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Do Angelina and Rob Pattz Get Hit by the Recession?

Fri., Jan. 30, 2009 1:32 PM PST by Leslie Gornstein

Chris Polk/Getty Images

Hey Mzzz B!tch, I'm wondering how this recession will impact the A-listers? Will those beautiful people have trouble finding work? Are they still eating out?
—Mallie, Ohio

Unfortunately, we Angelenos still need Nicole Kidman more than ever. For at least the next several months, she and her mesmerizingly glassy forehead will continue to get major millions for movies, along with The Clooney and Brangelina and Reese Witherspoon and her very pointy chin.

And they're all eating—or pretending to eat—as much as ever. More on that in a second.

According to some reports, only the very tippy-top A-list is earning major bank right now. But then again, even middling stars are getting pretty hefty pay raises these days. Do I happen to mean the stars of Twilight? But of course ...

Per reports, both Robert Pattinson—you know, the vampire who sparkles when he gets trapped in the sun—and Kristen Stewart are getting megaraises for doing New Moon. They got a reported $2 million each for Twilight. They're apparently getting $12 million each for the sequel.

"If we're going after a name, we're still going after that name," says LaTanya Potts, who cast the upcoming Rick Ross movie Get Lifted. "Ultimately we still need a name to substantiate a film budget or greenlight a project. A less-known actor can't do that."

They are also spending about $100 for a cocktail. Really. Just the other day, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones went out to Luau in Beverly Hills and ordered a $100 mai tai. Not making that up.

Still: While big names are still getting hired and getting paid millions, they're not necessarily getting everything they want in this, er, new economy.

Freebies are freer than ever—there were no fewer than six swag suites before the Golden Globes, and then there's that incredible story about Paris taking 30 handbags from a suite at Sundance.

But then there's also the paycheck problem.

Example: Comeback kid Mickey Rourke. Reports have him prepping to play the main villain in Iron Man 2—but Marvel apparently only wanted to pay him $250,000. Plus, Samuel L. Jackson seems unimpressed by the money being floated by the Avengers producers.

"There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down," Jackson told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month. "I don't know. Maybe I won't be Nick Fury...There seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world so [they're saying to me], 'We're not making that deal.' "

Oh, just say it: "We're not making that motherf--king deal."

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Also: Order my new book The A-List Playbook: How to Survive Any Crisis While Remaining Wealthy, Famous, and Most Importantly, Skinny today! Like, right now!