Photo Credit: Pacific Coast News
Leonardo DiCaprio has replaced Brad Pitt as highest paid American movie star featured in Asian commercials. He signed a five million dollar deal to become the face of a Chinese cell phone company and his ads will never appear in the US. He’s in Paris filming a commercial in fake rain and they are making the most of his pretty face.
Meg Ryan was one of the most popular American actresses in Japan a few years ago, and she did lucrative tea commercials for TV. Recently she got another offer she couldn’t refuse – two million dollars for two days of work filming more tea ads. Advertisers roll out the red carpet and besides a first class hotel and all the frills they offered her a spa vacation along with her boyfriend John Mellencamp.
It’s a big deal when Al Pacino does his first TV commercial. He finally dipped his toe in the lucrative water of advertising for an Australian coffee company, Vittoria Coffee. The company is owned by an Italian migrant family so that appealed to Al, plus he loves the coffee. Al has never been to Australia so they filmed the spot, which was directed by Barry Levinson, in his own neighborhood in New York. Of course, it will only be shown in Australia.
Our whimsical colleague, Stephen Saban has done it again. He discovered another distinctive video for The WOW Report. This is one of the reasons we love the Japanese sensibility. They made this TV commercial unforgettable simply by taking the mohawk one step beyond…
Jude Law hopped on the train from London to Paris ($100) to film another Christian Dior Homme Sport fragrance ad. He’s been their spokesperson for a few years and looks more like a model than most actors. The ad featured a vintage Mercedes convertible and and a pretty woman and was directed by Jude’s Sherlock Holmes pal Guy Ritchie. (That’s Guy on the far right, above) Ritchie is prepping the next Holmes movie and hopes to start filming as soon as possible.