Remember Ola Ray, the gorgeous video model/actress from Michael Jackson’s 1983, “Thriller” video? Well, we don’t know how we missed this information a few years ago, but somehow we did: Ola Ray came up big time with her “Thriller” royalty profits.

Ola Ray and Michael had a great friendship, but it was his estate, not him, that was causing her to get jacked out of her royalties. She said:

“Michael would always re-release Thriller in different packages so that I would get my royalties. He really did his personal best to help me while he was alive. Unfortunately, the people handling his estate have not been acting according to his wishes since his death,” said Ola Ray.

Ms. Ray ultimately sued Jackson’s estate to get her dough and like we said, she came up…all the way up to the tune of $75,000.00!

First of all, she has got to be the highest paid video model/actress I’ve ever seen! I can’t say that I’ve heard of music video models getting paid royalties from videos, but somehow royalties is exactly what Ola Ray got. She played the game cleverly and also must have had an incredible agent.

Many would say that $75K is a lot for simply playing the role of the woman who had to say a few lines , flirt and walk alongside Michael Jackson in one of the most popular music videos in the world. I’m not knocking Ola Ray’s contributions to the “Thriller” video at all, because I think she was the perfect person for it.

On the flip side though, $75K obviously won’t even put a slight dent in MJ’s account, but there are many model/actresses who would have taken a flat rate fee and been happy with that opportunity of a lifetime. Instead, Ola Ray made sure she juiced her Thriller appearance for everything it was worth and we can’t be mad at her for that one.

Overall, I’m glad Ola Ray finally got the money she was owed, because the bottom line is a contract is a contract and it must honored. I still love me some Ola Ray!

Here’s an interesting tidbit of info about Ola Ray:
She was hand picked by Michael Jackson to be his video “girlfriend” and guess where he selected her from? The Playboy Magazine. He pointed to her while he was looking through the magazine one day and asked his people to find her.