Idolator

The freshly engaged M.I.A. spent 30 minutes Sunday night entertaining the crowd at an afterparty for the MTV Movie Awards, and during her set she let drop that she was getting paid $100,000 for the appearance. ("I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she told the crowd, which included such Perez-ready names as Rumer Willis. "It costs $2,000 $52,000 to build a school for 1,000.") She's not alone in getting big cash by playing for the elite: earlier Sunday, the Times of London theorized that big-money private concerts are to this year what big-ticket reunion shows were to 2007: A way to make a large payday in the face of declining record sales, and not just for "legacy" acts like Whitney Houston who can show up and run through their catalog. Current groups and acts that fall under the ever-more-meaningless rubric of "indie" are also cashing in by playing backyards and hotel ballrooms. More »