In case you accidentally didn’t totally hate Liz Hurley, have I got a story for you. Liz is apparently pretty darn cheap. And not in that cute, “I still buy my shoes at Payless” way, but in that “I buy the very best for myself and stiff the little people as brutally as I can” way. Last month, Helen reported that Liz and her husband Arun Nayer stiffed the church at which they were married. The couple had promised to buy the church a set of kneelers as payment. That was considered tacky enough, as the standard donation is $2000. And it’s generally customary to give more based on your wealth – but Liz gave less. And while that was ungracious enough, she and Arun still haven’t ponied up and actually supplied the kneelers. Heaven forbid they actually compensate the church for their services. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been some little oversight that can happen to anyone, it turns out it was very much indicative of Liz’s character.

Several UK papers are reporting that Liz Hurley and Arun Nayer have been accused of paying their maid as little as $2.50 an hour. At times she was forced to work from 7:30 in the morning all the way until 3 in the morning the next day.

Liz Hurley and husband Arun Nayar have been accused of paying their Indian maid as little as £1.20 an hour. Violet d’Souza, who is said to have been brought to Britain by Mr Nayar’s family, claims she was paid in rupees for working up to 70 hours a week at the couple’s Chelsea home.

Ms d’Souza, 31, says she worked several days a week at the Chelsea house, where she also lived. Her chores included cleaning, cooking and babysitting from 7.30am until, on occasions, 3am the next day. According to the Daily Mirror, the couple paid her 8,000 rupees a week - around £100. The equivalent hourly rate would be between £1.40 and £1.60, and sometimes as little as £1.20 if she worked long hours. The legal minimum wage is £5.52. Hurley, 42, is said to be worth £13 million from acting and modeling contracts while Mr Nayar, 43, comes from a wealthy Indian textiles family.

[From the Daily Mail]

The Daily Mirror says that d’Souza withdrew her claims after she was given a five-figure settlement. She was scheduled to have a hearing in front of the employment tribunal tomorrow. Ms. d’Souza was fired without warning by the couple, supposedly after getting into an argument with them. I’m guessing a person can get a little cranky after working for 20 hours in a row. Ms. d’Souza was then immediately kicked out of the residence, which was her only shelter. She took refuge at her aunt’s home, where she learned that she was being paid illegal wages. She was able to get an Oxford-educated lawyer to represent her for free from the Citizens Advice Bureau, so it sounds like she had a legitimate case. I’ve never been a big Liz Hurley fan. There’s something about her that I can’t put my finger on, but I find her distasteful. Now hearing that she’s stiffed a church and paid her maid $200 a week, I find her utterly contemptible and disgusting. Unfortunately she’s settled the claim, so there won’t be any penalty for her. Except for a bit of unkind press.

Here’s Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayar at the Women of the Future Awards at Grosvenor Marriott Square Hotel on November 8th. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Janet Charlton reported that Tyra Banks didn’t give her talk show staff any kind of Christmas bonus and that she had the holiday office party at a dive bar. Instead of serving food, she showed up with a guy dressed in a santa suit toting cold McDonald’s cheeseburgers and then took off. Staff got predictably wasted, and an ambulance had to be called after a woman was injured falling on the street. There was also a drunken brawl. The National Enquirer has more details, and they confirm Charlton’s story.

The night got off to a bad start after the employees arrived at the [Christmas] bash, held December 6 at Pianos, a Manhattan dive bar.

“First there was no food and guests began drinking heavily. Soon everyone was drunk,” another insider said.

Tyra showed up late, saying she was on her way to Italy.

“She told staffers, who relocated from LA to NY for her: ‘I want to thank you guys for working so hard. I have a special guests - here’s Santa!’”

According to an insider, the staff rushed over to Santa expecting to be handed a Christmas bonus. Instead, they were served dinner - burgers from McDonald’s!”

Things went downhill from there.

“People were getting sick on the dance floor. Then drunken fights started breaking out! It was a complete fiasco!” the source said.

A Pianos bartender told The Enquirer: “After Tyra left, some guys had a fight in the room and then a female member of the group fell outside and broke three of her teeth on the sidewalk. An ambulance had to be called for her.”

“When we went upstairs to clean up, there were McDonald’s burger wrappers all over the place.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 7, 2008]

In case you wonder if either of these stories is fabricated, In Touch has confirmation from Tyra’s PR person that McDonald’s was served at the Christmas party. Not that there’s anything wrong with that:

A rep for Tyra says the [McDonalds] burgers weren’t meant as gifts. “It is not true,” the rep tells In Touch. “Cheeseburgers were provided as a late-night snack for the staff at the party.”

[From In Touch, print edition, January 7, 2008]

So Tyra Banks’ PR person doesn’t say she did give staff bonuses, or that they didn’t have their Christmas party at a bar, just that the burgers weren’t intended as their Christmas gifts. It sounds to me like Tyra showed up with McDonalds as reported and that she stiffed her staff on Christmas. Janet Charlton also reported that Tyra received a whopping $30 million for moving from LA to NY. You think she could arrange for the people who moved to keep working on her show to get a small piece of that.

I love Sarah Michelle Gellar, I think she’s so down to earth and adorable, even if she’s not exactly become the ‘next big thing’ predicted when she was on Buffy. So, I was suitably excited to hear she uses coupons and rides a bike around to save money.

She tells Self magazine, “I take my reusable bag to Whole Foods so I get a discount.

“I go to Bloomingdale’s on double rewards day. And I always print my dry cleaning coupons before I go. My dry cleaner laughs. He’s like, ‘You don’t have to keep printing them out!’”

But it’s her bright pink bicycle which earns her frowns from friends and neighbours now she lives in New York. She adds, “Not only is it bright pink with the bell and streamers and the whole thing, but it has Hello Kitty tyres. Every time I leave my apartment, my doorman just shakes his head.”

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I extra love the fact that she isn’t claiming any sort of environmental reason for riding her bike, just that she likes riding and saving money. Not that there’s anything wrong with saving our planet! Who wouldn’t like to go riding on a pink bike with streamers? Who knew they made Hello Kitty tires in an adult size?

I also like to go to sales and clip coupons, except the sales I go to are a K-Mart and the coupons I clip are for fast food joints. I bet Sarah Michelle Gellar would do that too if she lived in the suburbs.

Sarah Michelle’s next movie Suburban Girl will be going straight to DVD, but check it out. It also stars Alec Baldwin.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Sarah Michelle Gellar and her husband of five years, Freddie Prinz Jr., are shown at the Hairspray premiere in London on 7/5/07. Thanks to PRPhotos.

Brad and Angelina must be too busy fighting off the paparrazi to make sure the checks get sent out to the needy African country they exploited for their prenatal privacy needs.

Radar Online reports that almost none of the donations they promised to needy Namibian charities have been received. They promised $315,000 but have only squeezed out a mere $15,000 to the hospital and preschool they pledged to help. What’s more, they didn’t really do their homework and stiffed a nearby school that could have thrived off a pittance from the famous couple.

Brangelina can’t be blamed for being preoccupied with Shiloh’s birth and not donating to every local charity, but it’s rather suspect that barely any of the money they promised has been received.

They threw that big press conference and made a public pledge to give over a quarter of a million dollars to the hospital and preschool in Swakopmund, and the people there are left waiting for help they sorely need.

We figured out that the bill to rent out The Burning Shore lodge where Brangelina holed up for a three month stay was nearly a quarter of a million dollars. They were able to shell out that kind of money for their own comfort, but can’t be bothered to follow up on the needs of others.

From the Ottawa Sun comes news that Brad is not as generous as his gorgeous other half: