With the Globes imminent and the Oscars only weeks away, I hear from a Los Angeles acquaintance that there is consternation in the gifting suite industry.
The what? Well, it turns out that one of the awards’ satellite businesses is the letting of hotel suites by middle men, who then turn them into Santa’s grottoes, full of nice stuff donated by swanky brands (from whom they also take a fee). Here, invited guests, preferably big movie stars, can come and help themselves to the goodies - clothes, jewellery, you name it - and by using them, add lustre to the giver’s reputation. I name no names, but am told that, in one top-of-the-range suite, it has been considered perfectly normal to part with a hundred-thousand dollar watch if the receiver is a Best Male Lead nominee.
But now disaster has struck! The Man has decided that the moochers must pay tax on their rather compromised ‘gifts’, as the freebies are actually fees for label endorsements. Result: the celebs have been staying away, saying that if anyone pays the IRS, it should be the ‘gifters’.
The sequel? If they want their PR merry-go-round to keep spinning, and their lists to be ‘A’, the middlemen must somehow cover the bill – and the only way they can do that is by raising their fees. But on Wilshire and Rodeo, business is already bad enough. The brand people don’t want to pay more for the privilege of treating guests to their stock – and this has led to an impasse.
Still, if the gifting-suite industry is going south, perhaps that’s a turn-up for those journalists still in work. The other way that brands get profile is by buying favour from the press with extravagant goody-bags. In this department, there has been a definite decline in largesse since the Great Crash 0f 2008. If the designer-marketing men were to divert their resources into the Fourth Estate, I’m sure they would be amply repaid in column-inches. Just don’t tell the taxman.
