CLAY AIKEN - AIKEN RECEIVES PIDDLING AMOUNT TO ADMIT HE'S GAY

AIKEN RECEIVES PIDDLING AMOUNT TO ADMIT HE'S GAY

Time Warner's People magazine paid Clay Aiken "somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000" for his coming-out story and photographs of him with his month-old baby, MSNBC.com's "The Scoop" gossip column reported today (Thursday), citing several sources privy to the negotiations. The amount was trivial compared with other payments to stars for tell-all stories and first pictures of them with their babies. The website said that the low amount was the result of waning competition among magazines for such stories due to the current economy. " People is the [celebrity] magazine that's most well-off, that has the finances right now to take on these exclusives," the column said. It quoted one unnamed editor as saying that paying millions of dollars for exclusive photos of celebrities resulting in a small bump in circulation "isn't worth it. ... and when the economy is the mess it is now, it makes more sense to look at the pictures [while] waiting in line instead of buying the thing."

25/09/2008