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NEW YORK — Being famous won’t just get you the best seat in town. More often than not, it will get you the best free seat in town. Celebrities are showered with a whole array of perks — gift baskets, resort vacations, free clothes for the red carpet — just for being famous. “They give you these amazing trips and they’ll be like, ‘Here, come to the Philippines and stay in this gorgeous paradise,’ and you’ll be like, ‘Wow, maybe I’ll just do that,’” said actress Alicia Silverstone. So what’s turning this walk of fame into a ride down Easy Street? It’s a little thing called free advertising. “You can pay millions of dollars to put an advertisement on television, or you can put a purse on Charlize Theron the night of the Academy Awards and basically you’re going to have 20, 30, 40 million people looking at her,” said Jared Shapiro of Star magazine. “To give away $400 in shoes makes a company a lot more in the long run.” It’s ironic, because those who can pay for the big-money vacations, accessories and clothes, don’t have to. “The thing is, I could afford to buy it now,” said actress Carmen Electra (search). “Before, when I couldn’t afford to buy it, nobody gave [me] anything for free.” And you don’t have to be a Hollywood heavyweight to get freebies. You could be a reality-show personality. “Now that I have a little bit of coin, it’s like, ‘This is free and that’s free and you want that?’” said former “Joe Millionaire” Evan Marriott. Even the stars admit that sometimes, all the generosity is a little over-the-top. “We’re very lucky – and we’re very spoiled,” said Freddie Prinze Jr.
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