They’ve Got A Yen For U.S. Stars - Lots Of Yen
Want to make a quick buck? Go East, young (or old) celebrity.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jodie Foster, Steven Spielberg, Charlie Sheen, Peter Falk and Madonna are among the Hollywood types who’ve made big money pitching products in Japanese ads, for everything from coffee to cars to cigarettes. Top stars like Arnold and Sly can command up to $1.2 million for a one-year contract.
When Sheen visited Tokyo to promote “Terminal Velocity,” he recited a list of companies he’d done promotions for: “I’d like to thank Gianni Versace Tokyo for supplying my wardrobe, Parliament for my cigarettes, Madra (Modello) for my shoes and Tokyo Gas for the air conditioning.”
Loose talk
Supermodel and commercial pitchwoman Kim Alexis, on her cultural preferences (in Bikini magazine): “I would rather exercise than read a newspaper.”
Suppose he’s about ready for a transplant?
Bob Newhart turns 67 today.
Standing out, that is, while still selling out
Plans call for the “Late Show With David Letterman” to run without commercial interruption one night this month, although there will be some mention of sponsors during the program. “This is all about standing out,” said Joe Abruzzese, CBS’ president of advertising sales.
She’s gotten used to working in the water
Pamela Anderson Lee will bring 3-month-old son Brandon on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” today to discuss her 17-hour labor that ended with a bathtub delivery, her “magical adventure” with rocker hubby Tommy Lee and the stolen Penthouse videotape of them making love.
Like they say, loose lips sink relationships
“Hard Copy” tonight concludes an interview with hooker Sherry Rowlands, who tattled about her affair with former Clinton campaign strategist Dick Morris. Says Rowlands: “Someone as intelligent as he is should have kept his lip buttoned when he unzipped his pants.”
And it’s a long way from sermon to vermin
Radio shock jock Howard Stern, whose name somehow was left off the ballot for Good Housekeeping magazine’s Most Admired Man award, is calling on listeners to write him in. The Rev. Billy Graham has finished first in the voting for the past four years.
Actually, word has it that Kato held out
Supposedly kinder-and-gentler talk host Geraldo Rivera, called a “buzzard” and “weasel” by O.J. Simpson at a Washington church last week, had some not-so-kind words in return: “O.J. Simpson’s scorn is my triumph … to enshrine (him) in the pantheon of Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King Jr. and all victims of the early civil rights years … is an obscenity … What did Simpson do? He (slept with) every blonde he could find on Sunset Boulevard.”
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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino