Author Gaiman sidesteps row over speech fee

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Author Gaiman sidesteps row over speech fee
May 10, 2011
MARY LYNN SMITH
Star Tribune

Hoping to avoid another row with legislators over how state arts money is spent, celebrity science fiction writer Neil Gaiman has directed his latest honorarium go directly to charity.

Gaiman said Monday he has asked that his $1,500 check for a June 24 appearance on the Minnesota Public Radio show "Wits" go directly to the Friends of the St. Paul Library.

Otherwise, he said, "I figured I would just get another round of mad people who said 'he's just doing it for the tax write-off.' ... I don't get the money. I don't get the tax write-off. I don't care."

Even without the donation, Gaiman's upcoming MPR appearance wasn't likely to generate the kind of scolding sparked by a $45,000 fee for a speech at a Stillwater library last summer.

He got caught in the midst of a legislative feud last week when House Majority Leader Matt Dean singled out the payment funded by the state arts and cultural Legacy Fund, which is raised through a 2008 voter-approved increase in the general sales and use tax.

Dean called him a "pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota." Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, who chairs the House Legacy Funding Division Committee, pushed to trim $45,000 from the library system's budget.

Gaiman laughed off the "pencil-neck" reference during an interview Monday. "I took offense at being called a thief," he said.

"I think it's sad that I'm being used as the stick to beat the library system and the Legacy Fund," Gaiman said. He said he split the money from last year's library speaking engagement between two national charities.

This time he looks to be in the clear. "I have no problem with it," Urdahl said Monday of the MPR appearance fee. "I wanted to send a message that we should be careful how we spend this money. I have no problem with Mr. Gaiman. My problem was with the process that allowed him to be paid that much money. "

MPR spokesman Bill Gray said the $1,500 honorarium offered to Gaiman was similar to what was offered to other guests in the "Wits" series, which features local and nationally known writers, comedians and musicians. Legacy money covers about 60 percent of the cost of the series; ticket sales covers the rest, he said.