VIP: Intellectuals

Many retailers offer discounts on clothes and goods to celebrities and athletes (athletes can fall under celebrity status, but I insist on calling specific attention to the group for purposes to be discussed later in the blog.) Every company that I have worked for offers discounts or free product to celebrities that come into the store.
At Ralph Lauren, I was flipping through the V.I.P. list and celebrities receive up to a 50% discount on clothes. Celebrities like Jon Stewart, Brad Pitt and athletes made the list. From a P.R. perspective, a retailer would want to give celebrities a discount so they are seen wearing their clothes. From a proponent-of-the-arts perspective, I would like to see more intellectuals make the list.
Why not authors, painters, dancers and opera singers?? Is John Updike not famous enough to make the VIP list? Why can't Paul Cezanne walk into Paul Smith and get 50% off a tailored suit? (Aside from the fact that he is dead.) Were these artists not worthy enough of a discount from "fine" retailers? If it were up to me, more artists would make the list and fewer athletes. This is just another reflection of our societity's confusingly, sports-obsessed nature. Let's fill our heads with something other than meat for a change.