Yet Another Tipping Topic: The Celebrity Edition

[Daddy-A]

I was going to add this to one of the many other threads on the topic of tipping, but this story has a celebrity in it!.

So J.Lo tipped $2.16 on a $750 bill in Vancouver? Who said tips are fair? by Peter Tupper

[Katherine]

Ahh, but the discussion afterwards is the best part.

[Toliver]

Add Angelina Jolie to the list.

From MSN Entertainment News:

Jolie a 'Tip Raider'?...The London Mirror says waiters at a tony Liverpool restaurant have labeled the Oscar-winning beauty a 'tip raider' after she and her pal failed to leave a gratuity on a $110 bill. "She was very quiet and polite and was perfectly nice to a man who asked for her autograph," the manager recalls to the paper. "We are used to seeing D-list celebs in here ... we were stunned when Angelina walked in." But he says after Jolie and her friend (a regular at the eatery) departed, staff members eager for a "Hollywood blockbuster-sized tip" were disappointed to find they'd been stiffed. Says the manager, "I can't believe they were so stingy."

[Carrot Top]

Very nice posting/article and comment afterwards...I have to admit, all my usual notions about 'How to Tip Correctly and Why' go right out the door when faced with a celebrity at table.

Seems to me they have a responsibility to overtip, overtip like mad, regardless of the service they receive...not only because they have the money but because it would make our world so much richer with good stories.... I love the idea of hundred dollar bills being left on the table, yeah!

Edited August 20, 2004 by Carrot Top (log)

[Smarmotron]

Screw this. I tip in direct correlation to the service I receive.

[srhcb]

The worst tippers tend to be celebrities and politicians (oddly enough, the liberal ones moreso).

The best tippers are service workers from other establishments.

That should tell you something.

SB (15% +)

[Mabelline]

Very true about fellow service workers; the only thing I dispute about his article is how in the Hell can he equate tipping today with Lady What's Her Butt in 1912 bitchin' about those annoying little people who expected a 'little something' after waiting on her hand and foot for a week? Or go back to a time when if the Tippee was not happy about a servant, they could get flogged?

I agree that there's a drastic need for the wages to be commesurate -sp? with the effort. The old days of thinking the tip was the cream on top don't exist. Lady What's Her Butt's servers did not pay rent, day care or gas bills. With the exception of plum-type serving jobs, most folks take service jobs because of the money in the pocket everyday as opposed to the dismal check every two weeks.

[mikey]

Efforts to list bad tippers here pales in comparison to This.

[Ling]

Angelina Jolie recently stiffed a restaurant, spending $120 on lunch for her and a friend, but leaving no tip.

[tommy]

on occasion my math has been wrong and i've "stiffed" a server. it didn't seem to make the news, though.

[jhlurie]

Let me insert a disclaimer here. While the subject here obviously buys into discussion of rumored cases of celebrities stiffing wait staff, without a media report attached (and even in most cases with such a media report) we'd like to remind people to include a silent "allegedly" (at least mentally, while reading them) at the end of most of these comments.

[mongo_jones]

i once stiffed a waiter--it was a cash-only restaurant (didn't realize this till it came time to pay)--no atm in sight and i barely had enough money to cover the bill.

am i a celebrity now? who wants to buy my underwear?

[TheFoodTutor]

i once stiffed a waiter--it was a cash-only restaurant (didn't realize this till it came time to pay)--no atm in sight and i barely had enough money to cover the bill.

In this sort of situation, I leave the restaurant to visit an ATM, and then come back to give the server his/her tip. One time, I found out at the last minute that the restaurant I'd chosen didn't take Discover, and I only had a small amount of cash. I offered to leave collateral, which they declined, and went to withdraw money for the tab and tip.

I'm sure you'd go back to pay your tab, so why not go back to pay the server as well? He or she paid a percentage of her sales to wait on you, and is dependant on tips for a living.

At any rate, I agree that the celebrity tipping reports should be taken with a grain of salt, even the ones that come from the infamous S.T.D. on bitterwaitress.com - the source for the J. Lo comment in the story above. The jury's still out on a number of celebrity tippers, but J. Lo has had so many stories from so many different states about her tipping habits that I'm inclined to think she's suspect.

I doubt the stories about John Kerry, though, and think it's just politically motivated.

[tommy]

The jury's still out on a number of celebrity tippers, but J. Lo has had so many stories from so many different states about her tipping habits that I'm inclined to think she's suspect.

that might have something to do with the fact that she's been one of the biggest celebrities in recent years. and she's enormously wealthy. people like that tend to draw attention. you can look at any magazine cover for proof.

jenny is still the girl from the block yo. or something like that anyways.

[mongo_jones]

In this sort of situation, I leave the restaurant to visit an ATM, and then come back to give the server his/her tip. One time, I found out at the last minute that the restaurant I'd chosen didn't take Discover, and I only had a small amount of cash. I offered to leave collateral, which they declined, and went to withdraw money for the tab and tip.

