A few weeks ago, a covered an interview Bristol Palin did with People Magazine where she claimed that she was supporting herself financially, on her own, with no help from her parents. Her exact words were: “[My parents] are there for support when I need it emotionally, but I’m on my own financially. I work an 8-to-5 job, five days a week. My parents help out, but they’re not at my disposal. I think that’s a huge misconception. I’m doing it by myself. I live by myself, I’m working to provide for [my son]. It is difficult. Financially, it’s very difficult. I’d say the majority of any paycheck I ever receive is going to Tripp. Child care is very expensive, formula is expensive, diapers are expensive – and you don’t think about that as a kid, at all.”
I, and many of you, wondered what the hell Bristol was doing for her job. It would have to be something where she works an 8-to-5 day on a high school education that pays well enough so she can support herself and her son, with time off to fly to New York to do media events, and with financial help from Levi Johnston, although she didn’t admit that part. I pointed out that she’s doing the Candie’s Abstinence-education stuff, but I wondered how much that was paying. Plus, many of you pointed out that Bristol was getting paid for all of the magazine covers and interviews she’s done over the past few years.
Now Radar and Gawker are reporting that Bristol has signed on with a speakers bureau called Single Source Speakers. They sign up mostly conservative talents, politicos and talking heads to make speeches to various groups for lots and lots of money. So how much money will Bristol be making per speech? Allegedly, a cool $30,000.
She’s probably the nation’s most famous unwed teenage mom and now, Bristol Palin is taking her experience straight to the bank.
A source close to Palin tells RadarOnline.com exclusively that Bristol has signed with a speakers bureau called Single Source Speakers, charging between $15,000 and $30,000 a speech.
Her first stop will be the Heartbeat International Conference in Orlando, Florida, on May 18.
In an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com, Bristol said she is “excited to go to Orlando and meet the hundreds of pregnancy support providers from around the world that will be attending.”
Palin says she is also writing her first book, which will detail her experiences on the 2008 presidential campaign trails, the notoriety she has faced as a result of her relationship with ex-boyfriend Levi Johnston, and how she is raising their son Tripp as a single mom.
[From Radar]
The New York Times claims that Bristol’s fee will actually be anywhere between $15,000 to $30,000. My guess? Because of the varying costs, I think Bristol probably gets a flat fee, like $20,000, plus air travel, quality hotel, and a dining per diem. Maybe she even worked out a way for the speakers bureau to pay for a nanny. Anyway, the speeches will be centered around abstinence-only and pro-life politics and promotion. It would be easy to bash her – especially for profiting so heavily from a subject (abstinence) she so obviously know nothing about, but if you were in her position, wouldn’t you do the same thing? Eh… I probably would, but I would begin introducing some new-fangled talking points into those conservative speeches. Like, “I got to choose life. Get it? Choose. As in, choice. As in, let every woman decide what’s best for herself.”
Header: Bristol on May 5, 2010, in NYC. Credit: WENN.
So? What do the Planned Parenthood speakers cost for a similar event? I’ll bet they’re not cheap.
she looks like hell …
planned parenthood is a nonprofit, for one thing, oi, and an organization that provides services for millions of women, for another. what does this teen mom do? she collects huge payments for talking about how she fucked up and got pregnant. ridiculous. out of all the teen moms out there, it has to be the spawn of the ridiculous palin collecting the $$ right along with her money grubbing mom. these people make me ill. considering bill clinton gets like 100k for his speeches at world freaking forums, this twit, whose only accomplishment and experience is getting knocked up, should not be getting near a third of that.
Same ole. Same ole. She is profiting off who she is, her mother’s daughter. I still don’t see a 9 to 5 job but she does apparently work a few hrs here & there.
As much as I wish she would focus on the consequences of her CHOICE, as long as she’s focusing on the consequences of her actions, I’m actually impressed. With teen pregnancy rates increasing and all those morons on 16 and Pregnant bangin’ away, it’s clear that all the fear and terror that was drummed into my generation is just missing right now.
So I don’t care if she’s a pro-life conservative – she’s standing up there and telling kids that her life kinda sucks because she got pregnant. Clearly they need to hear it.
