Those Oscar night swag bags? I wouldn’t sweat it…

I’D be willing to hazard a guess that every single nominee at last night’s Oscars is doing all right on the money front. By any normal standards, quite a few of them qualify as being seriously wealthy.

One estimate suggests that Denzel Washington has made more than $290million before tax over the past 15 years. Meryl Streep didn’t earn quite so much, but she

still did well enough to afford a New York townhouse valued at $28.5million. Even young Saoirse Ronan has far more noughts on her bank balance than the rest of us are ever likely to see.

Against that backdrop, it seems in slightly poor taste that everyone nominated in the main categories got a $100,000 goodie bag filled with all manner of exclusive treats. Among the assorted freebies were a variety of travel vouchers (including a 12-day jaunt to Tanzania for two), countless beauty products, an exclusive spa break, personal sessions with a celebrity trainer, an edible jewellery box, a diamond necklace, phobia-relief treatment, anti-ageing supplements and goodness knows what else.

It largely sounded like the sort of expensive tat that no one really needs. Besides, if you happen to be a Hollywood A-lister, you could well afford to pay for it yourself anyway. The one thing that did catch my eye, though, was the inclusion of ‘underarm sweat patches’.

At the very least, that should bring the Tinseltown elite down to earth and remind them they’re only human after all.

Perhaps the top brass at the Academy have a better sense of humour than might have been expected.