..."He won an Oscar and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize; he was bigger than he had ever been. We had accepted the truth, inconvenient as it may have been, that he was not coming to Victoria," Jacobson said.
But last month the trio got a call from Gore's agent saying he'd do it. "We almost went off the road," said Yorke who still has the agent's voicemail message saved on his laptop.
A "yes" created new problems like how to cover Gore's fee -- rumoured to be $175,000 - and develop an event plan that suited the tight timeline....
More at Canada.com
That $175,000 fee may explain Mr. Gore's response to the invitation from Indian tribal chieftains which CI mentioned last week.
The chieftains have invited Gore to their remote village for the award ceremony on Oct 6 where they expect 300,000 local people to attend. The award will consist of some traditional gifts and a "small amount of money".
A spokeswoman for Gore said he was "very humbled" to hear of the award but did not know whether he would be able to attend the ceremony.
It appears the $175,000 is in addition to the fee for tea with Mr. Gore:
Six hundred guests will pay $200 apiece for the chance to listen to Gore, participate in a question and answer session and enjoy tea and watercress sandwiches.
From the Canadian Press
We still have not been told how much money the Live Earth concerts raised and where the money ended up.
In any event hat's off to Mr. Gore.
Here's one of Mr. Gore's speaker's contracts. It has been widely reported that he won't land the plane for less than $100,000.
