An app lets you get personalized messages from Philly celebs. These are our favorites.
Cameo, which launched in 2017, lets users hire celebrities to record brief, personalized video messages about virtually any topic.
With more than 20,000 celebrities available for booking on the Cameo app, there are quite a few stars with strong Philly connections who are willing to hook you up with a shoutout.
For those unfamiliar, the platform, which launched in 2017, lets users hire celebrities to record brief, personalized video messages about virtually any topic. Happy birthday messages are common, but some celebs have also recorded messages for Cameo users looking to quit their jobs or ask a potential date to a prom.
All you have to do is find the celeb you want to book, provide a script of up to 250 characters, and pay the star’s required fee, which can range from a few bucks to thousands of dollars. Your selected star then has seven days to fulfill the request, after which you will either receive your video or your money back.
Here, we’ve rounded up some of the Philly-area stars available for hire on the Cameo app, including local sports icons, actors, comedians, and Internet celebs.
Sports Stars
Booking cost: $1000 | Typical response time: Unlisted
At $1,000 per clip, controversial former Eagle Michael Vick is by far the most expensive celebrity on this list, but he’s a far cry from the $2,500-a-pop Caitlyn Jenner — and an even further cry from comedian Chris D’Elia, who (jokingly?) charges $50,000 for his services on the app.
Booking cost: $350 | Typical response time: 3 days
Donovan McNabb has said that Terrell Owens’ offseason drama was responsible for breaking up the Eagles after the team’s 2005 Super Bowl loss, but if you’ve got $350 you can ask the man himself for a personalized version of his thoughts on the matter (not that he hasn’t let us know before).
Booking cost: $300 | Typical response time: 2 days
Donovan McNabb comes in about $50 cheaper per clip than his former teammate T.O., so if you’re looking for a relative bargain on a message from a significant figure in Eagles history, he’s your guy — or if you just want to know once and for all whether he actually threw up at Super Bowl XXXIX.
Booking cost: $95 | Typical response time: 6 hours
If you request a message from former Phillies center fielder Lenny Dykstra, we’re fairly certain he won’t back out of the booking like he did to Celebrity Boxing organizers last fall, when he was scheduled to fight former viral star Chris “The Bagel Boss” Morgan. Classic Nails.
Honorable mentions: Former Phillies Curt Schilling, Pete Rose, Mickey Morandini, Tony Gwynn Jr., and Hunter Pence; ex-Eagles Vince Papale, Jon Dorenbos, LeGarrette Blount and Ron Jaworski; current Eagles Cre’Von LeBlanc, Corey Clement, Rasul Douglas, and Boston Scott.
Actors and Comedians
Booking cost: $125 | Typical response time: 3 days
He may not be the Stallone you are looking for, but Frank Stallone is the closest we can get to Sly on the Cameo app. But, hey, he did attend Abraham Lincoln High School in the Northeast like his brother, and briefly appeared in a scene in the first Rocky movie, so his Philly cred is bonafide in our eyes.
Booking cost: $145 | Typical response time: 3 days
Before landing her role as resident workplace drunk Meredith Palmer on The Office, Ardmore native Kate Flannery got plenty of insight into the character thanks in part to former Center City bar T.A. Flannery’s, which her family owned and operated until it closed in 2011 and was replaced by Rogues Gallery Bar.
Booking cost: $25 | Typical response time: 4 days
The “friggin’ queen of Delco,” Aunt Mary Pat, hails from Ridley Park, where she cheers on the Birds, chain smokes cigarettes, and works at the local Acme. In reality, the character’s actor — Delaware’s Troy David Hendrickson — has built up a large online following thanks to his creation’s antics.
Booking cost: $50 | Typical response time: 3 days
Los Angeles got to know Philly boy Ralph Garman as a personality on KROQ-FM’s Kevin and Bean Show, on which he appeared for nearly two decades. Garman, however, is also a frequent collaborator with New Jersey-born filmmaker Kevin Smith, with whom he hosts the popular Hollywood Babble-On podcast.
Honorable mentions: Jersey-born comics Artie Lange and Dena Blizzard; comedian, actress, and Perkasie native (and wife of Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee) Brittany Furlan; It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor Kyle Davis (AKA Lil’ Kev).
Reality TV Stars
Booking cost: $65 | Typical response time: 2 days
Jackass star and West Chester native Bam Margera is a regular user of the Cameo app, judging by his 647 reviews and near-five-star rating. Even his stints in rehab last year couldn’t keep him away. But his best moment on Cameo is probably when he went viral with a clip helping one user quit his job in 2018.
Booking cost: $50 | Typical response time: 5 days
Doylestown-raised musician Justin Guarini is your guy if you want to throw it back to 2002, when he became the runner-up in the first season of American Idol — or if you just want a message from Diet Dr. Pepper mascot Lil’ Sweet, whom Guarini began playing in 2015.
Booking cost: $200 | Typical response time: 3 days
Paterson, N.J. native Teresa Giudice may be a Real Housewives of New Jersey star, bestselling author, and ex-con, but she also happens to be the only person on this list to have been fired from The Celebrity Apprentice by a pre-presidency Donald Trump, way back in 2012.
Booking cost: $50 | Typical response time: 7 days
Ardmore’s Wendell Holland emerged victorious by a narrow margin in season 36 of Survivor back in 2018, and will again appear on the series in its upcoming 40th season, Survivor: Winners at War starting Feb. 12, so get those clip requests in now. Or just put in an order for some of his custom furniture.
Honorable mentions: Former Viva La Bam star Brandon Novak; RHONJ’s Joe Giudice and Gia Giudice (and many of the show’s other stars); most of the Jersey Shore cast.
Wildcards
Booking cost: $34 | Typical response time: 1 day
New Jersey native and competitive eater Kevin Strahle (AKA the L.A. Beast) made a name for himself with his YouTube videos showing him downing items like a gallon of Tabasco hot sauce and 20-year-old Crystal Pepsi, but we’ll always remember him as the guy who ate a cactus at Wing Bowl 24 in 2016.
Booking cost: $70 | Typical response time: 1 day
With more than one million Instagram followers, viral internet comedian Naphil Hitson is known for his Tyrone character, who travels the streets of Philadelphia slapping the cigarettes from the hands of unwitting (and sometimes highly confrontational) local smokers in his popular, profane videos.
Booking cost: $40 | Typical response time: 3 hours
California’s Bryant Moreland is a notorious Eagles superfan popular for the often viral, expletive-laden YouTube videos posted under his EDP445 moniker — so much so that he has garnered nearly one million followers on the platform, and become something of a meme online.
Honorable mentions: Philly-based prankster Ed Bassmaster; Pennsylvania YouTuber Talon Sei; podcaster and voiceover artist Hal Lublin of Montgomery County.