Dead celebs “more powerful than ever”

Deceased French designer tops rich list

And the world’s most bankable dead celebrity is… Wait, who? According to Forbes magazine, neither Elvis Presley nor Michael Jackson snagged the No. 1 spot this year. Instead, the posthumous honour went to French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, whose estate earned approximately $350 million since his death from brain cancer in June 2008. How does a fashion designer possibly make millions after death? Did he invent pants? Or t-shirts? The truth is St-Laurent will have a hard time repeating the feat. The bulk of his earnings came from the one-time sale of his possessions—art, furniture, antiques. The runners-up were Rodgers and Hammerstein, who earned $235 million for the rights to music they co-wrote, while Jackson and Presley came in third and fourth, respectively. Forbes senior editor Matthew Miller says that dead celebrities—or, “delebs”—are “more powerful than ever.” He adds: “The money may be drying up in Hollywood, but there’s still plenty of cash being made in the graveyard.”

The Telegraph

tags:society