattering images. He also imposes restrictions on press coverage of his appearances, during which he speaks for 45 minutes and answers audience questions for 15 minutes.
I suppose this is the same kind of interaction we can count on with this candidate in the future - 15 minutes of pre-scripted press coverage, and no surprises! I don't think these clients are getting their money's worth, either.
The contract states, any old plane won't do: "Please note that the private aircraft MUST BE a Gulfstream IV or bigger."
(...)
A copy of Giuliani's contract was released by Oklahoma State University, where he spoke last March for $100,000 (and cost the school an additional $47,000 in jet expenses).
Given the faux-outrage from Faux-news over the faux-facts of Speaker Pelosi's travel requests a while ago, I'm sure a storm of equal proportions must be brewing over these Dionysian excesses. They are a little slow on the far-right side on the blogosphere so I'll wait. I'm sure the storm will be here any minute.