Getting the logistics together to make a new America Pie movie was no easy task for Universal, and I’m sure will one day be the subject of an Entertainment Weekly cover story about how those heroes managed to milk blood from a rightfully dead franchise when all the h8erzz said it would never work. Long story short, to get it under budget, they had to cut a few corners. And apparently, one of those corners was named “Tara Reid’s salary.”
From The Hollywood Reporter:
How the studio met those challenges is a study in prolonging a franchise on a sensible budget. Production on the $50 million film, which wrapped this summer in advance of an April 6 release, was moved to Georgia to take advantage of a generous tax credit.
Then the studio played hardball with the actors, who have experienced mixed levels of success outside of the franchise.
According to sources, Universal is paying Jason Biggs and Seann William Scott a robust $5 million each, plus a small slice of first-dollar gross, to reprise their roles.
Alyson Hannigan, star of CBS’ How I Met Your Mother, is getting about $3 million. And veteran Eugene Levy, who starred in four profitable direct-to-DVD Pie films that helped make the property a billion-dollar franchise, is said to have received a payday also in the $3 million range.
The rest of the cast — which includes Chris Klein, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Natasha Lyonne, Jennifer Coolidge [Stifler’s mom], Mena Suvari and Shannon Elizabeth — is being paid far less, say sources, most in the $500,000 to $750,000 range (though bonuses for some could kick in if the film is a hit, as expected).
Rounding out the list is Tara Reid, who is said to have joined Reunion for close to the $250,000 that Universal initially offered. A studio rep calls the figures “inaccurate” but declines further comment.
Now, there are two ways to look at it this. On the one hand, getting paid a third of Shannon Elizabeth, who was barely in the first one and doesn’t even show her boobs anymore, is pretty insulting. On the other, Tara Reid getting paid a quarter mil to stand around eating free food and occasionally mumble out lines she probably thinks are for Big Lebowski 2 is not only a miraculous stroke of sheer luck for Tara Reid, but an insult to anyone with a real job (obviously I don’t include myself in that statement). That’s probably what her agent* was thinking when he took the first offer. And that’s why there are so few moral agents.
*A talking duck