Shatner And Priceline.com Part Ways

According to a report in yesterday's edition of the New York Post, William Shatner (James T. Kirk) will no longer be appearing in commercials for troubled internet company Priceline.com.

Shatner's first appearance in the Priceline.com ads, which featured him singing classic songs in his trademark style, led to the actor's recent resurgence in Hollywood, as can be seen from the many films he will be appearing in in the near future. In addition, for a while it also led to a resurgence in Shatner's wealth, as he'd agreed to be paid in stocks in the company, worth at one point more than $20 million.

Unfortunately, over the past year the price of Priceline.com shares has plummeted to just $2.25, far down from its all-time high of $165 last year. Though Shatner was able to sell 35,000 of his 125,000 shares before the crash occurred (reportedly securing about $8 million), he still lost a substantial amount of money, and according to the New York Post this is one of the reasons he's now leaving the company. Another reason mentioned by the paper is that Shatner might not to want his name associated with a failing company, and indeed Priceline is no longer mentioned on the biography on his official site.

Still, Shatner has not completely disappeared from Priceline's corporate image, though its most recent ad campaign only features a still photo of the actor. According to a spokesperson at Shatner's production company, he is currently on location in Arizona for his new sci-fi movie 'Groom Lake', and has not shown up for new Priceline commercial shoots. As the spots need to be finished in a couple of weeks in order to be ready to debut in January, it seems unlikely they will still feature Shatner.

The original article on this can be found by following this link. Thanks go out to Julia Houston at About.com's Star Trek Fans for this!

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