Why celebrities have lawyers

I have a friend and neighbor who’s a top entertainment lawyer. She represents, among others, a MAJOR pop star (whose “talent” eludes me, but I’m not an important demographic.). My friend tells me that, unlike most stars, her client actually listens when the lawyers tell [this pop star] what to do.

Along those lines, movie star Mark Wahlberg landed in hot water today when it was revealed he said the following in response to a question in this month’s issue of Men’s Journal:

On being scheduled to be on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center
“If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’”

Naturally, reporters ran to 911 victims’ relatives to get their reaction. No surprise, they were disgusted and outraged. So what did the star of current mega-hit movie “Contraband” ($28.5 million weekend gross) do? Mr. Wahlberg issued this statement:

“To speculate about such a situation is ridiculous to begin with, and to suggest I would have done anything differently than the passengers on that plane was irresponsible. I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive, it was certainly not my intention.”

It’s entirely possible that Mr. Wahlberg wrote that himself, but it’s more likely that a good entertainment lawyer wrote it for him. And Mr. Wahlberg was smart enough to listen.