From 600 000-dollar diamonds to the gold dental bridge of someone’s dead grandmother, down-at-heel Hollywood stars are hocking their most precious heirlooms to pay for their face lifts or divorces.
Pawn shop owner Jeanne Zimmelman has seen just about everything pass through her sumptuous office in the heart of Beverly Hills, one of the ritziest areas of Los Angeles and home to a constellation of celebrities.
Some of the best known faces in the world have been reduced by temporary hard times to discreetly pawning their Oscars or their engagement rings to get over a rough patch, she says. But her business is no traditional high street pawn shop with three balls hanging above the door. It’s a luxurious third-floor office filled with showcases packed with glittering treasures.
”We have a lot of wealthy, high-end people; they just get in cash crunch situations, maybe they might have shopped a little too much on Rodeo Drive,” said Zimmelman, who has run the Beverly Loan Co. for 16 years.
”Someone comes in and wants to borrow 5 000 dollars, they bring in their diamond, it is like a four month loan.” The reasons why stars that appear to be fabulously wealthy need to pawn their valuables for cash are multiple: some have fallen from their box office pinnacles, some need urgent plastic surgery to keep their appeal, others simply need to pay off a divorce settlement.
”If you want a face lift, you need like 10 000 to 15 000 dollars,” Zimmelman said. ”You have to pay in advance. They’re all happy when they come back in with their new face or their larger chest.” The split-ups of Hollywood couples is also notoriously costly, with huge lawyers’ bills and alimony to be paid, often when estates are tied up, forcing some stars to pawn their valuables to meet immediate expenses.
”Then, once the divorce is over they can’t wait to get rid of their jewelry. There’s the karma thing, bad karma for them but not for the next person,” she says. If the owner fails to repay the loan, usually worth between 30 and 60% of the value of the item they are pawning, Zimmelman sends out a foreclosure note two weeks after the due date.
Ten days later, the collateral is forfeited and becomes Zimmelman’s property to sell. Among the items she has taken as security are diamond-studded daggers, jade-encrusted swords, a 7 000-dollar diamond-filled illuminated hourglass from De Beers, tons of jewelry and even a gold dental bridge.
”I accepted it, I didn’t want to touch it. The guy was very nice, he said to me: don’t worry my grandmother’s been dead for years. That was very funny, but also a little creepy,” chuckled Zimmelman.
But the mainstay of the celebrity pawn business is far more traditional. ”Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” said Zimmelman, whose father opened the business 65 years ago during Hollywood’s golden age.
The business has also offered loans in return for thousands of fur coats, gold, ornaments made of Lalique and Baccarat crystal and even on a limited edition Picasso lithograph worth 15 000 dollars.
The most expensive item she has handled was a giant 65 carat diamond engagement ring for which she loaned its high-profile owner a whopping 600 000 dollars.
But while Zimmelman says she has helped out some of Tinseltown’s most famous sons and daughters, she will not reveal their identities.
”Our business is built on discretion, people who come here don’t want to be seen,” she said. ”Dead or alive, I don’t give names and there are some great names.”
The stars however no longer turn up in person, wearing dark glasses and clutching an armful of jewelry as they once did, Zimmelman revealed. Instead they send their business managers. ”When my dad worked in the 1940s and 50s, they had no business managers they would make a movie, make lots of money, spend it and buy jewellery and then they’d come they’d get a loan against the jewellery then make another movie. ”He knew lots of big shots.” – Sapa-AFP