If Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin does not become vice president on Nov. 4, she can look forward to a sweet payday for a memoir about her unlikely VP run should she choose to write one. But she might have to forgo hundreds of thousands of dollars in lucrative speaking fees and perhaps even millions more should she be asked to host a cable or network television show.
Palin, who is expected to serve out her term as governor, which runs through 2010, would likely be allowed to write a book about the VP race under Alaska state laws that govern outside pay of government officials. But restrictions under the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act could disallow her from accepting speaking fees or a salary for television appearances while she’s serving in state government.
Section 39.52.170 of the ethics law declares that public employees “may not render services to benefit a personal or financial interest or engage in or accept employment outside the agency which the employee serves, if the outside employment or service is incompatible or in conflict with the proper discharge of official duties.” In addition, “the head of a principal executive department of the state may not accept employment for compensation outside the agency that the executive head serves.”
An article http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3icc3b73373ecfd4eb935ddcc53cb38f27 in Thursday’s issue of showbiz trade daily The Hollywood Reporter suggested that several producers and other entertainment packagers are attempting to find “the ideal on-air vehicle for the VP candidate.” Among various pitches floated in the piece: a news program on Fox, a reality series featuring the entire Palin family and an afternoon talk show.
Veteran morning show producer Steve Friedman, reality and game show packager Chris Coelen and IMG Worldwide agent Babette Perry were quoted in the Hollywood Reporter piece, though none has been in contact with the Palin camp. “I could see her getting more traction as an Oprah than as an Anderson Cooper,” offered agent Eric Wattenberg at New York’s N.S. Bienstock, a talent firm that handles top network and cable stars including Diane Sawyer, Bill O’Reilly and Chris Matthews.
Several politics-related pilots are currently in the works—including a reality series featuring Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper—due to the large viewership enjoyed by debates, political conventions and similar prime-time programming in this year’s presidential race. According to an informal readers poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly magazine, nearly a third of respondents between 18 and 34 years old said they’ve been watching election coverage because it’s more entertaining than regular prime-time fare and 20 percent say they have been watching because they’re dissatisfied with traditional reality shows.
While a television series would require untold hours of preparation, rehearsals, taping and other logistics, political types are often more accustomed to making cash on the lecture circuit, where a quick dash into a big city for a 45-minute speaking engagement and some follow up Q&As can easily net tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars.
Earlier this year, Forbes magazine cited Donald Trump as the world’s highest-paid speaker, receiving $1.5 million for speeches he gave at the Learning Annex’s real estate “wealth expos” in 2006 and 2007. Former President Bill Clinton commands up to $450,000 for his oratory skills, and comedian Jerry Seinfeld is estimated to top the half-million mark. Indeed, politicians accounted for seven of the 10 most expensive speeches tracked by Forbes, with Clinton making multiple appearances on the list along with big one-time paydays for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and by the late former president, Ronald Reagan.
During the GOP primaries last year, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee continued to accept speaking engagements for which he was paid approximately $25,000 per speech. He was widely criticized for this practice, especially when Politico learned that one of his former representatives was apparently negotiating with church groups to hire him as a speaker. Huckabee said he never charged churches for speeches but that he occasionally received honorariums which he would then donate to his own church in Arkansas.
If Palin decides to proceed with a book deal, it is unlikely any such volume could appear before the end of 2009 or sometime in 2010. It is also unknown exactly how much a Palin memoir might fetch, though the New York Post reported Palin’s “Saturday Night Live” impersonator Tina Fey recently received more than $5 million for a nonfiction book of humorous essays, thanks in part to her heightened profile of late.
(Amazon currently lists more than a dozen books already available about the GOP’s fashionable hockey mom, most of them quickie paperbacks including “Termatrix: The Sarah Palin Chronicles” and “Sarah Palin: The Alaskan Barracuda.”)
Of course, Palin is not discussing any post-November plans other than an assumption of victory at the polls. When asked last week about future ambitions if the McCain-Palin bid come up short, she told NBC News anchor Brian Williams, “as for furtherance in a political career, I’m not even thinking about that.” She did say, however, that she is “gonna keep on keepin’ on in that arena” of supporting the country’s ideals and values.
