Look, celebrities are people too, and sometimes people need help — a medical emergency, a natural disaster, a genuine crisis. Totally fair. But somewhere along the way, "asking fans for money" started covering everything from GoFundMe's for actual tragedies to charging $2,000 for a photo with a cardboard cutout, and the internet has thoughts about the whole spectrum.
So here are 11 times a famous person asked fans to open their wallets, and the replies did not go the way they hoped.
We love our faves. Really, we do. But sometimes, they ask us for money, and we have to sit with our thoughts for a moment.
1. Kylie Jenner, who reportedly earns $19,000 an hour, only chipped in $5,000 for her own makeup artist's medical GoFundMe. Jenner posted the fundraiser for longtime makeup artist Samuel Rauda, who was facing $60,000 in bills after a serious accident, to her Instagram Story. Fans did some quick math on her hourly rate versus her personal donation and were, respectfully, not having it.
2. Mandy Moore reposted her in-laws' wildfire GoFundMe and told critics who questioned it to "kindly F off. No one is forcing you to do anything.” After the Eaton Fire destroyed her brother-in-law and sister-in-law's home, Moore shared a fundraiser that a family friend had already set up. When commenters asked why a working actor couldn't just cover it herself, she clapped back before deleting the comment.
3. Megan Fox, who once wore a $30,000 diamond manicure, asked fans to help cover her nail artist's dad's cancer bills. The GoFundMe was for her longtime nail artist's father, who'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. When fans pointed out that Fox wasn't among the list of contributors for the GoFundMe, Fox clapped back on Instagram. She wrote, “Hey weirdos, do any of you have the emotional intelligence to consider that maybe [Boyce] doesn’t want her celebrity clients donating large sums of money to her because it creates a dynamic in her working relationships that makes her uncomfortable?"
4. Oprah and The Rock gave $10 million to Maui wildfire victims and still got dragged for asking fans to donate more. The pair launched the People's Fund of Maui after the 2023 wildfires and seeded it themselves before opening it up to public donations. Given their combined net worth, some fans felt the ask should've stopped at their own wallets.
5. Jack Doherty crashed a rented McLaren and then asked fans to help pay for it. The streamer set up a fundraiser to cover the damages and got roasted for it almost immediately. One commenter summed up the general vibe by mocking him for begging for donations while simultaneously complaining that his followers had never driven a McLaren themselves.
6. MAYBE: Bella Thorne made $2 million on OnlyFans in a week, then allegedly sold fans a "nude" photo that wasn't actually nude. Subscribers said they paid $200 for the promised photo and got lingerie instead. So many people demanded refunds that OnlyFans capped tips and pay-per-view prices platform-wide, and sex workers who relied on the site for income said her stunt cost them real money.
7. Shawn Mendes dodged a fan's question at an $800 VIP meet-and-greet and bolted offstage. The question was about "Señorita," his duet with then-rumored girlfriend Camila Cabello. Instead of answering, he said goodnight and walked off — not exactly the premium face time fans thought they were paying for.
8. Tori Spelling charged fans $95 for an Instagram Live while every other celebrity did theirs for free during lockdown. The session included virtual selfies as the big selling point. It didn't land well in the early days of COVID, when free livestreams were basically the going rate for celebrity access.
9. Britney Spears charged over $2,100 for a meet-and-greet, and fans renamed her tour "Piece of You.” The 2018 tour's VIP upgrade ran fans $2,100 to $2,300 plus booking fees. One fan joked they'd need to sell an organ just to afford it.
10. In 2016, Justin Bieber canceled his meet-and-greets, so fans who'd already paid $2,000 posed with a cardboard cutout of him instead. Bieber said the meetings left him "drained," which is fair. But fans who'd bought the "premium backstage" package couldn't get a refund without giving up their concert tickets, too — so they showed up to find a life-size cutout waiting for them.
11. Lady Gaga's $1,500 VIP package turned out to be one group photo with five other fans, no individual time included. Fans on her Joanne World Tour expected something closer to a real meet-and-greet. Instead, they got a six-person group shot, and a petition asking Gaga to offer more one-on-one time picked up hundreds of signatures.
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