BLink your Eyes!!

Some of us watch the Oscar presentations and other awards shows just to see the jewelry and fashions worn by the celebrities who attend. And of course the celebs never wear the same items twice. Have you ever wondered how they shop for the fashions and jewels they wear to awards ceremonies? They don't have to...

Many celebrities could afford to buy the jewels and fashions they wear, but they don't have to. Jewelry designers and dealers loan the pieces in order to gain visibility for their companies, and so do fashion designers. They allow celebrities to choose what they'd like to wear from the inventory the designer wants like to promote. Many of the designers work with multiple celebrities, so they must be careful not to duplicate an item.

The best score for a company is having their designs on an award winner. Think about it, if Rene Zellweger wins an Oscar she's front and center in a new gown. The hand that holds up Oscar might have a gorgeous ring on it. Close ups would show off a necklace or earrings. Any jewelry she's wearing will get attention.
Photos taken at the ceremonies and at parties afterwards will circulate for years—and not just photos of the winners, but of all of the popular celebrities who attend. Wouldn't you want your designs in that position?

Some companies have occasionally had problems getting their jewelry back, so now most of them require a signature that verifies the borrower knows the item is on loan—not a gift.

One person who loans jewels for awards shows is Michael Katz, a Beverly Hills jewelry designer and dealer. He has the reputation of being able to intuitively match people with jewels.

Harry Winston is a company that's been associated with celebrities since its beginnings, so you'll always see their pieces on those who are Oscar-bound. Another is New Yorker Fred Leighton, whose rings you see on the right hands of the Sex In the City ladies. Other famous and less well known designers are represented, too.

If a celebrity trend looks hot enough, costume jewelry companies will produce look-alike versions of many pieces. Remember the pink Ben and Jen diamond ring—how many spam emails did you get last year promoting one of those?

It's always interesting to see which designs are the most popular at the Oscars—will everyone wear similar pieces or will there be a huge variation in style? I'll definitely tune in to find out.

Every year, the well-publicized Academy Awards ceremony draws nationwide attention. People watch and read about the show not just to keep tabs on their favorites films, but to admire and critique the glamorous celebrity fashions. Clothing, cosmetics, hair styles, and (of course) jewelry worn to star-studded events like the Oscars can influence fashion trends for months or years to come.

It's not surprising that fashion designers are willing to make significant sacrifices to get their designs onto the bodies of celebrities who attend big events like the Oscars, Emmys, and the various music awards shows. In the fashion-marketing business, they call this a method of "product placement."

For years, the big fashion design houses have allowed celebrities to borrow their designs, free of charge, to wear to high-profile events. This allows stars to choose among various designs based on their own tastes (or the recommendations of their stylists). But this practice is becoming more rare with increased competition among designers - and huge design house budgets.

Today, popular celebrities are paid large sums of money by designers to wear certain designs to public events. So your favorite actress might not even like the high-priced necklace and earring set you see her wearing. She could be working a paid advertisement for a design house, even though she appears to be on her own free time.

Consider the luxurious little Chopard diamond earrings worn by Best Actress winner Hilary Swank at the 2005 Oscars. According to TimesOnline (London), Swank originally borrowed jewelry from jewelry Harry Winston for the event, but returned it after accepting an offer from Chopard to pay her an estimated $90,000 to wear its design instead.

(Or did this switch-a-roo happen at the earlier Golden Globes? The L.A. Times reports that both Swank and actress Charlize Theron returned their loaned Harry Winston jewels within 24 hours before they planned to wear them to the Golden Globes, reportedly receiving "6 figure checks" from Chopard to wear its designs to the event.)

Swank wasn't the only celebrity wearing Chopard on Oscar night, although its unclear whether other stars received similar compensation from the company. The list of Chopard wearers reportedly included Mary J. Blige, Natalie Cole, Nicolette Sheridan, Penelope Cruz, Star Jones Reynolds, and even Al Roker.

