Oscar Swag Goes Undercover & Green

Luxurious Swag is usually a star magnet. But these days snagging the swag involves more cloak and dagger skulduggery while wearing a top ten Tim Gunn essential black belted trench coat. Grumpy Uncle Sam Scrooge is peeping in bags and boxes to see how much to charge the hapless star holding the gifted Prada. Hollywood's tumultuous writers strike helped stop the surfeit of swag style parties as award shows were potential casualties of the producers versus the writers economic star wars, leaving many projects bleeding red ink on everything they touched. Swaggy newcomer, The Indiana Jones Bullwhip, just provides too much opportunity for flogging...

The Writer's Strike is over, but the repercussions live on. Is it a recession, a change in values, a new political and social climate or just a bump in the red carpet? Only time will tell.

Until then, we can tell you what we saw this weak suites week. In Hollywood, the land of wretched excess, perhaps less may be better. There were fewer, more scaled down suites than in previous years and much harder to get in to. Yet, the few we swept through still had the film festive vibe in the air.

Local papers like to brag about swag from their areas that gets put in THE bag. Its an economic boost to businesses far away from the blingin' hills of Hollywood. It also shows a diversity of product coming from a variety of sources touting innovation outside of the regular star chamber. From Sarasota, Florida comes children's organic fashions - brand spanking new twin mommy J. Lo are you listening - a fierce dedication to chic green for the kiddies. Worth two Benjamin$ from Tulsa are unique named bangettes which are bags with feathers and other accoutrements for the terminally hip. Even a spa in Connecticut is massaging their way into Oscar glory.

Pooches and pooty cats are cleaning up in this year's swag race. Unilateral disarmament on obtaining spoils of celebrity by getting one's goods in the bags will not happen anytime soon as hot star of the moment effect happens when they are wearing a unique piece or photographed reading a book. There are distribution channels, certain influences or tipping points or persons to establish relationships with and marketing of goods that great entrepreneurs follow to compete enthusiastically for the place amongst all the goodies even if its at the bottom of the gift basket.

Celebrity attendees were invited to fill green gift bags full of such gratis goodies as jewelry from Alyse Ziede and Heather Hyde, bottles of Icelandic Glacial H20, desserts from Nothing Bundt Cakes and watches from Curtis and Co.

There were even some goodies for pampered celebrity pooches and kitties, including accessories and clothes from John Paul Pet, Happy Go Lucky Dogs and K9 Duds.

Prep continues at a frenzied pace as OSCAR gets the super statue spray tanned treatment in a shimmery gold filigree. Those presenting on stage on Sunday will garner the best swag bags. Many stars regift the bags and the goodies inside this year are a reflection of our concerns for the environment, desire for the unique and love of bling. I honestly think those that lucky enough get the rare Suzy Birstein pitchers are keeping them and hiding them. Academy Master of Ceremonies, Jon Stewart, gets one and only one.

On the night in question here are some picks of the movies actually up for Academy Awards. I like these very much. This is bling to have:

La Vie En Rose (2007) or the wonderful George Clooney in Michael Clayton
& Denzel Washington in American Gangster

Savvy Superstar Supports Rock Star Obama

Oscar winner, George Clooney, displays his political savvy on a multitude of intractable issues. His straightforward endorsement of Barack Obama for president comes amidst the release of his new film at the prestigious Venice Film Festival. Clooney who knows a tad about fawning adulation notes Obama's rock star status.

"You’ve been in a room once in a while with a rock star. He walks into the world and he takes your breath away. I’d love him to be president, quite honestly,” Clooney told a group of international reporters at the Venice Film Festival, where the legal thriller Michael Clayton in which he stars premiered last night.

Clooney, who banked a check for Obama at a private 1.3 million US dollar (£645,000,) fundraiser in Beverly Hills, California, in February, praised the US senator from Illinois for displaying courage in 2003 by writing “a piece saying how stupid going into that war was going to be”.

Skip the hunk fluff. Clooney is more interesting because of his dexterity with other real world subjects. He has long-range environmental and foreign policy vision plus a heavy investment in fuel cell technologies. Clooney also takes an avid interest into the local and national politics of Italy because he owns a home on, not in, Lake Como. Most of all, he is interested in American politics because Obama had the sense of the stupidity of a War in Iraq in 2002 and said so aloud. Good and proven Judgment matters in an age where incompetence dominates American politics as many Democrats aided and abetted the Iraq Debacle.

Hollywood stars often campaign for presidential candidates to varying degrees of success. Clooney says he would endorse Obama and promise to not go anywhere near Obama, if it would help him win the White House. Now that's a superstar Hollywood pal. Next week, alongside a wedding contretemps, A-List Hollywood, including George Clooney, are turning out in droves for mega media mogul's Oprah's Celebration for Barack Obama.

Clooney's choice of films mirrors his interests. He acknowledges the Academy Award nominated Syriana and Good Night & Good Luck are reactions to the tyrannical policies of the republican messes in American politics. They are both excellent keepsake films with Syriana providing a formidable contextual montage for the systemic issues involving the Middle East & US politics based on a book by the CIA's Bob Baer.