Bad Celebrity Investments That Make You Go Hmmm

By Cornelius Nunev


While the miracle of celeb may increase the status attributed to certain people, this does not mean that everything celebs touch turns to gold. Here are a few bad celeb investments that may cause you to feel much better in the evening.

Investing as Mark Twain

A well-known author and humorist who has been called America's first modern celebrity, Mark Twain spent $150,000 to $300,000 (a massive amount of cash back then) over 11 years during the late 19th century on a machine known as 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 passed away.

Jay-Z

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 caused 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.

The Bono investment

The media and entertainment firm Elevation Partners is actually managed by Bono. The website 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.

Idea Larry King had

Talk show host King became embroiled in a life insurance scam that involved flipping policies for profit. King gave up two policies worth a total of $15 million, but only made back $1.4 million on the sale.

Kevin Bacon and many more

The Bernard Madoff $65 billion Ponzi scheme ended up stealing cash from over 200 investors, many of which were celebs. A number of people are trying to make up for the financial loss now that Madoff is in jail serving 150 years for 11 federal felonies.

Burt Reynolds did not invest right

The most popular movie star of the 1970s, Burt Reynolds wound up dealing with the urge many celebrities face: opening a restaurant chain. The chain was PoFolks, and outlets existed in California, Texas and Florida. By the late 1980s, however, the cupboard was bare and Reynolds was out $15 million. His eventual divorce from Loni Anderson and diminished star power led to a 1996 bankruptcy. Even though he was more than $10 million in debt, bankruptcy court allowed him to keep his $2.5 million mansion and all of his personal property that Anderson had not already claimed.

Poor investment form Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds decided she wanted to open a Las Vegas casino and hotel in 1991, although she did not realize that being off the strip would make it extremely hard to stay in business. It was known as the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino, but she wound up selling it for $10 million to the World Wrestling Federation in 1998 after a 1997 bankruptcy. She wound up broke, and was even worse off when having to sell all her movie career memorabilia in 2010 when her museum went bankrupt.




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