Oscars Host Chris Rock Really Did Raise $65K-Plus With Girl Scouts Stunt

Here’s some sweet justice for Chris Rock.

Despite the disbelief of a jaundiced public made cynical by one too many publicity stunts, the Oscars host really did help the Girl Scouts raise $65,243 on Sunday, after sending them out into the Academy Awards crowd to hawk their tasty wares.

Suspicion reared its head almost immediately after Rock announced the dollar figure on Sunday night’s ceremony. Much of it was due to basic math; after all, as anyone who’s shelled out for a  box of Tagalongs on the way out of the supermarket can tell you, Girl Scout cookies go for $5 a box in the Los Angeles area (prices vary nationwide). So how could the sales drive have raised an amount that was anything but a multiple of five?

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And then came the online tabloid media to throw more cold water on anyone who may have hoped that a good thing might have happened somewhere. TMZ reported that the total amount raised by the stunt was only $2,500, with customers shelling out five bucks each for about 500 boxes.

But optimists of the world, take heart; there really was a $65,000-plus haul, as confirmed by the below statement from the Girl Scouts of the USA.

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“Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles was thrilled to participate in the 88th Oscars on Sunday evening,” a spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of the USA told TheWrap on Tuesday. “Both Girl Scouts of the USA and the Academy have verified that, through sales of Girl Scout Cookies and donations made during the Oscars, the Girl Scouts raised $65,243, that will benefit girls, allowing them to improve their communities and continue developing into strong leaders.”

So, yes; the majority of the haul came from donations to the organization, which were nonetheless still the result of Rock trotting the scouts out in the Dolby Theatre during the Oscars. And however the cookie crumbles, isn’t that still a pretty tasty payday?