These times are prosperous for much of the globe, with equity markets booming, trade flourishing, countries from China to Russia emerging at a gallop, and prices rising for art and, in many countries, private homes.
New millionaires and billionaires are minted daily, and overall the haves have more.
But that has brought about a sticky problem: a nasty shortage of butlers worldwide.
Some rich folks, many it seems, are having to go without. “We aren’t able to find enough people to fill the roles,” says Robert Wennekes, chairman of the International Guild of Professional Butlers. “The demand is tremendous.”
The problem is not just increasing demand. What may be a bigger problem is that there simply aren’t large numbers of folks clamoring to learn the butlering craft. Says Robert Watson, managing director of the Guild of Professional English Butlers: “There are fewer people that want to be butlers. People just don’t think of it as a profession or a career."
The idea that people even have butlers--never mind that there is a shortage of them--may come as a surprise. They'd been disappearing for decades with the rise of handy household appliances, led by super-efficient vacuum cleaners, that made them less cost-effective for even owners of large homes. By the 70s the notion of a butler as the traditional head of the servants had largely fallen out of favor.
But as global wealth increased, butlers began coming back into vogue as status symbols, a means to emulate the upper crust of old. The new-era butler is a manager of sorts but of assets rather than other servants. As Watson explains, “Once you have the house, the Ferrari, the Rolls Royce and the beautiful wife, you need someone to manage it all.”
The rising demand for butlers is truly worldwide, from the U.S. and Britain to newly rich countries like China and Russia.
“When you look at the global economy there is tons of liquidity out there, plenty of cash,” says Paul Mortimer-Lee, the London-based global head of market economics at BNP Paribas Global Markets, an investment bank. “When liquidity is high, luxuries like butlers get bought.”
The butler of old, for those who did not grow up with them underfoot, was often portrayed as selflessly devoted to the family, emotionally repressed, having immaculate, if slightly condescending, manners, an English accent and, of course, a uniform and tray.
That's changed but not a lot. The traditional uniform of pin-striped trousers and black jacket is still common, and they are still usually men, although there are women too. And if revealing some personality is more acceptable now, discretion is still of the utmost importance. Plus an English accent doesn’t hurt.
But the new-era butler is now more of a personal assistant, expected to handle personnel issues, budgets and security, and they are paid well, between $60,000 and $300,000 a year, according to Watson.
The problem, though, is not the money, but what's more and more seen as demeaning work, the waiting on others. “There is still this stigma of service, or one person serving another,” says Watson.
It reflects a change of values, one that's come with rising levels of education. “The UK and U.S. have become so rapidly democratic in the wide sense of the word that the idea of serving someone in that way would be distasteful,” says Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in popcult, the Johnny Depp film “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” was No. 1 at the box office over the weekend for the second straight week, bringing in another $43.2 million. The comedy “Knocked Up” debuted at No. 2 with $29.3 million brought in.
In DVD rentals for the week ended May 27, according to IMDb.com, “Pan’s Labyrinth” dropped to No. 2, making way for Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto,” which debuted at No. 1.
On iTunes for the week ended yesterday, Rihanna’s “Umbrella” was No. 1 for the second straight week, while both “American Idol” finalists had their singles remain in the top 10: Jordin Sparks at No. 8 with “This is My Now” and Blake Lewis at No. 6 with “You Give Love a Bad Name.”
In books, it was a big week for author Khaled Hosseini. In its first week in release, his new title “A Thousand Splendid Suns” was No. 1 on The New York Times’ Hardcover Fiction bestsellers list for the week ended May 26 and also topped USA Today’s book chart for the week ended May 27. That buzz helped push his previous book, “The Kite Runner,” back up to No. 3 on the Times’ paperback bestsellers list, its 116th week on the list.
