The couple behind the kiss amid a Canadian riot that stopped the globe have turned down multi-million dollar offers to cash in on their newfound celebrity status.
Australian Scott Jones made worldwide headlines when he was photographed embracing and kissing his girlfriend, Alexandra Thomas, amid the chaos of last week’s ice hockey final riots in Vancouver.
Mr Jones and his Canadian girlfriend turned down the offer of flights to New York to appear on The Today Show and Good Morning America.
Celebrity agent Max Markson said the global exposure was worth a potential $10 million for the couple.
“It’s a $10 million branding exercise. If you had something he could endorse it would be amazing. It would be good if he drank Red Bull,” Markson said.
But Mr Jones said he turned down the offer because he didn’t want the “extra stress”. Instead, the couple will follow through with their holiday plans before continuing home in the coming months.
“It’s just too much,” Jones said in his only interview, with CBC News Canada, of the talk show offers.
“We just don’t need the extra stress. We are totally booked up for the next three weeks. We have everything planned, we can’t change anything.”
Ms Thomas added: “We’re going on holiday. We’ve been looking forward to this for months. We’re just going to go spend time together.”
Freelance photographer Richard Lam took the photo of the couple lying on the road in a passionate embrace as Mr Jones helped Ms Thomas after she was knocked down amid the riot, sparked when the Vancouver Canucks lost an ice hockey final last Wednesday night.
They had been watching the game at a bar.
Mr Jones’ mother Megan told The Sunday Telegraph: “I saw the photo when I logged on to the computer and thought, ‘Oh, for goodness sake’.”
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