Academy sues over ‘Oscar gift bags’

THE Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the awards, is suing the company behind the prestigious gift bags promised to celebrities attending the event.

FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2015 file photo, an Oscar statue appears outside the Dolby Theatre for the 87th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. The largest black audience for the Academy Awards over the last dozen years came in 2005, when Chris Rock was host and Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman won the top male acting awards. Rock will be back as host this year, but it's an open question how many African American viewers will be tuning in. A lack of diversity in Oscar nominations have led to stars like Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith calling for a boycott of the Academy Awards, scheduled for Feb. 28. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)

A “VAMPIRE Breast Lift”. A laser skin-tightening procedure. A 10-day first-class trip to Israel. Those are a few of the services included in the $US200,000 ($A281,690) gift bags that one marketing firm has promised for celebrities attending the Oscars ceremony on February 28.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the awards, wants the public to know that it hasn’t approved any of those items, including the breast lift, which involves blood being injected into a woman’s breasts.

In a federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles, the organisation accused Distinctive Assets of promoting the gift bags as official Oscars swag.

“Distinctive Assets uses the Academy’s trademarks to raise the profile of its ‘gift bags’ and falsely create the impression of association, affiliation, connection, sponsorship and/or endorsement,” said the lawsuit, which names the company’s founder, Lash Fary, as a defendant.

Neither Distinctive Assets nor a lawyer representing the company responded to a request for comment early on Wednesday.

Gift bags have been a persistent headache over the years for the Academy, which stopped giving gift baskets to presenters and performers in 2007 after the practice came under closer scrutiny by US tax authorities.

Celebrities who receive gifts and free vacations at awards shows are expected to declare them as income and pay the appropriate taxes, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

The lawsuit said Fary was misleading media outlets by promoting the gift bags with slogans such as “Everyone Wins Nominee Gift Bags in Honor of the Oscars (R)”, adding that the use of the trademark symbol was a deliberate attempt to imply an official connection. The Academy cited numerous news articles that referred to the gift bags as “official” or as “Oscar Swag Bags,” arguing the coverage shows Fary has engaged in deceptive marketing

Originally published as Academy sues over ‘Oscar gift bags’