By-the-hour is the new free for the girls who get paid to soiree
By David O’Neill
Photograph by Katherine Bish
These days, there’s a party for everything. Movie premieres and nose-to-the-heavens gallery openings are de rigueur, but now there’s a silly promotional launch party for every iPod and Xbox gadget—and someone’s gotta go. It’s a sweet moonlighting gig for celebrities but a hard one to imagine for working stiffs who sucker-punch their alarm clocks at 6 a.m. every day.
What’s even harder to come to terms with is the fact that some people actually pocket a paycheck to be there. The girls of So Beautiful Promotions, launched early this year, are paid to party, and they’re paid plenty.
Manager Cassandra McDonald came up with the idea after seeing groups of girls dancing and promoting local artists at clubs in town. She and her crew of 15 young lovelies are regularly asked to up the hotness quotient at spots such as The Loft, Dreams and Dante’s in groups of three, seven, a dozen or 15 at a time. They dress in the latest finery, dance en masse, smile and generally keep the energy high for far-from-nominal fees.
What’s the going rate for standing, posing, holding a drink and looking hot? At least $50 an hour. (They earn $100 for passing out fliers and selling CDs.) Not bad beans for hanging out with the likes of Nelly, Chingy and über-producer Russell Simmons.
Avis, a soft-spoken 20-year-old with impossibly good skin and an associate’s degree from Patricia Stevens College, works hard at a day job but goes out a couple of nights a week, banking hundreds of dollars per. But for the aspiring designer and model, it’s as much about self-promotion as it is the Benjamins. “And it’s not just here,” she adds. “I get seen in Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas ...”
By all accounts, this is not a catty group. They don’t hurl cell phones. They don’t get tipsy or smoke, they rarely curse in public, and they generally don’t bare claws. “When we’re at events, we conduct ourselves in a certain way,” says Tia B, another SBP employee. Hooking up is also a no-no, no matter who the guy is.
McDonald is careful to point out that although her group is paid to play, it’s largely about promoting her hometown: “We want St. Louis to be looked at, not looked over.”
