DINH DOONG

On September 28, the Ellis County WildGame Dinner in Waxahachie, Texas held an auction event for charity. Per their website page, the Ellis County WildGame Dinner describes itself as an organization committed to ‘supporting agricultural and rural education to the youth of Ellis County.’

As part of their charity auction, the organization advertised on their Facebook page that they would be auctioning off a ‘guitar autographed by country music star Taylor Swift.’

However at the event, a man reportedly bid $4,000 on the guitar, only to plough it with a hammer immediately after winning it. Video footage of the guitar’s destruction went absolutely viral online, with one video posted on Twitter earlier this week garnering over 22 million views.

Omg lol!!!! Guy bought a signed Taylor Swift guitar at a live auction for $4,000, only to destroy it 🔥🔥😭😭

The plot has now thickened however as a source close to Swift’s merchandise company confirmed to HuffPost that the guitar was not signed by the singer and that it was not a certified official guitar used by her.

Moreover, the source added that an actual signed guitar by Swift would come with a certificate of authenticity, which her team reportedly doesn’t believe the auctioned guitar has.

Variety also reports that the guitar came with a signed CD insert but the instrument itself was not signed.

Reactions toward the man’s guitar purchase have been divided on social media, with some of Swift’s supporters theorizing that his actions may have been politically motivated following the singer’s public endorsement of Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris.

“A grown man paying $4,000 to destroy a guitar to impress Trump is next level pathetic,” one user on Twitter wrote.

“It doesn’t affect Taylor Swift and he just lost $4,000,” another added.

“Imagine spending $4k on a guitar when there’s literally an emergency situation on the east coast,” another user said in reference to Hurricane Helene. “That $4k could have [helped] a lot of other people instead of some collector.”

Other fans noted that the guitar didn’t look real.

“The funniest part is that this [is] definitely a fake signed guitar like it has the wrong Era’s Tour logo and font I’m crying,” one fan wrote on Twitter.

UNILAD previously reached out to the Ellis County WildGame Dinner for comment.

Getting advice from one of the pioneering minds of the 21st century – when it comes to technology – is a pretty great opportunity.

Just for clarity, we are talking about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg here.

The tech mogul’s three daughters, Maxima, Aurelia and August all have a great opportunity to learn from their father, regardless of their age, at least according to Zuckerberg.

While speaking on the Acquired Podcast, Zuckerberg told a room full of people some words of wisdom. One question in particular seemed to remind him of a lesson he attempted to teach his second oldest daughter, 7-year-old August.

He was asked by the hosts what advice would he give to new entrepreneurs and founders trying to make their own mark in the industry.

Funnily enough, this kind of tied into a lesson he tried to teach his daughter when she said she wanted to be like music pop-star, Taylor Swift.

Zuckerberg said: “One day, my daughter. We took her to a Taylor Swift concert and she was like, ‘You know Dad, I kind of want to be like Taylor Swift when I grow up.

“I was like, ‘But you can’t. That’s not available to you.

“She thought about it and she’s like, ‘Alright when I grow up I want people to want to be like August Chan Zuckerberg,’”

With the proudest fatherly smile, Zuckerberg then just added he was like ‘hell yeah, hell yeah.’

Admittedly, I didn’t get it at first. I mean if you are the daughter of a billionaire, you probably have the means to get your way into the music industry and try your hand at a singing career.

But explaining a bit more during the podcast, Zuckerberg added: “Part of what I am trying to say is, I think there are different ways to build stuff.

“Our way worked for me and our team, and different things have clearly worked for other companies, I dont know.

“I think it is like, learn from other peoples successes and failures but do your own thing,”

Now that sounds like a rather good message to teach your daughter, and with context is a lot less brutal than suggesting to your child they will simply never be the successful, billionaire superstar that is Taylor Swift.

How much would you be prepared to spend to see your favourite musician perform? Are we talking hundreds? Thousands? What about tens of thousands?

Porter has estimated that she’s spent a whopping $30,000 on Taylor Swift since she first became a fan.

It seems that Warhammer fans now have a challenger in terms of how much money they sink into their hobby!

Of this $30k, Porter estimates that around $7,000 – $9,000 of it was just to attend the Australian leg of Swift’s Eras Tour.

The rest includes things such as travel expenses, concert tickets, buying CDs and vinyl records, themed outfits, and getting Taylor Swift themed tattoos.

She told The Age: “[That includes] outfits, friendship bracelets, all of that kind of stuff – to be conservative.”

Porter didn’t just see Swift once on this tour either, but went to all three performances of the tour in Melbourne.

She even set up a special Taylor Swift card specifically to cover expenses related to the tour. Of that $9,000, around $1,400 of it alone was at the merchandise store.

The store includes things like $40 water bottles, tote bags and bracelets costing $50, and $120 pullovers.

