Movie memorabilia is a strange thing. People are prepared to pay immense sums of money just to own something they saw on a screen for an hour or so once – things like a couple of second-hand shirts.
Tom Gregory, an actor and gay activist, has just bought two shirts from Brokeback Mountain, as worn by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. And he paid $100,000 for the privilege. And he’s not even going to take them off the hanger, let alone wear them for the rest of his life or dress two dogs in them and make a dog-themed remake of Brokeback Mountain with a 1980s VHS camcorder like we would. Probably.
If you haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain, we won’t spoil the ending
for you. Needless to say, though, in the moments before the
all-singing, all-dancing ending with Heath Ledger (DVDs) and Jake Gyllenhaal
taking off in their flying car, the two Brokeback Mountain shirts
recently bought by Tom Gregory play an important role in the Oscar-nominated
film. Gregory himself calls the Brokeback shirts:
"The ruby slippers of our time."
Tom
Gregory won the two Brokeback Mountain shirts on an online auction. The
garments were expected to sell for around $50,000, but ended up going
for twice as much after Gregory sneaked in with the winning bid just 28
seconds before the auction’s end.
The shirts were put on sale by Focus Features, the distributors of
Brokeback Mountain, with the winnings being donated to Variety, a
charity for under-privileged Californian children. Despite paying so
much for the shirts, Tom Gregory seems to be pleased with the shirts:
"It is the ultimate prop from an
extraordinary movie… I would never wear them, put
them on or separate them."
But
if you missed the Brokeback Mountain shirts and you’re a little pissed
off, don’t be. We’ve found the next best movie memorabilia auction on
eBay at the moment. That’s right – a Stealth-branded tissue tin could be yours for just $0.99! Talk about the ruby slippers of our time…
Read more:
Brokeback shirts: yours for $100,000 – Guardian
[story by Stuart Heritage]
Bob says
cartoon on your write-up above. Thanks for the fodder.
walter says
Yea, I guess that some people are crazy enough to spend money on all kinds of weird shit, nevermind spending $$$$ for HIV meds or AIDS research…OOPS, sorry…tax dollars from people who can’t afford 100G shirts will pay for that.
Thoz says
That is odd.
All the gay people I know have at least one good friend who has AIDS, and one good gay friend of mine has AIDS himself.
To be so shallow as to seek self glorification, or fifteen minutes of fame instead of donating to science and medicine leaves me scratching my head as well.
kitty says
LOL ….. those shirts aren’t on hangers … he’s using them for the same reason he uses his bottle of hand lotion next to the bed
Darryl says
First of all, the man in question gives millions of dollars every year to charity as it is, a fact I’m sure no one on this blog can say….and to keep them out of the hands of some crepy jesus freak who might burn them is laudable. You’re just jealous you don’t have the cash or the foresight yourself.
Losers.
Karen says
Well,if I got enough money, I’ll buy these shirts too, just because I love this movie. It’s really a touching, great movie~~~
Norman Beil says
The entire purchase price is being donated to a charitable fund for under privileged children. This act of kindness and generosity should be applauded, not derided.
spruceman says
OK..for us unmonied folk who’d like a shirt like they wee wearing, why hasnt some on-line merchant offered a line of shirts, etc, those guys were wearing at ordinary shirt prices, plus a reasonable mark-up for the fad effect. I’d think that by now if ya googled “brokeback mountain shirt” you’d find scads of merchants selling the same shirts for say $20.