Lorraine Schwartz is another designer whose jewelry was worn by many celebrities at the 2005 Oscars. Her jewelry became a hot commodity after the 2002 Golden Globes, where it was worn by the popular Halle Berry. Schwartz's company, Lorraine E. Schwartz, Inc., now describes its client list as including "celebrities, fashionistas, and the social elite." (From a 2003 Lorraine E. Schwartz, Inc., press release.)

According to Schwartz, her "big break" came when celebrities chose to wear her designs; she did not pay them to do so. Schwartz now expresses concern that lesser-known designers will not have the opportunity to expose their designs to the stars, because they cannot compete financially with the wealthy design houses.

Writer Beth Moore of the L.A. Times shows similar concern in her beautifully-written summary of the new celebrity pay-to-wear practice. She calls it "the latest artifice of rigged pop culture [that] risks squeezing smaller designers out of the promotional game and could signal the end of seeing any real personal style in Tinsletown."

But smaller designers are not completely uninvolved in the glamour of Oscar night. A select few have their designs placed in some of the hundreds of gift bags (otherwise known as "Oscar baskets" or "hospitality bags") given to stars who attend the event.

These designers hope celebrities will choose to wear their jewelry some time after the awards show - and preferably be photographed wearing it. Even if celebrities give away their gifted jewelry and decide not to wear it, the publicity of having a design included in an Oscar bag provides a lot of publicity in itself.

Of course, there's always a catch. Designers are required to donate large amounts of jewelry for the bags, and typically each jewelry piece must have a substantial minimum value. For example, one company requires a donation of at least 250 pieces of jewelry, and that each piece be valued at a minimum of $500. Not many lesser-known designers can afford that kind of financial commitment and risk. But those who can often believe the opportunity for fame is well-worth the price.

Celebrity jewelry styles are now available at a discount! You've probably seen many celebrities and stars wearing thousands, sometimes millions of dollars worth of diamonds and precious stones to awards shows. Did you know that most of the time they don't even have to pay for those pieces? Designers and jewelers want their pieces to be seen by the public. Often they loan or gift jewelry to celebrities so their items get camera time and their name gets publicity.

What's fashionable in jewelry changes from season to season just like clothing, accessories, makeup and hair styles. Pay attention to celebrity styles on TV, in movies and fashion magazines to find out what's hot. Then look for these celebrity jewelry trends. The latest styles should be available to you at wholesale prices. From chandelier earrings to fabulously colorful brooches, all celebrity fashion jewelry can be beautiful, fun and affordable.

Hollywood Stars Mansion!!

Celebrity homes are big and beautiful with lush landscaping and big swimming pools. Game rooms and other amenities are often scattered throughout the premises to entertain guests and family. Some celebrity homes are upscale apartments. They prefer to live in a busy city in a high rise penthouse, overlooking the late night lights of a busy city. Either way, celebrities have the money, so they have the luxury. We offer many luxuries at a celebrities disposal when they decide to develop their home. Sometimes they have expensive art collections, in house recording studios, gold laced curtains, and in home movie theaters. Anything they want, they can usually get, and we mean anything.

When celebrities don't have to travel the globe, or "waste" time in 5-star hotels, they get to enjoy the lush comfort of home.

The irony of being a celebrity is that, even if you own a lot of beautiful homes, you probably don't get a chance to spend much time in any of them. Movie actors go on location, professional athletes go on the road, and rock stars go on tours, forcing them to be away from home for weeks or even months at a time.

After extended living out of hotel rooms--albeit pretty nice hotel rooms--the celebrities that make up the 2004 Forbes list of the Top 100 Celebrities can be forgiven for lavishing excessive amounts of money on their homes for the brief interludes when they are there. In some cases, celebrities may spend several million dollars just on the design of their homes, says Santa Monica, Calif.-based designer Monique Lafia, of Lafia/Arvin, who has had a fair number of celebrity clients.

