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KTLA The WB | Where Los Angeles Lives | Bake Sales Go Strictly Black Tie: "Bake Sales Go Strictly Black Tie

Elite academies have elevated fundraising to high art in order to tap well-heeled parents.

By Carla Rivera, Times Staff Writer

May 21, 2006

How much would you ante up for a private poetry reading by the stars of the television hit 'Desperate Housewives,' a walk-on role in a Will Ferrell movie or tickets to the 'American Idol' finale, offered by Idol judge Randy Jackson?

These were some of the items up for auction recently at fundraisers held by a few of Los Angeles' most elite private schools, where one-of-a-kind gifts elicit furious bidding wars among parents already paying sky-high tuition."

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