Taking on a second job to pay off those holiday bills? Don’t despair. Even the rich and famous resort to moonlighting.
Just look at Eran Feigenbaum. By day, he is Google’s mild-mannered security chief. But by night? He becomes Eran Raven, a mentalist magician featured on the NBC television show “Phenomenon.” Playing Russian roulette with a nail gun — one of Raven’s notable skills — may not seem like an essential skill in corporate America. However, Feigenbaum seems to feel his two wildly different professions complement one another, noting at a security conference last year, “Magicians and mentalists are looking for different ways to fool us. When you look at the left hand, they’re doing something sneaky with the right hand. The same is true with security and hackers.”
The overlap between Feigenbaum’s talents might seem unique, but he’s certainly not the only notable looking for an outlet outside his day job, or to make some extra cash. Francis Ford Coppola runs a successful vineyard — so successful, in fact, that the proceeds were used to finance last year’s barely seen “Tetro.” David Letterman is co-owner of an Indy 500 racing team called Rahal Letterman Racing. And American songbook singer Tony Bennett’s paintings, sold under his real name of Anthony Benedetto, retail for about $80,000 each.
Some of our other favorite moonlighters include:
* Akon: Diamond Mine Owner
The singer has insured that he’ll never run out of bling by buying a South African diamond mine. He justified the purchase to newspaper the Independent UK, saying, “Diamonds are always going to be selling. People are always going to get married. People will always want to shine and bling-bling.”
* David Arquette and Courteney Cox: House flippers
The couple renovates properties and then sells them at a tidy profit, including one to Rikki Lake for $6.5 million. Cox’s college background as an architecture student serves her well — she’s been known to construct furniture (such as the perfect office desk) and has even handled the electrical wiring.
* Donatella Versace: Blogger
Versace has been blogging up a storm for the Huffington Post and the New York Times. This feverish activity may come as a surprise to those who read her 2008 interview in the Times, in which she claimed to shy away from the Internet, though in the same interview a member of her team mused, “I don’t really know — she’s quite savvy, maybe she does surf.” These days her posts have offered readers an insider view on topics from the White House Correspondents Dinner to the inspirations she draws from Manhattan.