Is Taylor Swift really insuring her legs for $40 million?
Bizarre reports are circulating that Taylor Swift's team has looked into insuring her legs, and they have been valued at $40 million. The story goes that if something was to happen to them, she wouldn't be able to give the same kind of performances she is known for, so she'd be in line for a payout.
The National Enquirer magazine started the rumour, and claimed that Swift had been embarrassed when she heard how much value the insurance company had put on her legs: she was said to have thought they worth about $1 million.
The story has been repeated by a number of media outlets. However, the Daily Mirror says that Swift's team have yet to comment on the story, and the nature of the source means we shouldn't jump to any conclusions until the story is either confirmed or denied.
There's no shortage of stars who have chosen to insure a body part, and Swift has plenty of high-profile precedents for the move.
Why?
Arguably, it's worth taking every possible step to protect Swift financially from any disaster, because her career is such an incredible money-spinner.
Figures in August last year revealed that she was the highest-earning music star of the year. Billboard magazine calculated that she had made $40 million over the previous 12 months - excluding the money she makes from merchandising, branding and sponsorship. That put her more than $8 million ahead of her nearest rival, Justin Timberlake.
Her enormous wealth comes in part from her incredible ability to sell records. In February this year her new album 1989 out-sold her previous album, Red, in just four months. She has currently sold more than 4 million copies of 1989 in the US alone.
However, a major slice of her income also comes from huge and massively successful tours. In ticket sales alone, her tour of the US in 2013 made $30 million. That's even before the merchandising sales and the sponsorship deals.
Why not her voice?
If there's any truth to the story, and if sound financial sense were really driving the decision, it's a wonder why they chose to insure her legs and not something more fundamental to her ability to sing. It begs the question as to whether there are some people who consider Taylor Swift's legs to somehow be a more important component of her success than her singing.
Of course, there's another distinct possibility. Her latest World Tour is stated as the reason why her team think it's worth insuring her legs, and as she continues to release new dates, a cynic might argue that the story of her insuring her legs has helped generate lots of publicity for the tour - which isn't going to hurt her chances of selling more tickets.
But what do you think? Is this a sensible financial decision, or a publicity stunt? Let us know in the comments.
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