Chart of the Day

The Celebrity Charity Auction Index

Dino Grandoni
Dino Grandoni 1,150 Views Feb 17, 2012

How much would you pay to spend time with Samuel L. Jackson? Jeremy Lin? Snoop Dogg? Karl Rove? These don't have to be hypothetical questions. You actually can pay to meet them and other marquee names. For charity, of course.

A common, feel-good way for celebrities to raise money for their causes of choice is to auction off their time in the form of a dinner date, golf outing, or the like to overzealous fans. After finding one such "deal," in the four figures, for an elbow-rubbing lunch with Karl Rove (all proceeds going to wounded veterans), we wondered what the overall market for these celebrity hangouts looked like. We scrolled through charity e-auctioneers Charity Folks and charitybuzz to come up with the following snapshot of what a few of our favorite names from media, Hollywood, and politics are currently going for on the auction block. 

Yes, that's Jeremy Lin topping the list. Have you heard of him? The price of meeting Lin (which also includes four Knicks tickets and a game-worn jersey) has more than quadrupled over the past two days. The other auctionable celebrities come with their own related perks. Winning time with Snoop Dogg, for instance, gets you a spot in a music video. With Jackson, you'll win a round of golf. Winning bids on Bret Baier and Sean Hannity give you a chance to sit in on a tapping of their respective shows. (Time with Don Lemon gets you only lunch, but no studio time.) For $5,500, Rove better be taking you somewhere nice.

All the auctions, plus the various charities getting the gifts, can be found here and here. Place your bids now! There are just 71 hours until Rove's closes.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at dgrandoni at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

Related Articles   More by Dino Grandoni

Karl Rove Casts Obama as James Bond

Rove's 'No More Akins' Group Outrages Conservatives

CNN's Don Lemon Says He's Gay in New Memoir

 

The Drudge Report Can Thank Obamacare for 45 Million Page Views

Jon Stewart Dines Out on Fox News and CNN's Supreme Blunders

Elsewhere on the Web

User Comments

Please type your comment and click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be prompted to log in or register

  • The Atlantic Wire on Twitter
  • The Atlantic Wire RSS Feed
  • The Atlantic Wire iPhone App