"There usually isn't a budget," Lafia says. "They fall in love with things or the way something looks, and the budget isn't a concern."

Lafia/Arvin's design fees could easily cost between $50,000 (which might cover the renovation of one room) and $3 million. Lafia says the highest priority in celebrity homes right now is the media room, meant to use for private screenings.

"Everyone wants mini-theaters, and everything in the theater is always 'high-def' [high definition]," Lafia says. "Everything's high-def these days."

Celebrities don't just spend liberally on the design of their homes: They also spend significant sums of money on raw real estate, which may or may not last in their portfolio of homes. It's common for a celebrity to buy a home for several million dollars and upgrade a few years later to something more expensive. In comparison, according to the Federal Reserve, home ownership turnover for the average America is less than 10% annually.

Sometimes celebrities do decide to just stay put--in which case, they're like to gobble up the neighboring properties until their once-modest single-family home has been inflated into a gigantic estate, eating up several plots of land. Radio-show host Rush Limbaugh, for example, who made our list as the 20th most powerful celebrity, started collecting the real estate surrounding his West Palm Beach, Fla., house in 1996, and now he reportedly has amassed five lots, which collectively are appraised at upwards of $26 million.

Other celebrities start out big and live within their confines. Michael Jordan bought his Highland Park, Ill., mansion in 1999--his custom-built house is 25,000 square feet, with a basement theater and putting green--and he still hasn't grown out of it yet.

Every celebrity has different needs in different parts of the country. Billionaire Oprah Winfrey, who paid $50 million for an estate in Montecito, Calif., that wasn't even for sale, also has property in Hawaii and Chicago; until recently, she kept a home in Indiana as well, but it is currently on the market. When not on the road for her Fox (nyse: FOX - news - people ) television show The Simple Life, 23-year-old socialite Paris Hilton lives in a mansion while in California, but when in New York, she stays at her family's apartment in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel--which is owned by Hilton Hotels (nyse: HLT - news - people ), the company founded by Paris' great-grandfather Conrad Hilton in 1925.

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey can afford to keep real estate all over the country--and she does. The billionaire talk-show host has a 42-acre estate in Montecito, Calif.; she owns land in Maui, Hawaii; and she also lives in a duplex in Chicago. Oprah's Indiana country estate, appropriately called "The Farm," includes 160 acres of land, a five-bedroom 9,700-square-foot main residence, a guest house, a pool, a stable with ten box stalls, and an indoor and outdoor riding ring. The property is listed for $6.9 million with Jane Field of Koenig & Strey in Chicago.

Michael Jordan's suburban home in Highland Park (outside Chicago) may not have been so pleasant to live in over recent months. The former NBA player and his wife, Juanita, allege that several home-improvement manufacturers allowed moisture to get into their abode, which caused $2.6 million worth of mold damage. The house, which Jordan bought in 1999, is said to be more than 25,000 square feet, and it has a basement theater, a putting green and a basketball court. Naturally, the numeric address of the home is 23.

When word got out that film director Steven Spielberg might be divorcing his first wife Amy Irving in 1989, one of the first questions on most people's minds was whether Spielberg would sell his East Hampton, N.Y., house. He didn't. In fact, the property, which sits on exclusive Georgica Pond, is believed to be worth about $25 million. It had been an old barn, and although Spielberg invested heavily in renovating it, it still has stables on the property--most likely for his current wife, Kate Capshaw, who is a passionate equestrienne.

According to published reports, radio-show host Rush Limbaugh's Palm Beach estate started with the purchase of a modest $6.7 million oceanfront home in 1996. A couple of years later, he bought the northern property for $3.9 million, and in 1999 he bought a $1.2 million adjoining lot. Within months of that purchase, he bought another neighboring lot for less than a half-million dollars. Finally, he bought a neighboring property in 2000 for $2.3 million. Today his entire estate reportedly has an appraised value upwards of $26 million.

