How Mrs Fifty Shades is living the high life while hubby’s at home with the dogs
As it’s revealed E. L. James has made £50m
AT first glance, you might mistake Erika Mitchell for a rather ordinary housewife. However, as she holds court in the bar of a fivestar hotel in Vancouver, Canada, there are a few clues to put you right.
Erika is better known as E. L. James, a West London housewife turned erotic fiction writer — and now something of a Hollywood power to boot. Her series of novels, most famously fifty shades Of Grey, featuring the twisted domination fantasies of millionaire Christian Grey, have made her stinking rich.
in her ears glitter diamond studs, she wears a white gold £2,250 Cartier link bracelet and her Prada reading glasses are perched on a Brazilian blow- dry that she is at pains to maintain, expensively.
Keeping her topped up with ice cold rosé, Aperol spritz and peach Bellinis is a full-time assistant who accompanies her everywhere.
Another clue that this is no ordinary woman is that she is frequently to be found socialising with Dana Brunetti — a young producer infamous in LA for his flashier-than-thou persona (he has three ferraris). He gives every impression that the author is in charge.
Michael De Luca, a producer of the fifty shades film, calls Brunetti a ‘ great Erika whisperer’ because he is able to handle her so well. De Luca also notes Brunetti had to play peacemaker between E. L. James and the bigshot director sam Taylor- Johnson on the first fifty shades film, which came out last year to mixed reviews.
Taylor-Johnson revealed that she and James ‘battled all the way through’ the shooting of the first movie.
she admitted they had ‘proper on-set barneys’, and it was thought that James’s creative control over the film was behind the tension — the author had final say over the cast and script. in the end, despite lukewarm reviews, the movie took £400 million worldwide.
Taylor-Johnson has been replaced with someone who will translate James’s mega-selling bonkbusters on to the screen in a way which is more to her liking.
for the past four months, the author and mother-of-two has been in Vancouver supervising two further big-budget movies: fifty shades freed and fifty shades Darker. she is, by all accounts, queen of the film set.
THErE have been many highlights during her lavish sojourn in North America, including a karaoke session with the racy British pop star and actress rita Ora late one night, private jet trips to Las Vegas and a weekend in the ski resort of Whistler.
Her husband Niall — who fondly calls his wife ‘ Her Jamesness’ and ‘ my dragon’ — has largely been left at home in Ealing, West London, looking after their two West Highland terriers.
it’s interesting to note he was hired by his wife as a screenwriter on both of the new films. The previous writer, Kelly Marcel, said she was ‘ heartbroken’ after her script was vetoed by James, who asserted her authority during the making of the first film.
Those who observe that James is ‘bossy’ or ‘domineering’ are told with a snort: ‘Where do you think Christian Grey gets it from?’
And while all of this has been going on, the money has been pouring in. Accounts released last week show her company fifty shades Limited earned £30 million last year.
The 53-year- old pocketed £4.8 million, paid a tax bill of £5 million and made charity donations of £1 million, but was still left with a profit of £19 million for the year to september 30, 2015.
The company’s balance sheet stands at an eye- watering profit of £52 million. As you might expect, they are agog at this turn of events back in her neck of the woods in Ealing.
indeed, though she and her husband have not bought a yacht or private jet
a la Philip Green, there has been a rather obvious boom in their fortunes.
They live in a double- fronted six- bedroom house, bought for £2.65 million three years ago. it’s now said to be worth nearly £4 million.
she also still owns the modest £350,000 terrace house nearby, where she and her family lived when she was writing the blockbuster books.
in 2013, she bought a £1.13 million Cornish getaway in fashionable Polzeath, and they are turning it into a modernistic, luxurious retreat complete with a sauna and surfboard storage room.
she and Niall remain in many ways the classic well-heeled, Guardianreading couple they always were. she calls him ‘Mr Grumpy’ and neighbours say they are habitually rather downbeat in demeanour.
Local trader John Martin said: ‘What’s great is that she shops locally, her family have lived round here for a long time and it’s nice she keeps to her roots.’
However, many have noticed that a serious programme of improvements is underway at the James mansion — including a new four-car garage and the construction of a guest house in the garden.
They have bought an electric red Tesla sports car, worth £50,000, a VW Touareg runaround and a Mini. One neighbour said that they have a Porsche estate car, too.
One of the vehicle’s numberplate ends in ‘sXY’.
Another neighbour said: ‘ Their house is beautiful and has lots of old features. When you are there you know immediately that you’re sitting on furniture you could never afford. ‘They’re always doing something new to it. We once went there for a garden party and it was absolutely amazing. They had a big marquee in the garden and it was catered. There was even a live band.’
A local dog walker added: ‘she’s a very discreet and private woman, but i suppose that’s hardly surprising. it’s always the quiet ones who write that sort of filth.’
Another local said he believed the runaway success of James’s books had led to a rise in local property prices, noting that the improvements to their house were never-ending.
The daughter of a scottish BBC cameraman and a Chilean mother, Erika Lena Mitchell was educated privately at Pipers Corner school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, before going on to a girls’ grammar school, Wycombe High.
she studied history at the University of Kent and, aged 24, married Northern ireland scriptwriter Niall.
They settled in Brentford, West London, and she worked as production manager for shooting stars, the TV company owned by comedians Vic reeves and Bob Mortimer.
Niall wrote scripts for programmes such as silent Witness and the swashbuckling drama Hornblower.
SHE was inspired to write the fifty shades books after reading stephenie Meyer’s wildly successful Twilight saga. she wrote her own fantasy stories about Meyer’s vampire lovers, Edward and Bella, via online fan fiction websites under the pen name snowqueens icedragon.
Over time, she developed her own characters, Anastasia and Christian, and signed a print-on-demand and e- book contract with a small Australian publisher.
The book first took off on the East Coast of the U.s., where it was described as ‘ mummy porn’ by the thousands reading on the privacy of their Kindles.
random House gave her a publishing deal, and Erika was suddenly said to be making £900,000 a week.
The phenomenon was so lucrative that the publishing company reported a 76 per cent increase in its worldwide operating profits in 2012 thanks largely to her. As you might expect, the success has changed her life utterly. Now, she spends large chunks of time in America — and is said to prefer it there because she feels that her books have been the victim of snobbish criticism in Britain.
This year, she flew to Canada in february and aside from a brief visit back home in May, she has been there ever since. she is due back in a week.
Husband Niall has been out to visit her with the children at least three times. He wrote on Twitter: ‘filming is going well. The cast are amazing, the crew superb and there’s a great buzz on the set.’
Their two sons are understood to be at university, having completed their schooling at private sixth forms after the fifty shades money started rolling in.
However, for all their wealth, it seems that Mr Grumpy keeps his wife firmly down to earth.
Apparently, he is wont to remind her to use the house wi-fi when she is at home, rather than clocking up data charges on her smartphone — which she finds exasperating. As you might if you are worth £50 million and rising.
But then as she said: ‘ i’m more conscious of money now than before. i’ve had the odd moment when i’ve thought: “i could buy that.” But i’ve always decided not to in the end.
‘it’s just stuff, really, and i’ve got enough stuff.’
This hasn’t, of course, stopped her whizzing around America in a private jet — and singing karaoke with the odd pop star.