What do you think about Celebrities charging Charities for Appearances?

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"There are hundreds of thousands of charities out there expecting celebrities to do something for nothing. I don't put those inquiries in front of celebrities because I can't. My job and my relationship with celebrities is putting money in front of them." ~Gareth James, of Celebrity Model Management It's a fact of life, to have a celebrity make an appearance at your charity event means you'll take in far more than if you don't have a celebrity. But one of the facts of life many people don't know is, charities usually get billed for the appearance. That's right, when a celebrity appears to pull at our heart strings so we'll pull at our purse strings, they aren't leaving empty handed. Sometimes to the point of leaving the charity in the red. There are a few ways to look at this. Celebrities get paid to make appearances. It's part of their job description and well, their time is money too. Should they really be expected to pay for travel, accomidations and other expenses that naturally come with not being at home? Should the celebrities have to actually lose money so that the charity can capitalize on their names and faces? On the other hand, the purpose of a charity fund raiser is to well... raise money for the charity. Sure, having a celebrity guarentees a few Zeros added to the take for the event, but if those zeros end up on the "expenses" side of the ledger, they end up equating to Zero. Those would be good points, until you find out exactly what the celebrities bill the charities for. In most cases, celebrity agents don't separate charity appearances with any other kind. Why? Because the agents get paid a percentage of what the celebrity makes. Book a celebrity for a couple of hours for nothing, well, what is 15% of 0? Also, it's not just transportation and hotel rooms that the charity ends up paying for. We've all read the contract riders on "The Smoking Gun"... many of those riders are on contracts with charities too. From the brand new clothes the celebrity will wear during the appearance, to specific brands of gourmet foods or caterers (often for the celebrity and their entourage only). Some even go hog wild, with riders for golf Tee times and other activities "as long as we're in the neighborhood". I can't verify this, but I have read that some charities actually ended up losing money from the event because the celebrity' appearance didn't fetch as much as they hoped it would, and what the celebrity's bill was more than what was collected. But I do know of a few concerts done by a few has been singers whose fees were more than what was collected, but I'm not sure if the Rotary Club's Concert Series are considered charity events or business ventures.