We mentioned that singer George Michael was hired to play at a New Year's party in Russia for $3 million. What we didn't mention is that he was at the party for just over an hour. This is a classic example of the luxury party trend of renting rockstars (or other celebrities) to show up at parties. Christina Aguilera, Bette Midler and Robin Williams have done over the top birthday parties. 50 Cent and Aerosmith have done multimillion-dollar bat mitsvahs. "It's common knowledge that Bruce Springsteen and U2 won't do it," said the head of the corporate and private events division for Creative Artists Agency, but just about everyone else will.

The artists may be doing it for the money (at thousands of dollars per minute, who wouldn't?), but they're also making some people really happy by appearing at their special event. Is it worth the payout on the part of the consumer? That's for you to decide the next time you're throwing a million dollar birthday party.