Inside the Oscar Swag Bag

As you know, the Academy Awards aired this month.  And one story adding to the Oscar buzz is the "swag bag" presented to nominees. It tends to be as eccentric as the vintage designer gowns, spectacular jewelry and killer after-parties. Although the Academy allows the presence of "celebrity retreats", companies are not allowed to publicize the products presented to nominees until after the awards are handed out. And with good reason: this year's bag is estimated to be worth over $100,000. That's way more money than most of us make a year!

 Gadgets included in the bag, according to PC Magazine, were the iPod Video, a Blackberry 8700, Canon PowerShot SD30, and the Firefly phone for kids. Motorola was a bit more exclusive and presented nominees in the directing and acting category with a special-edition PEBL phone in a gunmetal-finish (which is not available to the general public), with three years of service and the new H700 Bluetooth headset.  But the most outlandish blinged-out piece of gear came from Kodak, which presented all five Best Actress nominees with a $20,000 Easyshare V570 camera. The dual-lense camera itself is only worth about $400, but what added to it's value were the 75 Kwiat Diamonds that personalize the camera with each of the actress' initials (Reese Witherspoon's edition is pictured here). And that, folks, is how A-listers get their iced-out gear.