ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO WHAT'S ON YOUR
SOURCE: RAY REED
Q: On Sept. 9, the newspaper had an article about Oprah Winfrey and the 40 highest-paid entertainers. A friend and I noticed a lot of the people are finished with show business, or we just haven't heard anything from them in a while. How did you come up with the information for the article?
M.W., Natural Bridge Station
A: Lots of people wouldn't recognize every name on that list; I'll admit not knowing that Siegfried and Roy are Las Vegas magicians. (They're 16th on the list with $48 million in earnings the past two years.)
Perhaps you're wondering how the Beatles managed to rank No.3 with $130 million. That's mostly because of the Christmastime release of their double CD with one new song. Also, their older releases still do well in catalog sales.
But, to the point of your question:
The article we carried was provided by the Associated Press, and its byline was on the story. The AP, as we call it here, gathers the day's top news stories from individual newspapers and TV stations around the country and distributes the collection to all its media members every day. AP reporters also cover some news events themselves.
It used to be that the AP was called a wire service because its report was carried by phone lines to newspapers and broadcasters. Now, that report is a digital signal carried by satellite. We still call it a wire service, though.
The story you inquired about reported that Forbes magazine had published the list of wealthy entertainers in its current issue.
I asked the Forbes writer, Robert La Franco, how the list was compiled. The incomes are estimated, based in part on known information such as the number of concerts an entertainer did, their attendance, and the number of recordings sold.
Other information comes from stockholder reports that are required of publicly owned corporations.
Finally, some of the information comes from talking with agents, lawyers and managers of the entertainers, and with financial executives of various media companies that are involved in entertainment.
With those sources added up, Forbes applies a formula based on what the industry says are reasonable numbers for estimating the entertainers' expenses, and produces a list of probable earnings.
One other question I had to ask La Franco: How did Luciano Pavarotti take in $36 million in two years? Aren't classical musicians more likely to be in the starving-artist category?
Pavarotti, it turns out, works hard. He's best known for concerts with the Three Tenors: Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and himself. They appear 10 or more times a year in gigantic stadiums around the world.
Pavarotti also does opera performances and solo tours to such places as the Gund Arena in Cleveland and Giants Stadium in New Jersey. His 20 to 30 dates a year probably gross $1 million each.
His recordings sell, too.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Call us at 981-3118. Or, e-mail RayR@Roanoke.Infi.Net. Maybe we can find the answer.
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