Who can resist the allure of knocking around L.A. the week of the Oscars and getting serenaded by the likes of Sheryl Crow, Chicago, and Earth, Wind and Fire? If this TMZ report is true, certainly not the folks at Northern Trust, a Chicago-based bank that received $1.6 billion in government bailout money, according to the AP. After spending millions to sponsor a PGA event, the bank allegedly flew hundreds of clients and employees out to L.A., put them up in expensive hotels, and then treated them to private concerts and dinners in exclusive locations like an airport hanger.
Now, it’s one thing to watch the Hollywood revelry and find a little refuge while you and the rest of the world are grappling with an insane economic crisis. It’s quite another thing to feel like you’ve paid for other people to join the revelry! Talk about a reversal of this year’s rags-to-riches, Slumdog Millionaire, warm-fuzzy Oscar feelings. Does this put anyone else off, or am I being too sensitive?
You are in fact being too sensitive. Remember that this is America, a nation founded on democratic principles and a place where the ability of its citizens to make it rich makes it a better country than any in the world. This is not Russia. Do you think the Oscar parties were any less lavish? Even companies taking TARP money have marketing budgets, with which they should be able to do what they please. Check the stock price for NTRS – it’s way higher than the bad banks that got us into this mess. Give me a break….
Abby, no you are not being too sensitive. If you and I helped contribute to the bank’s $1.6 billion in government bailout money, then we should have been invited too!
Thats the way the money go’s back in to the economy
email Northern trust executives here:
Frederick_Waddell@ntrs.com
William_Osborn@ntrs.com
Kelly_Welsh@ntrs.com
Aileen_Blake@ntrs.com
Jana_Schreuder@ntrs.com
William_Morrison@ntrs.com
Sherry_Barrat@ntrs.com
Timothy_Theriault@ntrs.com
Stephen_Potter@ntrs.com
Timothy_Moen@ntrs.com
Peter_Cherecwich@ntrs.com
Jennifer_Driscoll@ntrs.com
Peter_Gloyne@ntrs.com
Kelly_Mannard@ntrs.com
James_Rauh@ntrs.com
John_Skjervem@ntrs.com
Susan_Crown@ntrs.com
Arthur_Kelly@ntrs.com
Edward_Mooney@ntrs.com
Harold_Smith@ntrs.com
William_Smithburg@ntrs.com
Robert_McCormack@ntrs.com
John_Rowe@ntrs.com
Dipak_Jain@ntrs.com
Charles_Tribbett@ntrs.com
Nicholas_Chabraja@ntrs.com
Linda_Bynoe@ntrs.com
Enrique_Sosa@ntrs.com
Robert_Browne@ntrs.com
Steven_Fradkin@ntrs.com
We gave them the bailout money to help them bail themselves out of possible bankruptcy that could hurt our nation’s economy. They are now spending a bunch of money to party…Yeah, I’d say that’s BS. If you have the money to party, then why did you take the bailout money?! Am I being told that they have already recovered and can now go party? I don’t think so. If their stocks aren’t bad, then why were they given bailout money?? I don’t think you’re being too sensitive AT ALL.
Our sources around Crow’s camp tell us that Sheryl Crow had no prior knowledge as to where the funding for her performance was coming from or that Northern Trust had even been given any government bailout monies.
“Sheryl simply played a concert that was arranged through an outside media company and had no direct relations with Northern Trust in negotiating the terms of her performance. I cannot disclose what Sheryl Crow was paid to perform in LA for Northern Trust, however it was within the exact same guidelines of what she would be paid for any private party performance. People are making way too much out of this on Sheryl’s part because all she did was show up and sing…nothing more”, says Will Estell, President of bcb Media.
We have also been told that Sheryl Crow plans to retreat to her vacation home near Destin and Seaside Florida for a few days to let this whole scandal kind of die down. Oh, the perils of fame, and how those in the limelight often get dragged into things.
And also: why not use the money to hire back the 450 employees they fired! Or at least some of them…they obviously did not need a bailout but took one from US anyway. That definitely gets me heated.
I demand a public apology from Nothern Trust, Sheryl Crow, Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire, House of Blues and the man I trusted with my vote President Obama. Yes we can! My ass..
Voice of America.
We’re not to sensitive, cause the majority of Americans need to work an 8 hr. day for a living. If you see no fault in this, then you are a part of the problem. Wake Up People. Stop Hiding & Hope That Someone Else Cleans Up Your Part. Thats what George W. Bush did. You make a mistake. Correct it. Not tomorrow, the next day,or the day after. You do it today. You pay that money back or you will have a Law Suite on your hands and Boycotts on your business.
Voice of America
I was always under the impression that Sheryl Crow was a social activist and had a social consience. Celebrities need to walk the line and toe the speech that they promote. She has the financial where-with-all to hire a person(s) to investigate public information on those that are requesting to pay for her exclusive performances. But, then I remembered that she lives in an unecessary McMansion by herself like her gal pal Jennifer Aniston while promoting themselves as being “green”.
Sheryl Crow, Gavin Rossdale, and the other celebrities supposedly performed at the pre-Oscar party as a fundraiser for Global Green USA, for “green schools,” etc. Were they and their band members paid to appear? How much money actually went to the schools etc.? It would be interesting to have more facts. (Either way, Northern Trust should pay back the bailout money ASAP – Obama, are you listening — call them yourself and tell them to repay the taxpayer money that they’ve apparently stolen (wouldn’t it be considered fraud that the bank “accepted” bailout money they didn’t need…?) — Instead of writing the bank, we should be writing to Congress and Obama….