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Not much entertainment value

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.

It appears there won't be Legends of Hollywood or Music Icons stamps from the U-S this year.

It's not the first time the long-running Hollywood series has skipped a year; the Music
series is only a few years old. Not adding to the series doesn't mean the series are over.

The U-S Postal Service isn't commenting at all on this, not even to confirm no stamps this
year.

There could be many reasons, not the least of which is rights to use the names and images.
Yes, the U-S Postal Service has to get permission to honor someone with a stamp! And having
been burned several times recently on rights issues — on things as mundane as statues — it's
no surprise the agency is extremely cautious.

And celebrities are a rights-issue mine field.

Elizabeth Taylor has been rumored for the Hollywood series for awhile, but she had seven
husbands and four children by three of those husbands! Singer James Brown has been mentioned
for Music Icons, but his heirs couldn't even agree on where to bury him.

Then there's Jimi Hendrix. The Postal Service got permission to put him on a stamp, but
wasn't allowed to include him in its Stamp Yearbook that's supposed to have all of the
year's stamps.

And with all the tabloid news these days, what celebrities are squeaky clean enough to be on
a postage stamp? We may know too much about their private lives.

I’m Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting,
visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

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