It's All About the Money

Have they blown all their cash already? Rumours abound that the cast of Friends has signed on to star in four new one-hour specials.

Jennifer Aniston, who has starred in a string of flops since the final Friends episode, was the last to agree to the new deal, according to Hollywood.com. An NBC insider says, "She's the one who had been holding out. But she's now agreed to reprise Rachel (Green)."

Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry all reportedly agreed to $5 million apiece, which is actually a slight pay cut from their heyday.

I know their careers haven't been all that, ahem, stellar since signing off in 2004, but c'mon, they were each making a million an episode the last season and that's not even considering what they get from the constant reruns. Of course if someone drove a dump truck full of money up to my mansion, I wouldn't say no either.

Now NBC is denying that any of this is true, but that is standard operating procedure. This is too early, when the episodes wouldn't air until next season.
In other news, a smaller dump truck has rolled up to the cast of Lost. The studio is offering to pay the actors nearly $80,000 an episode, which is double, and in some cases quadruple, what they are currently earning. For the past two years, the Lost gang's salaries have reportedly fallen in the $20,000-$40,000 range per episode, says E! Online.

I can get behind that (keeping in mind that Hollywood salaries have no relation to reality) as this is a cast worth rewarding. What I can't abide is the special deal Jack "stick-in-the-ass" Shephard (Matthew Fox) is getting, an additional one-time bonus of at least $250,000 in addition to the salary hike. For what, I ask you, for what?