Could this chick look any more like a wet dishrag?
I know that in Toronto, Planned Parenthood does events and safe sex training pro-bono. As it should be.
I can’t stand this girl. Gross.
i wonder who watches her kid when she’s doing these speeches?
She needs to go up a size in that dress. Wonder if it was a free loan like celebs get – a sample size, but she just doesn’t really fit in it.
“she’s standing up there and telling kids that her life kinda sucks because she got pregnant.”
that will be sure to make her kid feel special as hell when he’s older. nice.
in other news, aishwarya rai is gorgeous.
@Oi — Planned Parenthood includes education about reproductive health as part of their mission, so they *do* have speakers. They provide informational sessions about specific factual topics given by trained staff. Some of it is provided at no cost, some at cost. It sure isn’t a $20,000 fee for someone who doesn’t have any particular qualifications!
If Bristol’s motherhood qualifies her, then there are tens of thousands of other young moms out there just as qualified who could use a $20,000 shot into their bank accounts!
what a punchable face!
$30,000 DOLLARS FOR TALKING ABOUT NOT F*CKING?
WELL, OBVIOUSLY, SHE IS STILL F*CKING…. (THE PUBLIC)!
I certainly would not be doing this. Her and her whole family are nothing but money-hungry pathetic losers. When will we finally be done with these people? Why are people still interested in them?
Why not hire a girl who has no money, no access to an education, and a family who has no resources to help so she can talk about actual consequences for the average person?
She can’t tell anyone what it’s like. She has a supportive family, fame, fortune, the access to any education she wants and more.
This isn’t teaching young people not to get pregnant. This is teaching them there is a huge paycheck at the end.
This is not different than the positive reinforcement given to Tiger and Jesse’s mistresses.
It’s not realistic and it’s shameful.
This is kind of stupid because let’s face it- her life doesn’t suck. If she is earning that kind of money per engagement, flying around, staying in hotels, while her kid is being cared for, that does not “suck”at all. She is basically making a profit from being an unwed young mom. I don’t begrudge her being born into wealth and power. But I don’t think she is a precautionary tale for teens. If she was on a podium telling me how hard life is for her, I’d be throwing the side-eye.
Oh, and wah, wah, wah, my whole paycheck goes to Tripp? Bitch, please. Three of your gigs at thirty grand is what most middle class FAMILIES make in a YEAR in my city.
Oi,
When I was between college and vet school I had no health care, and I went to Planned Parenthood for my paps and check-ups. They don’t just do abortions, they provide affordable and non-judgemental care for women. They also provide free and inexpensive birth control, education and support for young women so that they know how to prevent becoming a teen mom. I am very curious exactly what is nefarious about that? It seems proactive and positive, if we can prevent unwanted pregs through education about birth control what is wrong with that?
Everyone keeps mentioning Planned Parenthood. You have to remember that these Christian Fundies think that Planned Parenthood is a cluster of viscous lesbians in a medieval dungeon, plotting and scheming as to how they can kill every baby on the planet. There is no telling someone like Bristol Palin that Planned Parenthood works to prevent pregnancy through birth control and education, and views abortion as the sad but necessary last resort.
If someone is willing to pay her that much to talk about it, why wouldn’t she do it? Whether we like her or not, it seems that it would be stupid to turn down that much money just to give a speech. For that kind of $$$ I’d find a way to get over my debilitating stage fright!
And I agree-that dress is too tight, and not in a good way. She should go up a size.
@Taylor B: Im with you I did the SAME thing! It was good care (my yearly check up) and you could not beat the price on BC which should be FREE.
easy to be abstinent when you’re butt ugly and have the brain of a rubber ball. Bristol is a douchebag.
Also, now I’m just being snarky, but her dress/hair/makeup is TERRIBLE. Just goes to show how sh*tty you’re gonna look when you’re too “Christian” to hire a gay guy to style you!
Victoria, why should BC be free? I mean, someone has to pay for it, so why not the people who are using it? It’s not like it’s a medication someone will die without. If you really don’t want to get pregnant, you don’t HAVE to have sex, after all.