And Porter confirmed that she has no plans to slow down with her spending on Taylor Swift, saying: “I have so much serotonin, so much joy right now.”

But others were a little less cash happy with their trip, instead working on a slightly tighter budget during their trip.

One said: “I spent lower than $80 on tickets and beads, and after getting merch, it’s going to be $200! How are these folks so wealthy?”

Another revealed that she had spent around $1,500, while her friend had dropped around $500 on the experience.

The singer’s presence has seen a spike in spending in Melbourne as fans splurged while in town to see Swift perform.

One estimate suggests that spending in metro Melbourne was up by some $174 million over the weekend of Swift’s performance according to data from National Australia Bank [NAB].

This represents an increase of around 33% from the previous month.

NAB executive Julie Rynski said: “Taylor was certainly the cheer captain for businesses across the city. From sold-out hotels to bustling restaurants, the economic boost that follows is tangible.”

The pop star left everyone shocked when she first appeared at a Kansas City Chiefs game.

The Chiefs played the Chicago Bears and Kelce’s team came away with a win; much to the delight of Swift and everyone in her private suite.

The following week, the 33-year-old attended the Chiefs match against the New York Jets and they scored another win.

All eyes were on the Kansas City team to see if she would be there for a third time as they played the Minnesota Vikings.

However, she did not.

CBS commentator Jim Nantz said during the broadcast: “Seven words I thought would never leave my lips in my career: Taylor Swift is not at the game… She was questionable all week, but it looks like it’s officially inactive.”

Well, it seems like some NFL fans were very happy at the lack of star power at the game in Minnesota.

One wrote on social media: “Thank GOD.”

Others shared videos of celebration memes that Swift wasn’t going to pull focus from the game.

It was a fairly hectic game for her speculated boyfriend, Travis Kelce.

The tight end suffered an ankle injury just before halftime and came back on the field in the second half and was a force to be reckoned with.

Last week, Kelce revealed he thought the NFL was overdoing it a bit with the Taylor Swift coverage.

Taking to his New Heights podcast, which he hosts with brother and Philadelphia Eagles centre Jason Kelce, the 33-year-old said: “I think it’s fun when they show who all is at the game. I think it brings a little bit more to the atmosphere, brings a little bit more to what you’re watching.”

Jason then replied: “They’re overdoing it,” to which Travis replied: “They’re overdoing it a little bit for sure. Especially my situation.

“[But] I think they’re just trying to have fun with it.”

The NFL responded in a statement issued to PEOPLE, which said: “We frequently change our bios and profile imagery based on what’s happening in and around our games, as well as culturally.

“The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news has been a pop cultural moment we’ve leaned into in real time, as it’s an intersection of sport and entertainment, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of positivity around the sport.

“The vast majority of our content has remained focused on the game, our players and variety of other initiatives, including our Toy Story Funday Football alt-cast, the international games and more.”

The ‘Shake it Off’ singer reportedly racked up a restaurant bill of $4000 while dining with friends in New York over the weekend.

Despite her $740 million (£604m) bank balance, another member of the A-listers entourage paid the cheque.

Swift was reportedly joined by actors Sophie Turner and Blake Lively as they dined at a high-end establishment in Soho.

Along with other close friends, the 12-strong group sampled the delights of Emilio’s Ballato with the set menu costing around $195 each (£159).

For the amount of cash they spent, you’d think the group would have a pretty hefty alcohol bill but gossip site DeuxMoi claims that only two Cosmos, two Aperol Spritzes and two bottles of San Pellegrino water were brought to the table.

How exactly they know that is beyond us.

It’s unclear who had a tipple, but the celebrity Instagram page stated that Lively had footed the entire bill – despite having a net worth of just $30 million (£24m).

Though it’s more than most of us could ever imagine having in 100 lifetimes, it seems even A-List celebrities aren’t exempt from having to foot the bill for their friends every so often.

Before you judge Swift, though, she has been pretty busy this year donating meals during the US leg of her world tour, so it’s only fair she gets a meal donated to her on this occasion.

While she reportedly asked food banks not to reveal her identity, Swift is said to have made a huge donation to Feeding Tampa Bay.

It’s thought that over 125,000 meals would be provided because of the A-Lister, with her making similar donations as she made her way across 20 states.

Another food bank in Santa Clara, California, also thanked her for her donation with Swifties later helping to boost donations by up to 43 per cent.

However, this is just pocket change for the ‘Miss America’ star as she’s thought to earn a staggering $13 million (£10.6m) each night during her Eras Tour.

Forbes also estimates that Swift earned $92 million in 2022, meaning that her bank balance will have a major boost from the sell-out concerts.

To put that into context, her rumoured boyfriend and NFL star Travis Kelce earns just $12.3 million (£10.4m) per year playing for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Here’s hoping they don’t squabble over the bill after comparing bank accounts.