“We don’t pay actors like we used to,” said Sydney Sweeney, the young star of the series “Euphoria”, recently, justifying her numerous partnerships with fashion brands. If Hollywood stars have always invested in outside projects (like Bruce Willis with Planet Hollywood), the “side job” has become essential for any actress over thirty, in need of roles and income. The proof with Eva Mendes’ sponges or Kate Hudson’s leggings. Diving into a parallel and (more or less) lucrative universe.
Those who have succeeded
In 2008, tired of seeing roles for actresses over 35 becoming rarer, Gwyneth Paltrow was one of the first to consider a second career. Since then, nothing has stopped the multimillionaire boss of Goop, who has become a wellness guru with her lifestyle platform. Not even the polemics or accusations of providing pseudo-scientific health advice. And the queen of “side jobs” is a role model for all her peers. Just like J-Lo, for whom everything turns into a juicy partnership: it is even through an advertising spot (for Goli food supplements) that she staged the announcement of her comeback with Ben Affleck. Based on a diversified empire (cellphones, glasses, beauty, perfumes, shoes, etc.), the one that weighs, according to the magazine “Forbes”, more than 150 million dollars, has an unstoppable motto: “There is only a Jennifer Lopez. » Successful conversion for Rihanna with her Fenty Beauty cosmetics line and her lingerie and sports brand Savage X Fenty. His fortune is now estimated at $1.4 billion. Reese Witherspoon also created her fashion site, Draper James, inspired by her beloved Tennessee, all in flowers and tartan. More surprisingly, Susan Sarandon has turned her love of racket into a chain of ping pong clubs, the latest of which has just opened on Broadway. Table tennis players have never been so cool. Finally, Naomi Watts is embarking on a market that should reach 600 billion dollars by 2025, that of menopause. “Solutions for menopause, from the scalp to the vagina? It was with this slogan that the star introduced Stripes, the holistic brand she founded that promises well-hydrated skin and sexual well-being to women over 50.
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Industrial accidents
In 2013, Kate Hudson, survivor of the romcom, genre devastated in the 2010s, co-founded the athleisure brand Fabletics. A way to sell her image as a blonde, cool and bohemian Californian, fan of detox juices and walks on the beaches of Malibu. Alas, in 2021, an article in “Time” reveals the daily sexual assaults of which the employees of the Lesotho-based factory which manufactures the clothes are victims. And the dream of reintegration into Kate’s leggings is pschitt. Truffle and parmesan or chocolate-strawberry flavored popcorn? Anyone other than a Hollywood star would have been wary, but not Scarlett Johansson who, in 2016, plunged headlong into this new Eldorado and opened a luxury popcorn shop, Yummy Pop, in the Marais, with her new husband, Romain Dauriac (since, her ex). A vein quickly exhausted for the star who has since come to his senses and left, like everyone else, a line of beauty. Difficult beginnings also, in 2016, for Beyoncé, with the revelations on the conditions in which the seamstresses of Sri Lanka work on her sportswear brand, Ivy Park, then with the accusations of sexual harassment weighing on Philip Green, the boss of Topshop with who she works with. The queen has since raised her head and sealed the fate of the brand thanks to Adidas. Scalded by film flops and busy giving birth (she has three children with Ryan Reynolds and is pregnant with the fourth), Blake Lively had the idea in 2014 of copying Gwyneth Paltrow and releasing Preserve, a lifestyle site. Not having had the expected success, it will close a year later. Crash also for Whoopi Goldberg, who launched a brand of calming marijuana products in 2016. Too early ?
Can do better
If the business of Sandra Bullock, owner of two restaurants in Austin, her hometown, is connected with her image of girl next door, the same cannot be said of Eva Mendes. Away from the big screen for nine years, the companion of Ryan Gosling has certainly found a radical way to pay off her debts: the scouring sponges Skura Style, a brand of which she is a co-owner. But this lucrative job does not necessarily go well with her image: we see her scouring and polishing her sink on all her Instagram posts. Bad luck scratching? As for Cameron Diaz, after some resounding failures on screen, she tried to play Gwyneth Paltrow by releasing beauty and lifestyle advice books. But, in 2022, she announced that she wanted to do the opposite and return to the cinema. A round trip that seems impossible for Meghan Markle, now dependent on the royal family. In 2014, the actress also launched her lifestyle blog, The Tig, dedicated to fashion and travel. Like Lily Allen, Dakota Johnson rushed into the brand new sex toy market, becoming artistic director and shareholder of the Maude sex toy brand. A business that falls flat?
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JLo, Naomi Watts, Susan Sarandon… The tops and flops of business created by American actresses – Elle