When Russell Brand social media’d a picture of then-wife Katy Perry sans makeup, half of the internet laughed triumphantly because stars are just like us after all where’s your whipped cream bra now?! and the other half gasped empathetically, because what he did was actually kind of mean.
Most people have fallen victim to the incredibly privileged problem of having someone post an unflattering photo to Facebook (life hack: no one cares about you looking ugly in pictures as much as you do) and now, a new breed of prenup aims to prevent that from happening.
The Social Media prenup is a clause in a standard prenup that would limit what partners are allowed to post. No unflattering or nude photos, no compromising images, nothing that could hurt the other’s career on any form of social media. Here’s ABC with more:
“There might be a bathing suit photo that might be particularly embarrassing,” [Lawyer Ann-Margaret] Carrozza said. “Posting that would have to be cleared.”
With her clients, Carrozza said, the penalty for violating the social media clause has been monetary. The amount set depends on a person’s wealth, she said, but, for example, for someone living in New York City who makes below $5 million, Carrozza said, “the clause we’re using with it is $50,000 per episode,” meaning per post or per tweet.
Reasonable, she said to herself as her eyes rolled so hard in her head that they became displaced from her sockets and bounced onto the carpet.
Other prenups aren’t as photo-focused and instead limit what details of their married life involved parties are allowed to share online. Which, I guess, seems like more of a normal person concern than drawing up a legal contract that imposes fines on unflattering instagrams.
According to the ABC News piece, so far, only a few couples have added a social media clause to their prenup, but the lawyers quoted predict that more people will probably do it in the future. Because they have to say that, because they’re lawyers, and that’s exactly the sort of dire, cynical prediction that a lawyer would make.
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