Monday, February 9, 2009

Celebrities, Just Like You and Me... If You're A Cheap Bastard

As the entire world continues to get a mild contact high from the fumes of the smoldering economic ruins—gotta find some benefit— it's good to know that the rich and famous are there to do their part to assuage our collective pains.

Or not.

Exhibit A: Wayne Rooney. Multi-millionaire. World class footballer. Cheap bastard.

The Satan Manchester United striker—hey, they're the ones that made the Red Devil their mascot—took his lovely wife Colleen out for dinner, and proceeded to use a 50% off coupon when the bill came. This despite the couple being worth as estimated £35M.

From the News of the World article:

He and wife Coleen got their £27.80 food bill slashed to just £13.90.

A source told the News of the World: “Everybody loves a special offer. Wayne and Coleen are no different. They come from working class roots and if they had the voucher then why not use it?"
Let's just assume that last question isn't rhetorical and perhaps provide a possible answer.

How about: Because you have all the fucking money, so as others struggle to pay rent and stuff, maybe try helping the restaurant and it's employees stay solvent by parting with .000004% of your net worth?

What's really appalling is how the piece fawns over the pair for being a "normal down-to-earth couple" before going into some details over their income. The highlight being perhaps the £3.5M Rooney has raked in (thus far) for a 12-year, five-book deal.

Most normal people don't get multi-million dollar (or pound) multi-book deals, particularly when they are borderline illiterate from having spent their youth in football academies instead of, you know, school.

America, is this a great country or what? Okay, it's England, but still. If the Rooneys are really that cheap, perhaps they should stay in and have dinner at home. The one that's probably cooked by their private chef (yep, just like regular folk).

On the plus side, Gusto, the restaurant, has probably gotten more than £13.90 in free advertising out of the deal.

6 comments:

Adam said...

I don't think I could bring myself to use a coupon at a sit down restaurant, and my net worth is in the tens of dollars.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, I had a laugh about it, but good on him.

This is how the rich stay rich.

(then again, what if he'd gone on to drop a larger tip?)

Then again, he'll likely blow 100 large on a silly sportscar next week and make this even more ridiculous.

Rick said...

yeah, the question is how'd he tip? better've tipped on the 100%, not the 50%. And hopefully a good percentage assuming decent service.

Precious Roy said...

Tip was £5. The food bill was £27.80 and there were £2.55 in drinks not covered by the voucher. So on a total of £30.35, the tip works out to 16%.

A) That's cheap when you are worth £35M.

B) As was pointed out in the UF backroom discussions, tipping isn't as mandatory in the rest of the world as it is in the U.S.

C) That's still cheap.

BackBergtt said...

"This is how the rich stay rich."

Yeah but this is a guy who racked up like 20 million in gambling debt before he was 21 years old.

The Fan's Attic said...

don't forget the money on granny hookers, too.