A US university defended spending about US$32,000 to bring reality television star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi to campus this week, despite several students questioning if it was a wise use of money.
The speaking fee Rutgers University in New Jersey paid to the star of the MTV reality television series The Jersey Shore is US$2,000 more than Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning author Toni Morrison will receive to speak at graduation on May 15.
“We have more than 200 events on our campus during the course of the year, everything from scholarly presentations to entertainment,” Rutgers spokesman Steve Manas said. “The students canvassed for who they wanted here and had the funds available.”
Photo: Reuters
More than 1,000 people went to the university to listen to Snooki speak there on Thursday.
Student Hina Rehman, 20, said she found it disappointing her tuition money was going to fund the event.
“The fact that our school spent US$32,000 to bring her is ridiculous,” she said. “It’s fine the money used here is meant for entertainment purposes, but I think we can get better entertainment than that.”
Manas said the event was funded by the Rutgers University Programming Association, a student events group that receives some of the mandatory fees tacked onto tuition. The university will pay Morrison for her commencement speech with money from a deal with beverage company Pepsi.
“PepsiCo has a vending contract with Rutgers,” Manas said. “That money can be used in a variety of ways. The money supports enhancing student life and the university community.”
The displeased student said that regardless of the source of the money for either event, she still found it appalling the school spent more money on Snooki than an esteemed author praised for her extensive writing on African American women.
“The fact that our school spent more money on her than Toni Morrison is a little ludicrous,” Rehman said. “Snooki has no accomplishments or achievements that are worthy of that money.”
Student Josh Kaufmann, 19, attended the event and said he doesn’t understand the outcry over Snooki’s paid appearance.
“She did two events and they were both jam packed with lines out the door,” he said. “I don’t watch The Jersey Shore, but it’s a popular TV show and the money went towards a really good event. I don’t care however much money the school spends on bringing someone as long as it’s someone that is going to be popular among students.”
Rutgers University isn’t the only institution standing up for controversial cultural icons. The drummer with rock band AC/DC has had his cannabis conviction quashed by a court in his adopted homeland of New Zealand on the grounds that it would have interfered with his globe-trotting exploits.
Phil Rudd, 56, appeared in Tauranga District Court on Thursday seeking to have his 2010 conviction for possession of 27g of marijuana wiped from his record, according to the Bay of Plenty Times.
The Australian native had pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined US$190 plus US$101 in court costs in December after failing in his bid for a discharge without conviction.
At Thursday’s hearing, Rudd’s attorney said the conviction restricted the rocker’s ability to enter some countries, particularly the US, Canada and Japan.
AC/DC, which Rudd first joined in 1974, was the world’s second-biggest touring act last year, selling about US$177 million worth of tickets. It is not known when the Highway to Hell rockers will return to the road or the studio, but Rudd told the court that he planned to make music “for as long as I’m still alive.”
Judge Alayne Wills said Rudd’s offense was at the “lower end of scale,” and she discharged him without conviction provided that he paid US$1,100 to cover prosecution costs.
Rudd told the paper outside the courthouse that he was “relieved.”
Not everyone has it so easy. A brand marketing company that brokered a deal for Britney Spears’ fragrance line sued the singer and her father on Wednesday, claiming the pair secured a new deal that stinks to the tune of more than US$10 million.
Brand Sense Partners LLC’s lawsuit claims the pair renegotiated a royalties deal with cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden last year that cut them out of their 35 percent commission on the fragrance line.
According to the lawsuit, the company first began working with the singer in 2003 and brokered the perfume deal in 2004.
The lawsuit claims Spears and her father, Jamie, negotiated a new deal last year for the singer’s newest perfume scent called Radiance. The lawsuit states the agreement directly between the singer and cosmetics company directly violates the original deal with Brand Sense.
The marketing company is seeking more than US$10 million and punitive damages and is asking a judge to rule that it is entitled to a 35 percent commission on all lines of Spears’ perfumes created by Elizabeth Arden.
Spears’ publicist, Jeff Raymond, did not immediately return an e-mail message seeking comment.
Jamie Spears controls his daughter’s financial affairs along with an attorney as part of a court-ordered conservatorship established in 2008 after a series of high-profile incidents of erratic behavior and hospitalizations.
The conservatorship has generally granted Spears a form of legal immunity. Although she’s been sued by former bodyguards and an ex-manager, a judge has so-far ruled that she cannot be deposed or ordered to testify.
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