How many times has it occurred to you, perhaps while looking over your mile-long credit card statement or lusting over designer dresses at the mall, that life would be so much easier with an extra million dollars at your disposal? It’s not asking for a lot, really. Just enough to pay off student loans, take a dream trip to Fiji, and stop feeling guilty about your daily latte addiction. But maybe one million dollars wouldn’t even be enough. After all, celebrities have many millions of dollars, and they seem to fall into financial troubles just as easily as the rest of us. Lady Gaga recently shared with the world that her latest tour put her in the bankruptcy club—a club with a surprising number of famous members, including the following eight big spenders.
Lady Gaga
In a May 2011 interview for the Financial Times, the “Bad Romance” singer said that her hugely popular world tour, Monster Ball, left her bankrupt after its first leg. “I put everything in the show,” she told interviewer Stephen Fry. It included multiple costume changes, elaborate set designs, and reportedly, quite a bit of experimenting and reformatting. She recalled being astonished to learn that she was three million dollars in debt(“This is ridiculous, I have five number-one singles,” she said), but fortunately for her, the tour was so successful that she earned the money back. Gaga claims not to care about money in the interview, though she did buy her parents a Rolls Royce simply because their old license plate that said “Lady Gaga” on it annoyed her. Wouldn’t a quick phone call to the DMV have cost much less?
Burt Reynolds
Things started going downhill for Reynolds after his messy divorce from Loni Anderson in 1993. The legal fees and settlement, as well as a series of bad investment choices, a lack of interest from movie producers, and sluggish performances at the box office, led the one-time Hollywood powerhouse to declare bankruptcy in 1996. At the time, Reynolds was ten million dollars in debt, but by 1998, he emerged from bankruptcy—the same year he won an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor in Boogie Nights.
Donald Trump
One might assume that Trump, with his sprawling, ostentatious empire, could never run out of money. That might be true of the man himself, but his businesses are another story. In fact, properties and companies under his name have filed for bankruptcy in 1991, 1992, 2004, and 2009. (All that gold-plating in his hotels must’ve added up fast.) Ironically, when he made a move toward a presidential nomination in April 2011, he boasted that his business savvy—as evidenced by his sizable bank account—could save the economy. “I have a much bigger net worth … my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney’s,” he said in an April 2011 interview. Hmm ...you think he’s really talking about bank accounts?
Kim Basinger
Basinger filed for Chapter 11 in May 1993, shortly after she lost a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed against her by the producers of a movie called Boxing Helena. After she backed out of starring in the flick and Main Line Pictures went after her for millions of dollars, she declared bankruptcy, arguing that she lacked the necessary assets to cover the payment. As a result, Basinger had to sell Braselton, Georgia, a town she invested in for twenty million dollars in 1989.
Mark Twain
Even being one of the most famous writers in history doesn’t save you from money problems. Twain’s major downfalls were the failure of his publishing house and his investment in a typesetter machine that never quite lived up to its promise of ingenuity and efficiency. Much of his book profits went into fixing and attempting to perfect the Paige typesetter machine, but it proved to be a money pit that led Twain to declare bankruptcy in 1894. He embarked on a speaking tour around the world a year later in an attempt to pay off his debts, which he finally did in 1898.
Lady Gaga
In a May 2011 interview for the Financial Times, the “Bad Romance” singer said that her hugely popular world tour, Monster Ball, left her bankrupt after its first leg. “I put everything in the show,” she told interviewer Stephen Fry. It included multiple costume changes, elaborate set designs, and reportedly, quite a bit of experimenting and reformatting. She recalled being astonished to learn that she was three million dollars in debt(“This is ridiculous, I have five number-one singles,” she said), but fortunately for her, the tour was so successful that she earned the money back. Gaga claims not to care about money in the interview, though she did buy her parents a Rolls Royce simply because their old license plate that said “Lady Gaga” on it annoyed her. Wouldn’t a quick phone call to the DMV have cost much less?
Burt Reynolds
Things started going downhill for Reynolds after his messy divorce from Loni Anderson in 1993. The legal fees and settlement, as well as a series of bad investment choices, a lack of interest from movie producers, and sluggish performances at the box office, led the one-time Hollywood powerhouse to declare bankruptcy in 1996. At the time, Reynolds was ten million dollars in debt, but by 1998, he emerged from bankruptcy—the same year he won an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor in Boogie Nights.
Donald Trump
One might assume that Trump, with his sprawling, ostentatious empire, could never run out of money. That might be true of the man himself, but his businesses are another story. In fact, properties and companies under his name have filed for bankruptcy in 1991, 1992, 2004, and 2009. (All that gold-plating in his hotels must’ve added up fast.) Ironically, when he made a move toward a presidential nomination in April 2011, he boasted that his business savvy—as evidenced by his sizable bank account—could save the economy. “I have a much bigger net worth … my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney’s,” he said in an April 2011 interview. Hmm ...you think he’s really talking about bank accounts?
Kim Basinger
Basinger filed for Chapter 11 in May 1993, shortly after she lost a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed against her by the producers of a movie called Boxing Helena. After she backed out of starring in the flick and Main Line Pictures went after her for millions of dollars, she declared bankruptcy, arguing that she lacked the necessary assets to cover the payment. As a result, Basinger had to sell Braselton, Georgia, a town she invested in for twenty million dollars in 1989.
Mark Twain
Even being one of the most famous writers in history doesn’t save you from money problems. Twain’s major downfalls were the failure of his publishing house and his investment in a typesetter machine that never quite lived up to its promise of ingenuity and efficiency. Much of his book profits went into fixing and attempting to perfect the Paige typesetter machine, but it proved to be a money pit that led Twain to declare bankruptcy in 1894. He embarked on a speaking tour around the world a year later in an attempt to pay off his debts, which he finally did in 1898.