I don’t agree with socialized medicine, but I would rather see someone get cancer treatments or heart surgery free before spending our taxpayer resources on birth control.
I do, however, have an issue with insurance companies paying for Viagra and similar “medications” while many of them don’t cover birth control.
It’s called safe sex people. We have to pay someone twenty grand to tell everyone to wrap it up because SEX=Babies. What is the problem with people these days? If you don’t want to get pregnant, get a STD or HIV DONT HAVE SEX–if you do–USE A CONDOM! People these days are just sex addicts!! And they get all surprised when they find out they are pregnant or something else. Sheesh… If you don’t want to get in the sticky situation of dealing with consequences of when a sperm hits an egg when you don’t want it to then DONT FREEKING DO IT. SEE–I don’t charge anything–that was FREE. 🙂 By the way, do you know what goes on when someone has an abortion? The process? Do you know that they use the word “terminate”. Um, what is the definition of terminate? To bring to an end or halt- and what are they putting an end to??? YOUR TURN to fill in that blank. to sum it up….America is horny. Just please….be safe.
really pathetic on every level.
If there are people stupid enough to pay her $30,000 to speak just b/c of who her mom is, then good for her for taking their money.
It would be foolish not to.
If those groups are stupid enough to pay her that much money just to speak, she might as well take it while she can, because sooner or later, she’ll be old news.
But then DON’T whine about having to work all day every day and act like you’re struggling to provide for your kid. And DON’T act like you’ve had no help from your parents – no one would hire her to speak if her last name wasn’t Palin. She’s another one who should walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, to see how very good she really has it.
On a side note, does anyone else find it a bit contradictory that Candies runs all these pro-abstinence things, yet advertises their products with Britney Spears in a bikini and heels? Seems like kind of a mixed message.
She’s the perfect poster child FOR teen pregnancy. She has no other “accomplishments” than getting knocked up while in high school, and she’s turning that into a career ($30,000 per speech). If she had taken her own advice and NOT gotten pregnant, she would have no job prospects right now.
So, all you kids out there – take a good look and learn your lesson. Getting knocked up at a young age can get you lots of attention and notoriety, and even lead to a career! So if you have no other prospects, why not follow Palin’s career path? It paid off for her.
Effing hypocrites.
Just a few weeks ago she was playing up the “I’m just a struggling single teen working mom” angle. Funny how she preaches “abstinence” because getting knocked up turned out to be an absolute gold mine for little Bristol. Now she has a very lucrative career as a professional hypocrite.
“…but if you were in her position, wouldn’t you do the same thing?”
No. I wouldn’t go in front of a whole bunch of people and tell them that it’s so hard for to be a single parent, doing it all on my own while getting paid $15k – $30k for each engagement. I’m not the most virtuous person, but I can’t stand up in front of impressionable young people and lie to them like that.
The fact that she would tells me more about her character as a person than anything else, and I can’t respect her for that. Also, when her son is old enough to read up on his mother, she’s going to have a lot of explaining to do as to why she profited so highly off of telling everyone that he was a mistake.
@missmilly, where do I send your $30,000?
Anyone who pays this girl to speak, and anyone who thinks she’ll say anything worth paying for, is deluded.
I am free to speak out about not being on gossip web-sites while at work! 😀
U.S. is #1 in industrialized countries in teen pregnancy. Go USA. We’re #1.
Bristol Paln, of all people, lecturing about abstinence? Reminds me of that saying they had during the Vietnam war:
“Killing for peace is like f*cking for chastity.”
She doesn’t even know to take care of herself. She looks like a middle age frumpy housewife. Her hair and clothes are a disaster. Does she roll out of bed in the morning, jump into the first thing she sees and then run out the door?
UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE. Please post pics of the morons who would pay this uneducated child to speak!
Not sure which is funnier, the fact that someone out there is actually paying her that much to speak or that these same people think there are actually people out there who will want to listen to her speak.
what a joke, you couldnt pay me to listen to her or her idiotic mother speak.
These to need to go far, far away now.
SHE’S A HYPOCRITE!!!!!!
ya gotta give the lil grizzly palin credit — she sure is a quick study of the grifter arts. no doubt momma grizzly was a terrific source of advice.
