Somebody Paid $45,000 To Hang Out With Eva Longoria For A Weekend

In the pantheon of active Texas celebrities, Eva Longoria doesn’t enjoy the same vaunted status as Willie Nelson, Matthew McConaughey, or Beyonce. But an anonymous bidder at the Global Gift Gala benefit in Dubai on Sunday certainly considered her pretty special. One of the opportunities and experiences auctioned off at the event was the chance to spend the weekend with Longoria at the Monaco Grand Prix this May. According to the San Antonio Express-News, a fan of the Corpus Christi native paid $45,000 for Longoria’s company:

Longoria took to the stage to encourage bidders that they would get their money’s worth during the Eva Longoria Experience at the Monaco Grand Prix, which includes business class flights, a spot on a yacht moored meters from the track’s chicane, lunch with Longoria and other fun events.

“I’m a lot of fun,” Longoria cheered. “Ask anyone!”

The charity event partnered with the film festival for the second time this year, with money raised at the event going to support three charities, including Dubai Cares, which brings education opportunities to children, Sunrise K Foundation, which helps children with glaucoma and the Eva Longoria Foundation, which gives education and micro loans to Latinas in the U.S.

“Business class flights” may be enticing when considering your holiday travel plans, but it’s probably not the top inducement to someone who has $45,000 to drop on a weekend of palling around with a celebrity. A long boozy lunch with Longoria on her yacht, meanwhile, is the stuff Instagrammers dream of.

It hasn’t exactly been an auspicious past few years on-screen for Longoria in Hollywood, since the end of Desperate Housewives: she’s had some supporting roles in smaller films, played a recurring part on Fox’s Brooklyn 99, and focused much of her career on producing and activism. (Or, in the case of the documentaries Food Chains and The Harvest, about the workers responsible for America’s food supply, both.) She spent time in Texas earlier this year campaigning alongside Lt. Governor candidate Leticia Van De Putte, and working behind-the-scenes on mainstream Hollywood films like John Wick. In other words, just because Longoria’s profile in front of the camera is lower without the platform of the show that made her famous, she’s still someone with $45,000 and an interest in Hollywood would benefit from sitting down with.

While a weekend chilling on her yacht may not match up with a trip to space—which sold at the auction for $80,000—it’s not too far off, either.