Although Julia Roberts' real estate transactions are closely monitored across the country (she is said to be building a massive "compound" in Malibu, Calif., and she also has several properties in Manhattan, including a Greenwich Village apartment listed for just under $5 million), one of her best-known properties may be her 51-acre Taos, N.M., ranch, where she married cameraman Danny Moder in a midnight ceremony on July 4, 2002.

Although former President Bill Clinton's offices are in Harlem, N.Y., he recently denied rumors that he's shopping for his own Manhattan apartment. Apparently, he prefers to commute back and forth to Chappaqua, N.Y., a small suburb in Westchester County that lies 35 miles north of Manhattan. In a town that has a population of less than 20,000, the Clintons are certainly conspicuous residents. Their home, a $1.7 million five-bedroom property, sits on 1.1 acres and is 5,200 square feet--presumably a wee bit of an adjustment after the White House.

On the first episode of the real estate-made billionaire's reality-TV show on NBC, The Apprentice, The Donald promises the winning team a chance to see the nicest apartment in New York, in one of the nicest buildings in the world--both of which happen to be his. Trump lives in the penthouse of one of his many eponymous high-rise buildings; the apartment, a triplex, is said to include 50 rooms.

The Hilton family--whose fortune was created by Conrad Hilton, founder of Hilton Hotels--naturally live in style wherever they go. Their home in Southampton, N.Y., which is currently on the market for $6.3 million, has deeded ocean access and enough room for a tennis court. Though Paris Hilton, 23, spends much time in Los Angeles, when she's in Manhattan, she stays at her family's apartment at the Waldorf-Astoria (owned by Hilton Hotels), located on Park Avenue and founded in 1893.

Celebrity Hollywood Cars

Revolutions in the auto industry are few and far between, so this year we are not surprised that the most expensive automobiles are, again, sports cars. A couple of premium sedans and SUVs appear here and there.

The average price of a vehicle has gone up to $351,000 from $341,000, an increase of 3 percent. Automakers increase the prices of blueblood automobiles to hedge against inflation, to compensate for disappointing sales or because they have added new features to the cars.

Sometimes the price increases seem like highway robbery. Saleen's S7, this year's most expensive car, costs $120,000 more than it did last year. According to Manhattan Motorcars, Saleen's New York dealer, the price hike is due to modifications to the S7's V-8 engine, whose horsepower is now up to 575 from 550. Assume for argument's sake that's the only reason for the extra $120K on the sticker, and we're talking about a cost of about $5,000 for each additional unit of horsepower. If Honda Motor charged $5,000 per horse, a high-end Civic would cost about $800,000.

Of course, you will realize how each car is aimed at buyers for whom money is as disposable as garbage. That's perhaps why the most expensive cars are sports cars: if you're going to throw away a ton of money, it had better be on something extremely fun.

You're not living large until you've got the "ride". Celebrities own the hottest machines on the road, from the blazing fast Lamborghini Countache, to the luxurious Bentley Arnage, to the big bad, Cadillac Escalade, these celebrity toys have people turning heads. We list celebrities super sport tuned motors loose for your drooling pleasure.

Fat Joe loves his Bentley Arnage so much, he showed up to his Sprint/Nextel commercial in it. One of celebrity elite vehicles on the road for it's superb craftsmenship, supreme comfort, and charged motor power, the Bentley Arnage shows off.

You may recognize Bam Margera from his stint on Jack-Ass and his own MTV show, Viva La Bam. You may also recognize Bam's orange Hummer H2. The one item seemingly industructable to Bam Margera's fury. No wonder the Hummer is growing into what it is today, A durable SUV, built to last, along with a cool looking design for the fashion friendly.

Celebrities advertise for cars and trucks all the time. Remember when Michael Jordan shared the television with the Cheverolet S-10. Chevy trucks were at their peak. Maybe that has something to do with lowering sales. Chevy trucks were good enough for Jordan, so they're good enough for any celebrity