😉
seriously, just how is lil grizzly to convince her audiences that teenage fucking is wrong — when all the evidence she offers is that it’s an awesome career move. the freebie trips to nyc; late nite clubbing in the big city; $30k per speech.
why, i’d think that most teenage girls from the boonies would consider palin’s situation something to aspire to.
If I had a child and I found out my child was going to be subjected to a speech by Bristol Palin regarding abstaining from sex and the negative consequences of being a single mom, I would yank my kid out of that auditorium faster than Bristol got pregnant.
There is no way on earth anyone should let their kids get *any* type of advice from Bristol. She’s not the Anti-Christ but clearly she’s 1.) stupid and 2.) a liar.
It isn’t hard to prevent a pregnancy so for her to act like it was such a shock to find out she was pregnant is ridiculous. To act like she’s an average teenage mother who is having to figure out how to survive and raise a kid “all by herself” is even more ridiculous. Does this idiot not understand that thanks to the wonders of 21st century media we can see 90% of her life and we can see she’s lying through her teeth???
I’m starting to think Levi is the smart one…..
Amazes me how ignorant some people are. Planned Parenthood does not charge to go and speak to about safe sex and contraception…in fact maybe Ms Palin would like to DONATE her fee to them, given that she really could have benefited from listening to their advice. If she really doesn’t want other young women to replicate her “choices” that is one organisation she should support.
Q, her life sucks? At $30K per speech? What these kids will see is that she got pregnant, dropped out of school and is doing well. Even at 5 speeches per year, that is $150K. A lot of college students would be thrilled to make that at graduation.
This disturbing story is the perfect summary for the state of political culture in our country today.
The average teen mother is often subjected to shame (you can no longer attend this school while pregnant)/ridicule (welfare mom)/name-calling (slut) and abandonment by their families and the fathers of their children if they choose to go through with their pregnancies. Or on the other side, being subjected to a slew of demeaning laws (you have to get your parent’s/husband’s permission before being allowed a prescription for birth control and your local pharmacist still may refuse to fill the prescription) or being verbally/emotionally/physically attacked for entering a clinic or being lied to when considering your options (abortions cause suicide/cancer).
A precious few get 5 seconds of notoriety on MTV, while this teen mom from one of the wealthier American families gets 5-figures thrown her way just for saying ‘I chose life’ and ‘It’s so hard to be a single mom’, all the while being misleading about her circumstances.
I can’t hate her for taking the money, if her parents really aren’t supporting her, she won’t be seeing it for too long and at no other time will anyone offer the type of money that she’s now receiving. I hate the state of our political/cultural dialogue where anyone would pay to hear her regurgitate the same tired lines.
Had this dumb girl not been screwing her boyfriend in her mother’s house (while the *obviously competent* parents were home), she wouldn’t be pregnant. Simple; now hand over some cash.
Wasn’t she just complaining that she has no money? Everything she makes at her “job” goes to the baby? The thing I don’t understand about conservatives is they praise women of all ages for not getting abortions but ignore the fact they were stupid enough to have unprotected sex.
SammyHam,
I wonder which would be more cost effective, giving kids condoms and proper BC, or paying for the birth of a child, and their doctors visits, or even AIDS meds for an infected teen who wasn’t safe? I am willing to bet condoms and education about safety would be more cost effective and better for society as a whole. In a perfect world kids would abstain, but we don’t live in a perfect world and teens are horn dogs; so it seems that the best we can do is to try and prevent unwanted pregs and disease and if that means dropping condoms in every mailbox then so be it, that is certainly better than a nation full of VD ridden teens and unwanted children.
Who would ever pay her this amount to speak? She would be lucky to get $1000. I dont dislike her and she has a hard road ahead of her but she needs to realize she does have family help, most teenage mothers dont.
Alot of parents here are naive in thinking their kids dont have sex. I applaud Bristol for choosing life.
I personally know more than one single mother who could make 30k stretch all year. Now what would be really very nice and noble would be seeing Bristol start some sort of charitable foundation dedicated to helping other young single mothers who “chose life”. If she took some of the proceeds of her speaking tour and used that money to help another young mother get her life together or get a better education, she’d really be doing something other than simply shilling for Palin Inc.
