His excesses have become so routine that few people were shocked when publishing tycoon Malcolm Forbes flew 600 guests to Morocco for a $2 million "party of the century" to celebrate his 70th birthday. But many taxpayers were outraged to hear Forbes suggest in a comment to reporters that he might try to claim a deduction for some of the party's expenses. His rationale: the guests included advertisers in his business magazine.

In the end, the publisher, perhaps smelling a gust of bad publicity, declared that "not a penny" would be deducted. But he straight-facedly maintained that a "case could be made" for writing off part of the fete, which included 600 belly dancers. Said Forbes: "I would say, 95% of it's business-related."