Ever watch Cribs on MTV? They'll showcase the home of some black rapper or athlete and it's always the same. It'll be a palatial $20 million home complete with Greek statues of "Scarface" and gold-plated toilets. In the garage will be a fleet of Bentleys, Hummers and Lamborghinis, purple with jewel-encrusted rims. The film-crew walks out to the basketball court (they all have one) and there's twelve other dudes, cornrows and oversized jerseys, just hanging out, eating BBQ. What do these guys do? Nothing but spend the money of their famous friend.
Cribs rarely showcases the white stars' homes. Most of them are boring. Sure, they'll drive a nice car and have a Harley or two and everything's paid for but the homes aren't quite as palatial. Often they'll be in gated communities next door to six-figure earners. No gold plated toilets. They know that success in the entertainment world is cyclical and that today's stars are tomorrow's has-beens and they'd better save their money. How often on the "one-hit wonder" shows do these artists make the claim, That song may have been my only hit but it put my kids through college."
That's what you can do when you're not buying jewel-encrusted purple Lamborghinis.
Reminds me of the movie About A Boy; a pretty good film starring Hugh Grant and Toni Collette!
Look how far Mel Torme got with The Christmas Song.