Hurting Media and Hurting People

[DJ Ponz]

CNN is a reputable news agency - at least in some circles - and it blows my mind that they would even report this and link it off their mainpage. Who the fuck cares about some new star bringing fruit into New Zealand. What the fuck is wrong with you people?

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/....ap/index.html

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Hilary Swank, the Oscar-winning star of fight flick "Million Dollar Baby," is going toe-to-toe with New Zealand legal authorities over a NZ$200 ($150) fine customs officials slapped on her for bringing fruit into the country, local media reports.

Swank, who won a Best Actress Oscar for her role as a female boxer in the acclaimed Clint Eastwood-directed movie, was fined US$150 on January 15 for failing to declare an apple and an orange in her luggage when she arrived at Auckland International Airport, The Sunday Star-Times newspaper said in a front-page story.

She has instructed lawyers to appear in the northern city's Manukau District Court next week to contest the fine, the newspaper reported.

Thousands of visitors arriving in New Zealand each year are hit with on-the-spot fines for not declaring products like fruit which are subject to import bans.

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry spokesman William Minchin told the Star-Times that hundreds of people contest the fine. Like neighboring Australia, New Zealand is largely free of pests which cause billions of dollars in damage to crops and livestock in other parts of the world.

The country has extremely strict quarantine guidelines to keep such pests from entering the country. "It's a pretty standard practice to issue an instant fine for a biosecurity risk," Minchin told the newspaper.

"The only thing that's unusual in this case is that it's Hilary Swank and she's famous."

The newspaper quoted Swank's Los Angeles-based publicist, Troy Nankin, as saying, "Oh, that was the apple in the purse incident."

Nankin reportedly declined further comment. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry officials were unavailable for comment Sunday.

Swank won Best Actress Oscars for her roles in the 1999 movie "Boys Don't Cry" and "Million Dollar Baby."

[CharlieTuna]

That's even worth reporting on? Wow.