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Hillary Clinton's pricey speaking fee and particular tastes have come under scrutiny. Photo: AFP

Washington:It was a list of requirements worthy of a Hollywood diva, from the temperature of the water in the carafe, to the shape of the chair cushions and the crispness of the crudites, nothing was left to chance when Hillary Clinton came to speak the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) earlier this year.

The new details of the former secretary of state's extensive personal requirements for one of her $300,000 ($351,000) speaking engagements emerged on Thursday, leading to suggestions that she has become increasingly out-of-touch with ordinary people.

"Coffee, tea, room temp sparkling and still water, diet ginger ale, hummus and sliced fruit," requested Mrs Clinton's advance team, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post under freedom of information laws.

A week before the speech, the Clinton team arrived on a reconnaissance mission, throwing out the lectern the university offered and sending officials to find a replacement and a correctly-sized university seal to go on the front. Mrs Clinton's representatives also demanded she have access to a computer, printer and a scanner, which the university had to buy specially for the event, which was privately endowed by Meyer Luskin, an investor.

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After deliberations over the shape, colour and upholstery of the chairs to be used at the event, at the university's Royce Hall, Mrs Clinton's representatives specified "two long, rectangular pillows", with two more kept backstage in case she needed additional back support.

The lecture on "Thought Leadership" is one of scores of paid speaking engagements that Mrs Clinton has performed since leaving office in 2009, with her fees going to support the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton family philanthropy arm.

Although Mrs Clinton does not personally profit from the events, there has been increasing scrutiny of the Clintons' jet-set lifestyle in the run-up to the announcement, expected early next year, that she will run for president in 2016. On a campaign visit to Iowa for the Harkin Steak Fry political fundraiser, documents showed that organisers had paid $US50,000 to fly the Clintons into the state.

The idea that Mrs Clinton might be losing touch with the ordinary voter came back to the fore this year when she told an interviewer that she and her husband, Bill Clinton, were "dead broke" when they left the White House.

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Hillary Clinton's personal requirements for speech raise eyebrows

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The Washington Post Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was paid $300,000 to speak to UCLA students and faculty in March.

When officials at the University of California at Los Angeles began negotiating a $300,000 speech appearance by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the school had one request: Could we get a reduced rate for public universities?

The answer from Clintons representatives: $300,000 is the special university rate.

That e-mail exchange and other internal communications, obtained this week by The Washington Post under a Freedom of Information Act request, provide a rare glimpse into the complex and meticulous backstage efforts to manage the likely 2016 presidential candidates lucrative speaking career.

At UCLA, efforts to book Clinton and then prepare for her visit were all-consuming, beginning almost immediately after she left her job as secretary of state on Feb.1, 2013, until she delivered her Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership speech on March5, 2014.

The documents show that Clintons representatives at the Harry Walker Agency exerted considerable control over her appearance and managed even the smallest details from requesting lemon wedges and water on stage to a computer, scanner, and a spread of hummus and crudit in the green room backstage.

Top university officials discussed at length the style and color of the executive armchairs Clinton and moderator Lynn Vavreck would sit in as they carried on a question-and-answer session, as well as the kind of pillows to be situated on each chair. Clintons representatives requested that the chairs be outfitted with two long, rectangular pillows and that two cushions be kept backstage in case the chair was too deep and she needed additional back support.

After a lengthy call with a Clinton representative, UCLA administrator Patricia Lippert reported to campus colleagues, She uses a lavalier [microphone] and will both speak from the audience and walk around stage, TED talk style. We need a teleprompter and 2-3 downstage scrolling monitors [for] her to read from.

During a walk-through of Royce Hall five days before the lecture, the e-mails show, Clintons team rejected the podium planned for her use during her 20- to 30-minute speech, setting off a scramble on campus to find a suitable podium and rent a new university seal to match.

In the nearly twoyears since stepping down as secretary of state, Clinton has made dozens of paid appearances across the country at industry conventions and Wall Street banks as well as at universities. Her UCLA fee, like those at other universities, went to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the familys nonprofit group.

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A rare backstage glimpse into Hillary Clintons paid speaking career