Lavazza Pays Julia Roberts €1.2 Million for 45-Second Ad

Julia Roberts is not only among the top 5 biggest female earners in Hollywood, she’s also turning into the most expensive marketer as well. The star scored a €1.2 million endorsement deal with Lavazza.

This, in itself, wouldn’t be that much money if the deal comprised, say, several appearances or promo meetings – after all, this is Julia Roberts with the winning smile we’re talking of here.

However, the amount was paid for no more than 45 seconds worth of video, comprising the new ad for Lavazza A Modo Mio – and Roberts doesn’t even utter a single word in it, reports in the Italian press have it.

As the video below will confirm, the video opens with quite a heavenly scene: Julia is Boticelli’s Venus, sitting in the clouds to have her portrait taken by quite an upset painter.

His Spring Allegory isn’t coming into place because Venus is being quite a diva and would not offer him the smile he needs to put the finishing touches to his work of art.

Luckily, famous Italian entertainers Paolo Bonolis and Luca Laurenti have the solution and they prepare Julia a cup of the A Modo Mio Lavazza coffee.

Just one sip and the star flashes her trademark smile, the one that made of her the icon that she is today (with a lot of help from her acting skills, of course).

As the painter returns to his work, Julia turns to the camera and winks – she must have known something all along.

The ad will air in Italy over the Christmas holiday, and was shot a couple of weeks ago, when the star was visiting Rome. Granted she doesn’t say a single word in the clip, it’s safe to say Lavazza is pretty confident in her abilities to sell a product.

Then again, Julia is not a stranger to cashing in this type of astronomical amounts: earlier this year, for her 6-minute part in “Valentine’s Day,” Julia got a whopping $3 million (that’s $500,000 for every minute of screentime), together with 3 percent of the film’s total gross.