DOCUMENT: Crime

Beyonce's Head = Big Booty

L'Oreal deal nets diva millions for ten days work

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Beyonce's Head = Big Booty

AUGUST 18--Beyonce Knowles's hair earns more than you and your friends combined. The pop singer's five-year endorsement deal with L'Oreal is worth a maximum of $4.7 million and requires the 22-year-old star to work just ten days annually (though the company can ask for two extra ten-hour "service days" at the bargain daily rate of $25,000). Along with the ten days worth of photo shoots, promotional gigs, and personal appearances, Knowles must apprise the cosmetics giant of "any radical changes to her hair any concert tour may necessitate" and has to maintain her luxurious auburn locks "in excellent condition." She declined, however, to make appearances "at a store or other retail location or spaces otherwise open to the public." Knowles can't go near Revlon or Clairol products and must maintain "approximately the same physical appearance and health," so bloating up on "juicy baked chicken" is a no-no. The lucrative contract, a copy of which you'll find below, also gives L'Oreal the right to actually inspect Beyonce's hair as long as she gets two weeks notice. And if she has to travel more than 50 miles from her crib for L'Oreal work, Knowles is guaranteed first-class ground and air transport and hotel accommodations for four people. Signed in February 2001, the L'Oreal deal's initial term covered two years and included three separate option years (the firm has exercised the first two of those options, with the third option year, worth $1.08 million, scheduled to begin April 15, 2005). The L'Oreal contract surfaced earlier this month in connection with a lawsuit brought against Knowles by Wilhelmina Artist Management, which claims it has been stiffed on commissions it is owed for arranging the endorsement deal. (14 pages)