Making art is fun. Making a living with your art is fun. Earning a lot of money with your art is nice too. Making art to earn a lot of money is less fun, at least not so well seen. But that does not prevent the lure of gain from time to time producing pretty things.
1. The Carpenters song We’ve only just begun
Table of Contents
This classic Carpenters and weddings was actually composed for a commercial for a bank, Crocker Bank, to be exact. Suffice to say to hide as much as possible.
2. Destiny of Guy Marchand
He didn’t want to bother, Guy. With Cosma, they took Indian Summer and they edited it backwards, wrapped it in stupid lyrics and delivered it to Zidi so as not to bother for the soundtrack of Les Sous-doués on vacation. Except that the thing took monstrous proportions and that the song became the biggest success of Guy Marchand who has big on the potato.
3. GI Joe’s Snake Eyes Toy
Marketed by Hasbro, Snake Eyes has a bad ass all-black look because the box no longer had a penny in 1982, not even enough to paint a series of figurines. Poor is the new black.
4. Maisie Williams accepted the role of Arya only to buy herself a laptop
Because she really wanted to buy a laptop. On the other hand, playing Arya Stark, she didn’t give a damn.
5. Mount Rushmore was intended solely to attract tourists to Dakota.
I mean, it’s good to hear that, because it’s so ugly… Afterwards, what’s funny is that this will probably be the very last monument to disappear when we’re all dead and gone.
6. Will Smith agreed to star in The Prince of Bel Air to pay back $2.8 million in taxes
His career as a young rapper had brought him a lot of money in all irresponsibility. Suddenly, no choice: he said OK to the Prince of Bel Air and hop he repaid in one year 70% of what he owed them. Well yeah, Will.
7. L’Ami Caouette and Sea sex and sun by Gainsbourg
Two of Gainsbourg’s biggest hits because formatted for the radio. But for Gainsbourg, Sea, sex and sun was some “disco shit” that he sold to Les Bronzés to be able to pay for his booze. And for theCaouette FriendGainsbourg unearthed some shit he had written ten years before to try and get back on his feet after his three consecutive studio albums failed.
8. Stephen Dillane, who plays Stannis Baratheon, only accepted the role for the money
He said it several times. And in addition he finds the series lame. That’s not very team spirit from Stannis and Arya.
9. Alec Guinness didn’t want to play Obi-Wan Kenobi
Former star of English cinema and theater, ennobled and all the rest, Alec Guinness is losing momentum and no longer very far from the end of his career and no longer has a round when he agrees to shoot in Star Wars, by George Lucas . He hates the movie, he hates the crew, he hates the story and he hates the character. But he loves money.
10. Sean Connery in Diamonds Are Forever
He had assured, after We only live twice, that we would never see him play James Bond again. But after Lazenby’s departure, the franchise’s producers want Sean Connery back. All toupee outside, here he is again, but for 1 million dollars: it is a colossal sum for the time (1971).
11. All Somerset Maugham Production
The author was not THAT venal, but still. “Money (is) like a sixth sense – without it, you can’t use the other five,” he says. And that’s how Maugham managed to capitalize on his abundant literary production by becoming the highest-paid author of the 1930s.
12. Half of the last Woody Allens
From Match Point, Woody Allen is offered colossal sums by certain cities to come and shoot sometimes in Rome, sometimes in Paris, sometimes in Barcelona… His films are self-financed by this aid. Everything that Woody Allen has produced for 15 years has therefore been essentially controlled by money, starting with his series, Crisis in Six Scenes, which he himself describes as money-motivated nullity.
13. Tyson’s second comeback, in 1999
Why do you think Mike Tyson decided to return to the ring in 1999 after being suspended? Probably not to pay the millions of euros he owed to the tax authorities and the state. No…
15. Lots of Beatles songs
It is said that McCartney and Lennon sometimes started their recording sessions with phrases like, “Come on, let’s write a new hot pool.”