Thursday, October 11, 2012

Don't tell Mitt! The actor who brought Big Bird to life makes $314,000 a year!

The London Daily Mail ^ | October 11, 2012

It looks like Mitt Romney was on to something when he promised to fire Big Bird during his first presidential debate: Big Bird makes big bucks!
Tax returns from PBS's Sesame Workshop show that the television show shelled out at least $314,072 for the actor behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.
That makes Caroll Spinney, who has played everyone's favorite yellow-feathered friend since 1969, a true blue member of the One Percent.
But Mr Spinney isn't even the highest paid member of the puppetry staff. Jospeh Mazzarino, who plays Murray, Stinky the Stinkweed, the Two-Headed Monster, Papa Bear and directs some episodes, makes a cool half a million.
The other characters make around on average between $300,000 and $450,000 per year in salary.
The Sesame salary scandal broke when Mitt Romney pledged to cut funding to PBS.
'I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird,' the candidate said.
'But I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.'
The comment quickly went viral, with thousands sharing their dismay that the Republican would axe their childhood pal...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...

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