TVSquad

This year's Emmy Awards goodie bags are worth an estimated $27,000 to $33,000, depending on how big of a celebrity you are, and it's all taxable income. Bah humbug. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences just sent a letter out to celebrities to remind them to pay taxes on the goodies.

Blah, blah, blah. You want to know what's in the goodie bags, don't you?

OK. This article has the complete list, but I'm just picking out the interesting stuff including vacation packages in New Zealand, Hawaii, California, and Whistler, B.C. It also includes one-year membership to YogaWorks, a $329 Sprint phone, gift certificates for spas and restaurants, Diamo scooters, and Dooney & Burke luggage. Of course, the stars don't have to pay taxes on the goodies if they donate it to charity or turn it down altogether.

The Emmys air Sunday, August 27th on NBC. Thankfully, Conan O'Brien hosts.

On television, they live in McMansions and get a big, fat tax break for being in that upper-income bracket. In the real world, they probably drive Subarus and are stressed out about paying for college. An article on a job website explores the real-life salaries of some of our favorite characters, including the improbable bank account of Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw (I never said the article was brand new). It seems, as a sex columnist in NYC, Carrie probably would've earned $57,000. In Manhattan? That's poverty!

Other characters and their real-life salaries:

An article in the LA Times details just how much cash the two head honchos at Disney are raking in these days. Be prepared: you may turn green with envy. Or, just at the thought of all that money. Chief Executive Robert Iger got a 33% raise when he took over in October, bringing his annual income to $2 million. Wait. There's much, much more. If Disney does well, he will get to enjoy a $7.25 million bonus (whose bonus is nearly four times their annual salary???). He also received 500,000 shares of restricted stock. Restricted? I guess that means he can't sink it into Pixar, eh? Michael Eisner, on the other hand, earned $1 million in regular salary, plus a $9.1 million bonus. That's nowhere near the income he got in 1998 when he exercised some stock options that had been accumulating for years, and made $576 million. Eisner retired on September 30th but he will continue to received bonuses in the sum of $7.5 million through September of 2007. But don't worry about Michael Eisner. He'll be okay. He has a job at CNBC.