“We don’t pay actors like we used to,” recently said Sydney Sweeney, the young star of the “Euphoria” series, justifying her many collaborations with fashion brands. If Hollywood stars have always invested in external projects (such as Bruce Willis with Planet Hollywood), the “side job” has become fundamental for any thirty-year-old actress in need of roles and income. Try it with Eva Mendes’ sponges or Kate Hudson’s leggings. Immerse yourself in a parallel and (more or less) profitable universe.
Those who have succeeded
In 2008, tired of seeing increasingly rare roles for actresses over 35, Gwyneth Paltrow he was one of the first to consider a second career. Since then, nothing has stopped the multimillion-dollar boss of Goop from becoming a wellness guru with his own lifestyle platform. Not even the controversy or accusations of providing pseudo-scientific health advice. And the queen of “side jobs” is a role model for all his peers. Just like J-Lo, for whom everything turns into a juicy partnership: it’s even through an advertisement (for Goli food supplements) that she staged the announcement of her return with Ben Affleck. Based on a diversified empire (mobile phones, eyewear, beauty, perfume, shoes, etc.), the one that weighs, according to “Forbes” magazine, more than 150 million dollars, has an unstoppable motto: “There is only one Jennifer López. » Successful conversion for Rihanna with her Fenty Beauty line of cosmetics and her lingerie and sports brand Savage X Fenty. His fortune is now estimated at $1.4 billion. Reese Witherspoon also created her own fashion site, Draper James, inspired by her beloved Tennessee, all in florals and tartans. More surprisingly, Susan Sarandon has turned her love of racketeering into a chain of ping pong clubs, the latest of which she just opened on Broadway. Table tennis players have never looked so cool. Finally, Naomi Watts launches into a market that should reach 600 billion dollars by 2025, that of menopause. “Solutions for menopause, from scalp to vagina? It is with this slogan that the star presented Stripes, the holistic brand she founded that promises women over 50 well-hydrated skin and sexual well-being.
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Accidents at work
In 2013, Kate Hudson, survivor of the romantic comedy genre devastated in the 2010s, co-founded athleisure brand Fabletics. A way to sell her image of her as a blonde, cool and bohemian Californian, a fan of detox juices and walks on the beaches of Malibu. Sadly, in 2021, an article in Time reveals the daily sexual assaults suffered by employees of the Lesotho-based factory that makes the clothes. And the dream of replenishing Kate’s leggings is pschitt. Truffle and parmesan or chocolate and strawberry popcorn? Anyone other than a Hollywood star would have been wary, but not Scarlett Johansson who, in 2016, dove headfirst into this new Eldorado and opened an upscale 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 her senses and left, like everyone else, a beauty line. Difficult beginnings also, in 2016, for Beyoncé, with the revelations about the conditions in which Sri Lankan seamstresses work at her sportswear brand, Ivy Park, then with the allegations of sexual harassment weighing on Philip Green, the boss of Topshop who you work with. The queen has since raised her head and sealed the fate of the brand thanks to Adidas. Burnt by movie flops and busy giving birth (she has three children with Ryan Reynolds and is pregnant with her fourth), Blake Lively had the idea in 2014 to copy Gwyneth Paltrow and publish Preserve, a lifestyle site. Not having had the expected success, it will close a year later. Crash also for Whoopi Goldberg, who in 2016 launched a brand of calming products based on marijuana. Too soon ?
Can do better
If Sandra Bullock’s business, owner of two restaurants in her hometown of Austin, is tied to her girl-next-door image, the same cannot be said of Eva Mendes. Away from the big screen for nine years, Ryan Gosling’s partner has certainly found a radical way to pay off her debts: the Skura Style abrasive sponges, a brand of which she is a co-owner. But this lucrative job doesn’t necessarily sit well with her image of hers: We see her cleaning and polishing her sink all over her Instagram posts. Bad luck to scratch? As for Cameron Diaz, after some glaring failures on screen, she tried her hand at playing Gwyneth Paltrow by publishing 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 employed by 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 art director and shareholder of the sex toy brand Maude. A business that fails?