Estelle Getty, the matriarch of The Golden Girls and general wise-ass of the bunch passed away last year. Now, her family has put the Emmy she won for her role of Sophia Petrillo in that show up for sale on eBay. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences have strict rules about such things. If the family no longer wants the award, they are supposed to return it to the Academy.Ms. Getty's family would hardly be the first to try and raid the treasures of a dead celebrity relative for some cash. It does seem in somewhat bad taste to sell such an honor.
On the other hand, the item hasn't even received any bids yet according to the Variety article (although that may have changed given the increase in publicity). Is it a bigger insult to sell an Emmy or that the Emmy in question hasn't received any interest from the buying public?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-22-2009 @ 11:28AM
D said...
If the Academy actually has rules that do not allow selling the Emmy,rules that 100% prohibit it,eBay will take down the listing.If the listing stays up then the rules are not a true prohibition of the sale.I agree though that it is bad taste and would hope nobody would bid or want someone else's award.Getty wasn't a high profile celeb so maybe it won't be sold.
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9-22-2009 @ 1:17PM
Europa said...
I think most TV fans know about the rules against selling Emmy's and Oscars, etc. and that might be why no one has bided. In any case, it is in bad taste. I mean, I know times are hard right now, and people are selling their gold jewelry and pretty much anything else of value to bring in extra cash, but I do think a line has to be drawn somewhere.
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9-22-2009 @ 6:11PM
Patricia said...
Its really in bad taste to sell that award. The family should have returned it to the academy if they didn't want it. Doesn't speak well for them because most families would be proud to have a celeb amonst them and would display it with pride. I know I would.
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9-23-2009 @ 10:34AM
C.A. said...
Wow, bunch of ungrateful punks. No wonder they are trying to sell it, they don't have any sense. So it figures they would get in the kind of trouble where you had to sell such a precious family heirloom.
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