|
TOP MOVIES
Weekend Box Office Estimates
Weekend of June 1-3, 2007
|
|
Rank
|
MOVIE
|
Engagements
|
Box office (millions)
|
|
1
|
Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (
Buena Vista)
|
4,362
|
$43.19
|
|
2
|
Knocked Up (Universal)
|
2,871
|
$29.28
|
|
3
|
Shrek the Third (Paramount)
|
4,109
|
$26.70
|
|
4
|
Mr. Brooks (MGM)
|
2,453
|
$10.02
|
|
5
|
Spider-Man 3 (Sony)
|
3,402
|
$7.50
|
|
6
|
Waitress (Fox Searchlight)
|
605
|
$2.03
|
|
7
|
Gracie (Picturehouse)
|
1,164
|
$1.36
|
|
8
|
Bug (Lionsgate)
|
1,661
|
$1.22
|
|
9
|
28 Weeks Later(Fox)
|
1,121
|
$1.20
|
|
10
|
Disturbia (
Paramount)
|
1,035
|
$1.13
|
|
Source: Yahoo Movies
|
|
IMDb TOP DVD RENTALS
Week ending May 27, 2007
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
|
1
|
Apocalypto
|
-
|
|
2
|
Pan’s Labyrinth
|
1
|
|
3
|
Epic Movie
|
-
|
|
4
|
Letters from
Iwo Jima
|
-
|
|
5
|
Night at the Museum
|
2
|
|
6
|
Music and Lyrics
|
4
|
|
7
|
Because I Said So
|
5
|
|
8
|
Catch and Release
|
6
|
|
9
|
Stop the Yard
|
8
|
|
10
|
Dreamgirls
|
3
|
|
Source: IMDB
|
|
ITUNES TOP 10 SONG DOWNLOADS
for week ended Sunday, June 3, 2007
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
|
1
|
Umbrella, Rihanna
|
|
2
|
Party Like a Rock Star, Shop Boys
|
|
3
|
Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5
|
|
4
|
Big Girls Don’t Cry, Fergie
|
|
5
|
Buy You a Drank, T-Pain
|
|
6
|
You Give Love a Bad Name, Blake Lewis
|
|
7
|
Never Again, Kelly Clarkson
|
|
8
|
This is My Now, Jordin Sparks
|
|
9
|
Home, Daughtry
|
|
10
|
Thnks Fr Th Mmrs, Fall Out Boy
|
|
Source: iTunes
|
|
NEW YORK
TIMES BESTSELLING BOOKS
Week ending May 26, 2007
|
|
Fiction (hardback)
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
Weeks on chart
|
|
1
|
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
|
-
|
1
|
|
2
|
The Overlook by Michael Connelly
|
-
|
1
|
|
3
|
The 6th Target
by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
|
1
|
3
|
|
4
|
Invisible Prey
by John Sandford
|
3
|
2
|
|
5
|
Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
|
2
|
2
|
|
Nonfiction (hardback)
|
|
1
|
The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
|
-
|
1
|
|
2
|
The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan, edited by Douglas Brinkley
|
-
|
1
|
|
3
|
Einstein by Walter Isaacson
|
2
|
7
|
|
4
|
God Is Not Great
by Christopher Hitchens
|
1
|
4
|
|
5
|
Presidential Courage by Michael Beschloss
|
7
|
3
|
|
Fiction (paperback)
|
|
1
|
The Husband
by Dean Koontz
|
1
|
4
|
|
2
|
Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen
|
2
|
6
|
|
3
|
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
|
-
|
116
|
|
4
|
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
|
4
|
49
|
|
5
|
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
|
3
|
9
|
|
Nonfiction (paperback)
|
|
1
|
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
|
2
|
18
|
|
2
|
The
Glass
Castle by Jeannette Walls
|
3
|
72
|
|
3
|
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
|
4
|
8
|
|
4
|
90 Minutes in Heaven
by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
|
5
|
31
|
|
5
|
The Final Move Beyond
Iraq by Mike Evans
|
1
|
2
|
|
Source: New York Times
|
|
USA
TODAY BESTSELLING BOOKS
Week ending May 27, 2007
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
|
1
|
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
|
-
|
|
2
|
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
|
1
|
|
3
|
The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan, edited by Douglas Brinkley
|
-
|
|
4
|
The Overlook by Michael Connelly
|
-
|
|
5
|
The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
|
-
|
|
6
|
The 6th Target
by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
|
2
|
|
7
|
The Husband
by Dean Koontz
|
3
|
|
8
|
The Dangerous Book for Boys by
Conn and Hal Iggulden
|
9
|
|
9
|
Invisible Prey
by John Sandford
|
4
|
|
10
|
Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
|
6
|
|
Source:
USA Today
|
