Swag Sweet or Sour?
Celebs do love those sumptuous swag suites during awards time, but these stars clearly don't know about swag taxes. Jeri Ryan, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tia Carrere are just so excited about their "free" gifts like vacation packages, clothes, shoes, jewelry, and gadgets, though maybe their accountants ought to be telling them that "free" really means, oh, at least a 30% tax on the total value of the stuff.
For these, and other swag-lovin' celebs' benefit, TMZ provides a little tutorial into what these folks think they're receiving for free, and what they're actually going to end up shelling out to Uncle Sam.
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Take THAT, Emmys!
What do the two most famously-snubbed Emmy contenders -- "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" -- have in common? They're both on ABC, of course. And apparently the net is so upset about those shows getting passed over (even though they scored more nods than any other broadcast network) that ABC is counter-programming the Emmy ceremony by airing "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."
According to the Hollywood Reporter, ABC will air the first "Pirates" film on August 27, while NBC will be airing the Emmys at the same time. ABC and USA paid in excess of $20 million for the right to broadcast the film that spawned the biggest movie of 2006.
Conan O'Brien, who is hosting this year's telecast, joked about the move in an interview on Monday.
"Yeah, I'm actually feeling like this is an attack on me," O'Brien said. "And so I'd like to announce that we're going to counterprogram with the second 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie. I've gotten Disney's permission to take my poor-quality bootleg and project it on a wall of the Shrine Auditorium sometime about mid-show. We're gonna wind up losing about 15 categories, but I feel like it's worth it."