She’s simply following in the family business – separating fools from their money while peddling bullsh*t.
Stupid rich people, like Bristol, breeding, these are what my husband refers to as maggott people. He works hard in the construction industry and deals with some complete morons who treat him like he is their servant, and yet they think that if you just install a wall plate that their phone will automagically work.
Shame on whoever hires her to speak – plain and simple. You can’t blame her for collecting the money if someone is willing to pay. God forbid she actually donate her time, etc.
Once again, damn McCain for digging this family out of the woods!
Not too long ago, didn’t she publicly say that abstinence teaching doesn’t work? I could have sworn she did.
I too am annoyed at how she claims she chose life blah blah blah. She screwed her boyfriend and knew nothing about birth control and now makes more for one speech than most single mothers make a year.
I went to a Catholic high school that didn’t teach sex ed but there was a planned parenthood clinic nearby. First I’ll say I’m Canadian so free health care. You didn’t need your parents permission but they talked to you about consequences and choice, gave you condoms and the pill was heavily subsidized. There were very few pregnancies at my school. Different story for the public schools.
Like Mother, Like Daughter. Both use their kids for publicity and attention.
In in the words of Levi Johnson….
F*CK her!
She obviously learned at her momma’s well shod feet. Feed the masses what they want to hear & rake in the dough, regardless of the facts or the hypocrisy.
What a f*cking hypocrite! I’d be impressed if she was preaching about using protection, like she obviously didn’t, to teenagers. Preaching abstinence to teens is like preaching vegetarianism to a lion-it’s going to find a way to get its meat. There is no way I’ll let my kids go to something like this-they’ll be learning about safe sex.
And Lindsay Lohan gets how much to show up at a club and get drunk and high? 20k well spent on Pristol! Glad there are some people out there trying to help young girls and their future children. Ever heard of learning from your mistakes? Wow, their are a lot of haters commenting here.
Is she 50? She dresses like a middle aged woman.
She DID originally say abstinence doesn’t work. Of course she is proof positive of that!
I also am bothered a bit by her saying how tough her life is because of having this kid – how’s he going to feel when he gets older and hears that? There’s a way to say one’s kid “I love you but wish I had you when I was older so I didn’t have to struggle financially, etc.” and going out and telling big audiences how she made a mistake.
I agree that the audiences would be better served by hearing from an actual struggling single teen mom, not Bristol Palin.
Is there a site that lists her speaking engagements?
I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts the administrators at my high school would sell a kidney to book Bristol. The closeminded morons allowed the “abortion van” to be parked right outside our school for a whole week – amongst other charming rightwing scare tactics.
I wish Bristol and her whole fucking ilk would be raptured already and leave the rest of us the hell alone.
@Missmilly – Yes, I do know what goes on during an abortion. Did you have questions?
I don’t fault Bristol Palin for profiting off others’ willingness to pay her to speak, but I do think it’s pretty hypocritical of her to put herself out there as an average teen parent when that is FAR from the case. The vast majority of teen parents would not have the opportunity to make the kind of money she can, and I think it’s really disingenuous for her to talk about her life in such a misleading way. I’d respect her a great deal more if she acknowledged how incredibly lucky she is, and how much easier it is for someone to “choose life” when she knows that she’ll have the kind of resources that she does to fall back on — resources that, again, most teen parents do not have.
daisyfly & Melvin Strait – Exactly.
There are astounding differences in economic disparity between the class that preaches a prolife agenda, and the class that has to live with the consequences of a political prolife agenda.
I’ll give you a hint – the people in one tax bracket gets to set moral and legal consequences for the rest of us. To the former’s financial benefit.
And how do the elite remain elite? Let the Proles breed.
While I don’t condone the daft people that actually enable Lohan’s lifestyle by paying her to be debaucherous, there is a fundamental difference here:
Lohan is not being paid to educate people regarding grave life decisions based on limited and rarefied experience. When Lohan shows up at clubs, she’s really hurting no one but herself and her family. Palin is being paid to speak about a topic that is inherently irresponsible (abstinence-only) and one in which she is NOT an authority.
