No, The Oscars 2022 Goodie Bags Don't Really Include Bits Of Scotland
It is almost time for the Oscars, a night where Hollywood celebrates itself, its accomplishments, and its exclusivity. While everyone will be looking at the golden statues being handed to the winner of each category, the real prize of the Academy Awards is the lavish, preposterously opulent "Everybody Wins" gift bag handed out every year by the private company Distinctive Assets. Last year, the "consolation prize" was valued at $205,000 per bag and included things like celebrity trainer workout sessions and an NFT bust of Chadwick Boseman. This year, the company is seemingly downsizing, yet still handing out ridiculously fancy stuff.
According to The Independent, the "Everybody Wins" bags are valued at over $100,000 a bag, and include the typical things you would gift a bunch of rich actors (as well as the indie filmmakers who actually do live paycheck to paycheck and could probably use more practical presents), like liposuction treatments, olive oil infused with edible gold flakes ... and also "an entire plot of land in Scotland" that comes with a nobility title.
Before you get up in arms about this, the report is fairly inaccurate. In truth, the celebs would not own the "plot of land." Instead, the gift is, as /Film editor Hannah Shaw-Williams described it, like how "someone buying an NFT 'owns' a jpeg of an ugly monkey."
The real gift was the friends we made along the way
In reality, the Scottish titles and real state come courtesy of Highland Titles, a novelty gift website that sells land in the same way you can name a star or buy a piece of the moon (or an NFT). According to the Highland Titles website:
"Technically Highland Titles Limited has to remain as the registered owner of the land on your behalf. Highland Titles will also manage (at no cost to you) the land as a nature reserve on an ongoing basis."
In essense, you buy a tiny piece of land in an established nature reserve that houses hundreds of thousands of other similar plots. It is still technically yours the same way as buying a tree in a forest is still "yours." Highland Titles allows meet and greets if you want to visit the land and ask for assistance in finding your plot, but you can't actually built a castle there. Still, it is a cool little present to give to someone that also helps with conservation.
Of course, some people didn't read the fine print, and there have been enough complaints that a fraud investigation was initiated. According to The Scotsman, the wording of the website misled several costumers to thinking buying the little plot would actually make them members of Scottish nobility. But as the article states, there is no law in Scotland that prevents anyone from simply referring to themselves as whatever they want, including Lord and Lady, as long as it is not used to commit crimes, so the buying of land and the cool printed title are just novelty accessories.
Is this a good or useful thing? Probably not. Is it cool to say you're a Lord while at a party? Of course! Would it be funny if a rich celebrity thinks this is real, goes to Scotland and starts demanding to see their large estate only to see a 1 sq. ft piece of land with absolutely no marking on it? Absolutely.
The 94th Academy Awards air on March 27, 2022.