However, with the current recession and big names becoming increasingly unable to guarantee big audiences for films, are the days of such excessive demanding powers actually over?
In 2005, Brad Pitt earned $20,000,000 for his leading role in action film Mr and Mrs Smith, in which he co-starred with future Mrs; Angelina Jolie. However, despite on-going success and popularity, interestingly, Pitt doesn't feature at all in the Forbes Highest-Paid Actors list despite being worth $25 million, falling behind much younger actors Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson who we all know are most famous for their roles in the Twilight saga films.
However, even if Pitt believes that the days of high demands might be over, according to an article in The Guardian back in May, it will still cost a journalist £2,000 just to interview the long-haired father of six, so I doubt that he's going to run out of money any time soon.
To be honest, I personally think that it's long overdue for actors to be pulled off their high horses when it comes to pay. For a collection of people who moan about the media and the publicity that comes with the profession, and claim that they're in it purely for the love of acting, if they loved acting that much they wouldn't be interested in demanding large amounts of cash, because doing a job they love would be profit enough, no?