Hypocritical Live 8 Performers

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Thursday that the celebrities appearing at the Philadelphia Live 8 concert would be treated to expensive gift bags as an expression of thanks for offering their time to participate in the event.

Performers at Saturday's Live 8 concert will appear for free, but they'll go home with pricey thank-you gifts.

Organizers of the concert, designed to raise awareness of crushing poverty in Africa, will show their gratitude to dozens of celebrities with a Hugo Boss duffel bag chock-full of high-fashion trinkets and designer drinks, valued at roughly $3,000.

In addition, the performers giving 15 minutes of stage time will be able to personalize their bags with big-ticket items including: Hugo Boss suits, valued between $800 and $1,000 each; XM satellite radios and subscriptions, $500; Seven jeans, $180 for men, $150 for women; Gibson guitars, $2,000; Borgata terry-cloth robes, $100; Boyd's ties, $125; 76ers garment bags and T-shirts, $330; Mitchell & Ness sweat suits, $330; and Bertolucci watches, valued between $1,500 and $6,000.

All told, a celebrity could walk away with a bag of gifts worth as much as $12,000.

The booty will be available for performers in a "celebrity gifting lounge" that the local public-relations firm Cashman & Associates will set up to look like a boutique.

Inside, celebrities will relax on ottomans and plush couches. Between acts, they will be treated to soft pretzels, Lee's Gourmet ice cream, Michelob beer, Perrier water, and Liquid Ice, rapper-actor Ice-T's new energy drink.

"We want this to be a thank-you to the celebrities who are giving up their time and energies," said Nicole Cashman, whose firm was tagged by Larry Magid's Electric Factory Concerts to put the bags together.

The 53 products offered for the goodie bags were donated by the manufacturers, Cashman said. (The bags themselves are worth $50 each.) Her firm is doing the work pro bono.

Celebrity gifting is considered a brilliant business strategy, because of its high product-placement potential.

But does an event such as Live 8 raise a different set of arguments? That the companies supplying the goodies are glomming onto a charity event to make a buck? And that organizers of a concert intended to help an impoverished continent are handing rich celebs gifts whose cash value might change an African family's circumstances overnight?

Some ethicists say they see a disconnect.

"It's not unethical, but it falls into the middle gray zone. Because on one hand the motivation is to help other people, while on the other hand the motivation is to help yourself, and that doesn't seem to go hand in hand," said Thomas White, a professor of business and ethics at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who is an observer of the entertainment industry.

Obviously, the Live 8 celebrities don't need the bounty about to come their way. But offering entertainers tokens in return for showing up at events, or aiming the spotlight at a business or product, has become standard Hollywood procedure.

This is disgusting.

Last night, I wrote:

"Are the extremely well paid performers rethinking how they spend their money? Maybe having just one home instead of three or four, and then donating the funds to charities in Africa might be a good first step for them. Maybe living in a modest home, and driving less expensive cars, and forgoing the plastic surgery and spa treatments would be other good ideas. One more--if they all flew coach instead of on private jets, how much medicine could be purchased with those savings? I could go on and on."

Now, I hear that some of the Live 8 participants accepted gift bags with thousands of dollars of goodies.

How much food and medicine would $12,000 buy for the starving and sick people in Africa?

Any celebrity who took a gift bag home is a hypocritical jerk.

Unbelievable!