Oprah Winfrey, who now appears to be more powerful that NATO, has been running her 'Big Vive' campaign for a while now. Basically it means that celebrities can appear on her show plug their books and personal projects and then donate a huge amount of money to charity.
So everyone is a winner. The celebrities get exposure, the charities get money. Oh, and charitable givings are tax deductible, so it's a more cost-efficient route to media exposure than that old 'paying for an advert' nonsense.
Drew Barrymore recently delighted her accountant by pledging $1m to charitable causes on the Oprah Winfrey show, so when Jennifer Aniston pitched up to donate some money out of the goodness of her heart (whilst mentioning her latest movie for a fair while) the breath of the audience was literally bated.
Seven deserving contestants stood there, stripped of dignity and waiting to see how much the star of 'Friends' (who earned close to $1m per episode towards the end of the franchise) would donate. And they were disappointed.
Ten thousand dollars. To each of the seven money-grasping desperates, to be fair, but a grand total of $70,000? Seems a bit mean. Jennifer soon had a word with herself and upped the contribution, seemingly aware that she wasn't the most popular woman in the world (or even the studio). Gauging the reaction of the audience she managed to stutter,
"That just felt too good. I personally would like to triple it. So we're going to go $30,000. Guys, thank you for doing this and inspiring everybody."
If it felt that good, why not make it a million each? It's not like she can't afford it. Jennifer could just donate some of the money she makes off the repeats of the popular series, or perhaps some of the huge amounts of money she has made since leaving the show, with her fantastic movie career.
Ah, that's right. Just the 'Friends' income then…