Tiffany And Marla Tried To Pay Inauguration Hair And Makeup People In Exposure Dollars

The funny thing about class in America is that it is actually much more expensive to be poor than it is to be rich. For instance, if you are poor, you can't really save money by buying food in bulk, because even though it will save you money, you don't have that much money up front. Also, if you are poor, you can't really expect people to do shit for you for free in exchange for sweet, sweet exposure dollars!

Though that doesn't always work for the rich, either.

The Washington Post reports that Tricia Kelly, a freelance D.C. hair stylist, was asked by a longtime client of hers with connections to the Trumps about doing Marla Maples's and Tiffany Trump's hair for the inauguration. Like a normal person, she sent them information about her rates and her traveling fee of $150. Marla, apparently, was not into that, because she was hoping to spend $300 in total for both hair and makeup for her and Tiffany.

Which is seriously like, nothing. The starting price for an updo at the salon I live above is $70, and getting your makeup done there starts at $60 -- so that's $260 bare minimum at a regular salon for regular people, where I get my hair cut.

After some discussion, Kelly agreed to do their hair for $200 and bring on a make-up artist for $150, which is still practically nothing for something like that.

According to celebrity makeup artist James Vincent (aka my Cousin Jimmy), who has previously done President Obama's makeup, a makeup artist from an agency would normally charge a day rate for something like that -- a newer artist might get about $1200, but most established make-up artists would charge a lot more than that, up to $5,000. Just to give you an idea of the norm for these things! Artists charge an editorial rate of $150, but that's when it's going to appear in a magazine and they get a tearsheet out of it.

So Kelly was giving them quite the deal. Still, it was not enough! So Marla's assistant wrote back with a super cool idea! They could do it for free instead! For EXPOSURE! And Marla or Tiffany could, like, mention them on social media or something! How about that, huh?

But Kelly was like, "NO THANKS, TRUMPS, can't pay my bills in exposure dollars! Which I clearly already have enough of to make you want to hire me to do your hair for you anyway!" and took her story public.

“There are people who make far less than they do who pay full price,” Kelly told the Washington Post. “People on staff — the incoming White House and the outgoing one — pay full price. It seemed like they were trying to see how much they could get for free based on their names.”

Just like common Kardashians! Or Trumps, really, because remember that time the Trump campaign tried to pay that little girl band in exposure dollars?

The Maples/Trump camp was not pleased to hear from the Washington Post when they asked for comment on this story, and the client who had initially contacted Kelly had some harsh words for her.

But after The Washington Post contacted the PR representative, Kelly received ominous messages from her client, who had first put her in touch with Maples’ camp. “You are messing with the president of the United States,” the Maples contact wrote her, adding that Maples was worried about her financial situation with Tiffany out of college, ending child-support payments from the president-elect. “She is used to a certain lifestyle and you don’t understand that.”

Really? Messing with the President of the United States? Don't you think if he were at all concerned about this, he'd pay for that shit himself?

And we don't dislike Marla Maples so much either! We're pretty sure she's the one who leaked Trump's tax stuff to the New York Times, and we're also pretty sure that if she hadn't been required to sign that non-disclosure agreement, she would have spilled enough dirt on Trump to keep him from getting elected.

As far as worrying about her financial future goes? Maples is worth about $20 million, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't have to pay rent or a mortgage or anything, so it's a little tacky to be going around asking for alms for the poor socialites just yet. It's hardly up to a hair stylist -- who is almost definitely not worth 20 million dollars -- to keep her in the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed.

[ Washington Post ]