In my review of the last Harry Potter film, The Goblet of Fire, I snarkily contemplated Daniel Radcliffe’s future as a former child star. And the moment is upon him: when he turns 18 on July 23, he’ll come into his Harry Potter fortune: $40 million currently held in a trust fun for him.
And if that’s not enough money to corrupt the soul of anyone, he’ll earn $50 million for the two final Potter films — $25 million apiece, which isn’t quite unheard of, but it puts him in some very elite company. Whatever you think about Radcliffe’s worth as an actor, businesswise, the ridiculous paycheck makes perfect sense: at this point, you can’t do a Harry Potter movie without Radcliffe, and he could probably ask twice that and get it.
So what does a world-famous horny teenager do with something close to $100 million? Will he blow it all on sportcars, heroin, and hookers, and then rehab and the inevitable juicy tell-all book after his fourth divorce when he’s 30? Maybe not:
[Radcliffe] insists he’d rather invest in works of art rather than a lavish collection of expensive motors.
He says, “I’m quite interested in artwork and things like that but I’ve never been into cars or anything.’
“So I don’t think I’m going to splash out on a classic car collection which I think people expect me to.”
Then again, the road to rehab begins thusly:
[Radcliffe] is happy to have sex with girls who are only interested in him because of his fame….
However, Daniel is adamant he wouldn’t stay with a girl who called him Harry during sex.
He said: “People do call me Harry. I once had a friend call me it by accident. If there’s another person in the room called Harry and somebody shouts their name I do respond slightly, which is embarrassing.
“But no one has ever said it in the throws of passion. That would be the end of that session. Go now!”
(Yeah, all the many online reprints of this story misspell throes…)
[Radcliffe says] “It’s not so much that they [the British media] don’t want me to grow up. It’s that they’re annoyed that I’m growing up adjusted. They’d much rather I was growing up and going wild and crashing cars.”
Then again again again, this makes me just a little afraid for him:
Oh, how fast they grow up…
(Technorati tags: Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter)
Hrm. Sounds like Daniel may need to work on this spell sometime soon:
Zovirax!
I do give him props for wanting to collect art, though. I guess we’ll see if he has any taste to go along with his money and fame (usually, 2 out of 3 is the best you can do).