There is a lot of talk now about how Kamala Harris spent tens of millions of dollars on celebrity endorsements – and how those celebrities are claiming that they received no compensation for their efforts.
Oprah Winfrey, for example, claimed that she got no direct compensation from the approximately $2.5 million Harris gave to Harpo Productions, Winfrey’s production company. Right. Winfrey OWNS Harpo.
“I did not take any personal fee,” Winfrey stated. Maybe not directly, but anyone with two living brain cells knows that the owner of a production company gets a cut of that company’s revenues; Winfrey claiming that she didn’t get a “personal fee” is splitting hairs. Note that she didn’t say that she got no financial gain from the Harris spectacle at all.
Nuff said.
Then there are music icons such as Lady Gaga and Jon Bon Jovi who performed “voluntarily”, taking no fees – although the support staffs were paid (which is as it should be).
Well, fine. All these celebrities can cry poor mouth and try to look like magnanimous and beneficent Harris supporters all they want…while it may be true that they received no direct compensation for their performances you can be damned sure that they will, to the last person, claim a political contribution on their taxes this year.
And to me, that – delayed though it may be – is compensation.