Raking in the Cash
Multi-millionaire Michael Moore is about to be $40,000 richer, for less than a day of work, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. Remember that this is how much he charges for a speaking engagement the next time he starts in with his “working class hero” bullshit.
Let’s not forget that Michael Moore continually rails about how underpaid teachers are, yet he sees nothing wrong with charging for ONE NIGHT’S WORK more than the average teacher will make in a year. Note that Moore’s event is taking up one third of the school’s annual budget for speaker’s fees, a budget paid entirely out of student tuition. Mikey loves to rail about how expensive education is, yet he’s got no problem making $40,000 a day from tuition money paid for by hard-working parents. No doubt during his speech Mikey will rail about how expensive tuition is, then take his chauffered SUV back to his private jet.
Michael Moore may speak here
BY MATTHEW HANSEN
He’s on CNN, bantering with Larry King. He’s on Fox News, arguing with Bill O’Reilly.
You can still find his latest movie - the highest-grossing documentary ever made - showing at a Lincoln theater two months after its release.
And, on Oct. 12, Michael Moore may be at Lincoln’s Pershing Center, urging people to vote against George W. Bush.
Moore will be there courtesy of a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student group that has reached an oral agreement with him.
UNL’s University Program Council will pay Moore $40,000 as per a contract that awaits only his signature.
In return, the student group is betting the filmmaker packs Pershing Center as his movie “Fahrenheit 9/11” has packed the university’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center for the past two months.
"Ithink the controversy he’s stirred up is going to pique people’s interest,"says Karen Wills, a University Program Council adviser.
“It’s why we decided Pershing was the better place to have it. - Most of our events are in the (student) union.”
Moore’s likely Oct. 12 visit to Lincoln - the tentative starting point for his pre-election speaking tour - excited some and angered others Wednesday.
The news had well-known conservative chemistry Professor Gerard Harbison threatening protests and the state’s Republican Party chairman questioning the speech’s timing.
But UNL officials, the leaders of the state’s Republican and Democratic partiesand a University of Nebraska regent all say the student group should have the right to bring the controversial filmmaker to Lincoln.
“You can bet I won’t be there,” said Regent Jim McClurg of Lincoln.
“But this is all part of the process of college students maturing, making choices and learning how to disagree.
“I’ll leave those choices up to them.”
During an April meeting to select this fall’s speakers and entertainment, the University Program Council made the choice to pursue Moore.
The 20-person student group eventually offered Moore the appearance fee and received oral acceptance from the talent agency booking his October speaking tour.
The tour, which won’t be officially announced until September, is expected to span several weeks and more than a dozen college campuses.
The program council has committed more than a third of its $135,000 annual budget - a budget entirely paid by UNL student fees - to bringing Moore to campus and booking Pershing Center Auditorium.
The council likely will recoup some of the expenses by charging for tickets, said Wills, the council adviser. Pershing can hold 7,500 people.
Dan Ladely, director of the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, doesn’t think the student group should worry about attendance.
He has watched more than 15,000 people pour into his movie theater since Moore’s latest film opened there in June.
The theater has now grossed more than $100,000 on “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and may quadruple its previous all-time box office best - $30,000 from Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” - by the time the movie closes late next week.
Ladely is also planning a Michael Moore film festival in the weeks preceding his visit if the filmmaker does sign the council’s contract. The festival will include “Fahrenheit 9/11,""Bowling for Columbine,"and Moore’s first acclaimed movie, “Roger and Me.”
“As far as filmmaking is concerned, Michael Moore has made history,"Ladely says. “No matter what you think of his films, you can’t argue that fact.”
David Kramer, the state’s Republican Party chairman, says he won’t argue the student group’s right to bring Moore to campus.
He is worried, however, that the university won’t have a conservative alternative to Moore in the weeks leading up to a hotly contested presidential election.
Board of Regents’ bylaws state that student groups must try to bring in an alternative viewpoint at some point during the 2004-2005 school year, something Wills said the council would do in the spring.
That isn’t good enough for Kramer, who wants that alternative to come before the November election.
“Iwould be happy to start working with them tomorrow to have a significant Republican to come in there, too,” he said. “Otherwise this has the potential to be a $40,000 political rally paid for by university funds.”
Steve Achelpohl, the Democratic Party’s state chairman, says he would welcome a conservative firebrand like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity on UNL’s campus.
He says he’s excited about the debate Moore is sure to spark if he comes in October.
“It’s about time somebody came in and ruffled some feathers in this state.”
Reach Matthew Hansen at 473-7245 or mhansen@;journalstar.com.
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