March 30, 2005

Being a Celebrity Doesn't Always Get You Off the Hook

Being a celebrity often comes with lots of perks...freebies, getting to the front of the line at Disneyland, and so on. However, New Zealand doesn't care who you are when it comes to their strict quarantine laws.

Actress Hilary Swank forgot to declare an apple and an orange when flying in to New Zealand in January of 2004. She was fined on the spot a total of $163 American dollars for her forgetfulness.

Did she pay the fine? No. She wrote a letter to the court, asking for the judgment to be overturned, apologizing for forgetting to declare the fruit after a 20-hour flight.

Her plea was denied, and now she has to cough up the cash...over a year later, no less, because of time wasted by her petition.

I'm sure Swank doesn't have a cash flow problem. What makes her think she's so special that she can get around paying a standard fine for what seems to be a standard problem in New Zealand? Any other visitor to the country would just pay up and move on.

Perhaps some day we'll hear her saying, "Mr. Demille, I'm ready for my closeup!"

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