Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Emily Richardson | Celebrity | February 13, 2024
I've always assumed celebrities get a lot of free stuff. Clothes, shoes, vacations, beauty treatments, food, booze, and all the ridiculously expensive goodies they're gifted at award shows. See: that Sopranos episode where Christopha punches Lauren Bacall and steals her $30,000 swag bag.
But, apparently, all these perks come with a downside. In this month's issue of InStyle, Sharon Stone says, "It's very expensive to be famous." For example, dining out:
"You go out to dinner, and there's 15 people at the table, and who gets the check? You get the $3,000 dinner check every single time."
Honestly? This makes sense. If I'm out for a fancy meal, and Sharon Stone is there, I'd assume she has the money to pick up the bill. Would I expect it? No, but I wouldn't not expect it, ya know? Please note: this situation has never and will never happen in my lifetime. With any celebrity ever.
It's not just fancy dinners. When Sharon skyrocketed to fame after the release of Basic Instinct (1992), she wasn't financially prepared. InStyle writes that, when the movie came out, Sharon was still driving a little car that "fans took to mounting." When she went out to eat "crowds would pound on the restaurants." One time, a fellow traveller on a flight got "so aggressive" that the pilot had to turn the plane around.
Obviously, Sharon needed to hire private security. But, at that point in her career, she wasn't filthy rich. She'd only earned $500,000 for Basic Instinct , which made more than $350 million at the box office (Michael Douglas took home $14 million). Her house was on a regular street that anyone could access, and the threats to her safety required "consistent police presence."
Just listen to this wild O.J. Simpson story:
The police knocked on Sharon Stone's door while O.J. Simpson--accused of a double murder--was hurtling down the 405. It was June 1994 and the LAPD was in the middle of the best-known car chase in American history. Still, it had dispatched a squad to find Stone at home and tell her she had 10 minutes to pack a suitcase. She was being moved to a hotel for her own protection.
But, um, why would O.J. go after Sharon Stone? She wasn't so sure either, but she didn't question the cops' orders:
At the hotel, one officer stood near reception and another kept watch at Stone's door "while O.J. was driving up and down the f*cking freeway," Stone says. Returning to her old place was out of the question. "[The police] were like, 'Find a secure house behind a gate.'" So she did. It was an unrenovated shell, and the lone home on the market she could afford.
Sharon says that after Basic Instinct, she would threaten to quit jobs if she wasn't being paid what she knew she deserved. Sharon was aware people thought her behavior was "arrogant and dismissive," but she was focused on keeping her head above water:
"I was living in a house that didn't have floors," Stone says. People wanted her to be grateful. She wanted to be smart. When critics ravaged her, "it was like, 'Oh, welcome to fame,'" Stone recalls. "'I'm pulling the pin on the grenade. Run, motherf*cker.''"
65-year-old Sharon is happy that times have changed since the '90s:
"At least now [people] understand that Jennifer Lawrence can't just skip onto an airplane," she says, pushing her black frame glasses up over a mop of still-platinum hair. "Nicole Kidman can't jump onto Delta. Sharon Stone can't do it either, whether or not she's doing a lot of movies. [People] think, 'What have you been in?' And it's like, Dude, they know me in the Amazon rainforest. It's tampons, Q-tips, and Sharon Stone."
The entire article is an interesting read. Sharon gives great interview. Here's her InStyle cover and footage from the photoshoot:
