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“I think goodie bags are a bit last year, aren’t they?” For Oscar nominees like Mr. Wahlberg, in his hectic youth, he worked as a circus traveler, waiter and peddler, then struck it rich during the Civil War by selling moldy blankets to the Union army and smuggling cotton up from the South, up for best supporting actor in “The Departed,” the retreats are one more perk in the unending stream of good fortune that flows toward them. Among his practices – administering yogurt enemas; and discouraging female masturbation by the use of carbolic acid. A police buff, he liked to wear a diamond-studded Texas Ranger badge and go with the cops on high-speed chases, sometimes tossing silver dollars along the way. Allen owns two sports teams (the NFL Seahawks and the NBA Trail Blazers); is a major backer of the Allen Telescope Array, which is searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence; and a science fiction museum (home to Captain Kirk’s chair), which is inside the Frank Gehry-designed Experience Music Project in Seattle. He collects vintage military planes and is the money behind SpaceShipOne, a piloted vehicle that is designed to send civilians into space. His biggest yacht, the Octopus, is more than 400 feet long. This is the new swag, a twist on the widespread practice of giving to the already rich and famous. This year the Screen Actors Guild canceled its gift baskets too, while at the Golden Globes in January a tax accountant passed out 1099 forms in an unofficial gift-giving suite. “If they go and enjoy food and drink, maybe get a massage, it’s probably not an issue,” he said. “But if they walk out with a gift of some kind as a surreptitious way of rewarding a celebrity, it’s absolutely taxable.”