I'm sure you'd go back to pay your tab, so why not go back to pay the server as well? He or she paid a percentage of her sales to wait on you, and is dependant on tips for a living.

true, true--but i was also dependant on catching a flight. but enough about my cheap ways--back to celebrity talk.

[TheFoodTutor]

jenny is still the girl from the block yo. or something like that anyways.

Have you ever waited on her?

Well, one thing about these websites that list celebrity tipping habits - they have a way to post the positive as well as the negative. I always tell the truth about every celebrity I've waited on, whether it's Janet Jackson, or Puffy or Benny Hinn or Kenny Rogers or. . .

Obviously, I'm not reporting celebrity sightings based on what's in vogue right now. I really wouldn't "brag" about waiting on Kenny Rogers, you know? So, I just happen to be one of the folks who report exactly what I observe.

So what I'm saying is that I kiss and tell.

[StudentChefEclipse]

One thing about being a writer: few people know what you look like enough to post your tipping habits *or other habits* online anywhere.

On the other hand, I don't doubt that somewhere there's a website dedicated to the grousing of those professional "handlers" who drive writers around cities while the writers are doing book tours. I once drove around horror writer Clive Barker, who was absolutely lovely.

All this makes me NOT want to do front of the house work, ever. bitterwaitress.com? eeep!

[tommy]

jenny is still the girl from the block yo.  or something like that anyways.

Have you ever waited on her?

of course. that's how i know she's still the girl from the block yo. or something like that anyways.

[Stigand]

In this sort of situation, I leave the restaurant to visit an ATM, and then come back to give the server his/her tip. One time, I found out at the last minute that the restaurant I'd chosen didn't take Discover, and I only had a small amount of cash. I offered to leave collateral, which they declined, and went to withdraw money for the tab and tip.

One frustrating situation you encounter from time to time in the UK is the restaurant that takes credit cards, but doesn't allow you to add a tip when you sign the credit card receipt (you have to specify when you present the card that you want to tip, or tip in cash - I assume it has something to do with the way the card machine is set up). It's fine if you happen to have cash handy for a tip, or if there's a slip provided to tell you to add service before you hand over the card. But too often neither of these is the case. Which means, if I'm in a desperate hurry, not tipping - which I agree is not fair on the waiter.

I imagine wait-staff really lose out if a restaurant uses this system for processing credit card payments.

[Carrot Top]

jenny is still the girl from the block yo. or something like that anyways.

Mmm. I dunno. I have a hard time thinking of her as that.

To me, she is and will always remain what my (then) six-year old son called her when she first became well-known:

Jennifer Low-Pants

[srhcb]

I doubt the stories about John Kerry, though, and think it's just politically motivated.

Talk to the service people, or better yet, the cleaning staff, who have worked at the sites of political events.

At least in my experience, a clear pattern emerged.

SB (Libertarian myself, thank you)

[TPO]

I haven't met that many celebrities, but they tend to get a lot of things -- from restaurant meals to gym memberships -- free when they travel. So I suppose it is possible that Jolie just didn't have the cash or credit cards with her that she should have. Although in my experience I have seen wealthy people who are bad tippers.

[Pan]

One frustrating situation you encounter from time to time in the UK is the restaurant that takes credit cards, but doesn't allow you to add a tip when you sign the credit card receipt (you have to specify when you present the card that you want to tip, or tip in cash - I assume it has something to do with the way the card machine is set up). It's fine if you happen to have cash handy for a tip, or if there's a slip provided to tell you to add service before you hand over the card. But too often neither of these is the case. Which means, if I'm in a desperate hurry, not tipping - which I agree is not fair on the waiter.

I would have thought that service was included in the charge in the UK, as in France, Italy, etc. Not so?

[Stigand]

One frustrating situation you encounter from time to time in the UK is the restaurant that takes credit cards, but doesn't allow you to add a tip when you sign the credit card receipt (you have to specify when you present the card that you want to tip, or tip in cash - I assume it has something to do with the way the card machine is set up). It's fine if you happen to have cash handy for a tip, or if there's a slip provided to tell you to add service before you hand over the card. But too often neither of these is the case. Which means, if I'm in a desperate hurry, not tipping - which I agree is not fair on the waiter.

I would have thought that service was included in the charge in the UK, as in France, Italy, etc. Not so?

It depends: some places do and some don't.

The situation is complicated in the UK both by the practice I described above (service not included but no space to write it in on the CC slip) and by its much more sinister counterpart - including service at 12 or 15% and then leaving a 'gratuity' space on the CC slip in the hope that inattentive diners will tip twice.

[Behemoth]

I can't get to the NY Post page six for the original version of the article, but from Salon, Sept. 6 entry:

"They [the Bush twins and their entourage of about 25] drank $4,500 dollars worth of drinks — bottles and bottles of vodka,' says a club insider. 'Then, having been comped all the alcohol, they left a $48 tip. We thought 1 per cent was kind of outrageous, considering they are the president's daughters.'"