It sounds like an opening to a bad joke: What do an L.A. Lakers star forward, a famous horror novelist, and the original James T. Kirk have in common?
They’re each being carried by Twitter CEO Elon Musk for $8 per month, each.
Musk said in three separate tweets Thursday that he was paying for the three celebrities to keep their “Twitter Blue” checks himself.
I’m paying for a few personally
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023
You’re welcome namaste ?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023
Elon Musk reveals he is ‘personally paying’ the Twitter Blue subscriptions of some celebrities to keep their checkmark, such as Lebron James and Stephen King. pic.twitter.com/ulLvwOyLIn
— Pop Base (@PopBase) April 20, 2023
Why Musk has decided that LeBron James, Stephen King and William Shatner all deserve this special treatment was unknown.
Musk announced that he was doing it, but didn’t say why. He can afford it, of course, as he’s currently believed to have a net worth in the neighborhood of $175 billion dollars, according to Forbes.
The Twitter Blue accounts each run $8 monthly, or $288 per year — although Musk would presumably have given himself the annual rate of $84 per account and saved himself the 36 bucks.
Even at the higher rate, the full amount for all three accounts annually will run the SpaceX CEO about 0.000000065 percent of his net worth.
On the other hand, James is a billionaire himself, King is thought to be worth about half a billion, and the 92-year-old Shatner’s net worth is thought to be around $100 million. (Only $100 million; poor guy.)
One would think that if they wanted to retain their blue checks, they could have swung the extra expense.
“Twitter has talked about pulling legacy verified checkmarks for a while, and now it’s acting on that plan. The social network has begun removing the original blue ticks from users’ profiles …” Engadget wrote Thursday. (The writer can personally confirm this. I lost my blue check at some point over the past few days; I don’t pay close enough attention to say exactly when.) “From now on, you’ll need to pay $8 per month for Blue to get that symbol back.
“Businesses can receive a gold checkmark without a subscription, while government and multilateral organization accounts get a gray checkmark,” the outlet added.
According to TMZ, a few celebrities appeared to be paying for Twitter Blue to keep their checkmark, including actor Ryan Reynolds, singer Taylor Swift, and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
