Celebrities and their cash are often parted. Here are some of the most memorably poor celebrity investments, ever.
Investing as Mark Twain
A well-known writer and humorist who has been known as America's first modern celebrity, Mark Twain spent $150,000 to $300,000 (a massive amount of money back then) over 11 years during the late 19th century on a machine called the Paige Compositor. This was a typesetter that was said to be faster than standard Linotype. Unfortunately, the machine had more than 18,000 parts and needed constant care, so the business died.
Bad Jay-Z investment
Jay-Z's J Hotels in New York City turned out to be a serious bust. The hip-hop mogul bought land in the Chelsea neighborhood in 2007 to build a 150,000-square-foot luxury hotel. By 2008, however, construction was shut down due to lack of funds brought on by the economic crash. Jay-Z's company defaulted on the $52 million loan, and the hotel partners gave the property back to the lenders. Legal battles and out-of-court settlements came to a painful yet unspecified financial end in December 2010.
Investing mistake from Bono
The media and entertainment firm Elevation Partners is actually managed by Bono. The site 24/7 Wall Street said that Bono is "The worst investor in America" when he only got a $25 million return on investments in Palm ($460 million) and Forbes, Inc. ($300 million). He was very profitable when he invested in BioWare, Pandemic Studios, Yelp and Facebook.
Massive Larry King investment
An enormous life insurance scam was put on King when he invested into two policies worth $15 million. He ended up only getting $1.4 million out of the sale.
Bernie Madoff scam
Bernard Madoff is currently in jail for 11 federal felonies and serving a 150 year prison sentence. His $65 billion Ponzi scheme stole from over 200 investors, many of which were celebrities. Now, all those investors are attempting to determine what to do to make up for the lost cash.
Burt Reynolds did not make investments right
PoFolks was a restaurant chain opened in California, Texas and Florida by film star Burt Reynolds. He is not the only movie star who has tried to make this investment. He wound up going bankruptcy in 1996 after losing $15 million on the project and after getting divorced from Loni Anderson. Bankruptcy court let him keep all the property unclaimed by Anderson and his $2.5 million mansion in spite of the fact that he was over $10 million in debt.
The last poor investment
Classic Hollywood film star and Las Vegas fixture Debbie Reynolds bought a Vegas casino in 1991. She christened it the Debbie Reynolds Hotel & Casino but neglected to anticipate just how much trouble the hotel would have maintaining business because it was situated off the strip. A 1997 bankruptcy and sale of the hotel to the World Wrestling Federation in 1998 for $10 million left Reynolds broke and heartbroken. She would experience such grief again in 2010 when her memorabilia museum also went bankrupt, forcing her to sell off the trappings of her film career.
Investing as Mark Twain
A well-known writer and humorist who has been known as America's first modern celebrity, Mark Twain spent $150,000 to $300,000 (a massive amount of money back then) over 11 years during the late 19th century on a machine called the Paige Compositor. This was a typesetter that was said to be faster than standard Linotype. Unfortunately, the machine had more than 18,000 parts and needed constant care, so the business died.
Bad Jay-Z investment
Jay-Z's J Hotels in New York City turned out to be a serious bust. The hip-hop mogul bought land in the Chelsea neighborhood in 2007 to build a 150,000-square-foot luxury hotel. By 2008, however, construction was shut down due to lack of funds brought on by the economic crash. Jay-Z's company defaulted on the $52 million loan, and the hotel partners gave the property back to the lenders. Legal battles and out-of-court settlements came to a painful yet unspecified financial end in December 2010.
Investing mistake from Bono
The media and entertainment firm Elevation Partners is actually managed by Bono. The site 24/7 Wall Street said that Bono is "The worst investor in America" when he only got a $25 million return on investments in Palm ($460 million) and Forbes, Inc. ($300 million). He was very profitable when he invested in BioWare, Pandemic Studios, Yelp and Facebook.
Massive Larry King investment
An enormous life insurance scam was put on King when he invested into two policies worth $15 million. He ended up only getting $1.4 million out of the sale.
Bernie Madoff scam
Bernard Madoff is currently in jail for 11 federal felonies and serving a 150 year prison sentence. His $65 billion Ponzi scheme stole from over 200 investors, many of which were celebrities. Now, all those investors are attempting to determine what to do to make up for the lost cash.
Burt Reynolds did not make investments right
PoFolks was a restaurant chain opened in California, Texas and Florida by film star Burt Reynolds. He is not the only movie star who has tried to make this investment. He wound up going bankruptcy in 1996 after losing $15 million on the project and after getting divorced from Loni Anderson. Bankruptcy court let him keep all the property unclaimed by Anderson and his $2.5 million mansion in spite of the fact that he was over $10 million in debt.
The last poor investment
Classic Hollywood film star and Las Vegas fixture Debbie Reynolds bought a Vegas casino in 1991. She christened it the Debbie Reynolds Hotel & Casino but neglected to anticipate just how much trouble the hotel would have maintaining business because it was situated off the strip. A 1997 bankruptcy and sale of the hotel to the World Wrestling Federation in 1998 for $10 million left Reynolds broke and heartbroken. She would experience such grief again in 2010 when her memorabilia museum also went bankrupt, forcing her to sell off the trappings of her film career.
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This article collected, selected and written by: Author Van Hoc
Niche blogs are sometimes referred to as splogs, but this is a misnomer. Even though the desired end result for the niche blogger is to make money...
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