Anyway, everyone has made points with which I concur.
@ Beth
Your point was simple, and I really liked it. It seems that anti-choice supporters too do much cutting at the weeds without wanting to deal with the roots. Leave the root intact, and the weed WILL grow.
If I’m going to listen to anybody with a baby talk about life with a baby I want to hear an inspirational story.
I want to hear about the girl who grew up poor, got pregnant, had the baby, continued school, went to college while working, graduated with honors and now is making a life for herself and her child.
I do not want to hear about some privileged girl from Alaska who’s only claim to fame is a famewhore of a mother.
Really, Bristol, do something interesting and/or significant with your life before you think people should have to pay to hear you open that uneducated mouth of yours.
so i am a foreigner, let me get this straight: there are commonly known fatal STDs and someone who ignored that fact and had sex anyways even against these warnings and their own religious beliefs is getting paid 30k to tell other people not to do that? on the basis of what? she’s doing great!
they could get someone that really needs it (and is actually living the life of a teen mother- not receiving thousands a month in child support, etc.) to do that for muchhhh less
So Kate Gosselin is “just supporting her children” with all her fame-whoring and selling out her children, but there is a problem with Bristol Palin making money to support her kid? That seems a little ridiculous, because at least Bristol is making the attempt to do something useful. Whether she is or not is open to debate.
If someone wants to pay her, fine. I don’t care, it’s their money and for right now she has something that someone finds marketable and worth it. Go capitalism and market value!
Personally I’m not into abstinence-only education, but I really don’t view her as much of a hypocrite. I mean, many people find it okay for a former druggie to go and talk to kids and say “Seriously guys, don’t do it, look what happened to me!”, so I don’t see why her doing it about sex/teen pregnancy is any different.
Having a kid is hard, no matter what point you’re at in your life. I don’t think she should say that it sucks or anything, but admitting it is hard is honest and I think people should be told that it isn’t all sunshine and butterflies. I LOVE my son, but things were easier when he wasn’t here. Do I want the easier times back? No, not really, because that would mean I wouldn’t have all the joys he brings also.
Anyway. Good luck to her.
I recently watched one of those ‘Teen Mom’ shows on MTV. The father of one of the teen moms found her birth control and told her he was disappointed and that she should get rid of it and just not have sex… while he was holding his grandchild, born to his daughter who by all accounts is a party girl and allows her parents to raise her child while she is out every night and sleeps late every day.
Well, the ‘don’t have sex’ message clearly didn’t work with her the first time, and at least she is actively trying to not have another child by using BC. When he told her to get rid of her BC I almost fainted. If my teenage daughter had a child that I was raising, the LAST thing I would do is discourage her from using birth control, I would be feeding her the pill for breakfast every morning.
Right on, Taylor B!
Teens definitely need a comprehensive sex education in schools that teach abstinence as well as birth control options. It’s ridiculous to think that all teens will practice abstinence if you teach them only that. It just ain’t gonna happen, especially with so much sexualizing going on in our media and culture.
Preaching abstinence only is very reckless. Birth control should be subsidized to reduce unwanted pregnanices. Additionally, condoms help, not hurt.
If Bristol wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps by being disingenuous and hypocritical, and people will pay to see her speak then so be it. Perhaps if Bristol used her money to fund a school for pregnant teens, where they are actually taught how to balance a checkbook and use bc/condoms so they can have real options to better their own lives, then I’d have a bit more respect.
As a teen Bristol partied, had unprotected sex and had a baby – her mother is Sarah Palin – that is why she is now getting 30k a pop to speak about how hard her life is, which is doubtful. Rant over.
It is funny that Bristol was given a ‘choice’ about her pregnancy that her mother boasts as a good one. Yet, Sarah wants to take that choice away from every other teenager.
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Wow! It’s cool! This is what I live for.. the X! 😀 hehehehe!
@Gabbo2010 hell it’d take maybe 10 nukes to make britain a giant hole over there so keep on dreaming what ya gonna do cry for help from us? buahaha won’t help at that point being we’re the only who’d help you people as everyone else hates you.