Schnabel's services: priceless?

Somewhere in the crush and confusion that was Oscar Day, we missed the new MasterCard commercial that launched during the ABC telecast.

Why would any of us care about that?

Because in its quest to one-up itself, and on the 10th anniversary of its "Priceless" campaign, MasterCard and its ad agency have come up with an Academy Awards-reminiscent, "envelope, please"-themed game with "priceless" prizes.

One of those: a commissioned portrait by Oscar-nominated director Julian Schnabel.

Far be it from us to judge (oh, who are we kidding, we do that for a living) but we had to point out this co-mingling of the PJ-clad indie king/artist auteur with a corporate marketer contest. Head scratcher, no?

The Schnabel prize, dubbed "The Masterpiece," has this intro:

"Very few people have experienced the thrill of being a famous artist's muse, let alone one who is able to pack such raw emotion into every canvas he touches."

If you check out the site, you can watch a video for each of the prizes, which includes a trip to the Seven Wonders of the World. Alert: there are a few Not-Safe-For-Anybody indecencies in the Schnabel video. First, he's shirtless. Shirtless! And second, he's compared to Titian, Caravaggio and Goya. Don't say we didn't warn you.