Vonage - What's In This Year's Oscar Goodie Bag?

February 27, 2006

By Bill Zwecker

Oscar show presenters and performers don't get a fat paycheck for their efforts, but the luxury "goodies" given them instead by the Motion Picture Academy likely excite the actors just as much.

"It's better than Christmas," a former Oscar presenter told the Sun-Times on Friday, requesting anonymity. "They really go out of their way to find gifts to impress people that are not easily impressed."

Though officially called a "gift bag," the collection of luxe presents are actually a series of certificates the recipients later turn in for various prizes.

The guideline is pretty simple: No individual gift can be valued for less than $500. The overall value of the 2006 "gift bag" is estimated to surpass $100,000.

Here's a selection of some of the items we know the presenters and performers will receive for their efforts on March 5 at the 78th annual Academy Awards:

*The most expensive item is a $25,000 luxury package from one of the world's most exclusive resorts, the Halekulani Hotel on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. That includes a four-night stay in the resort's 2,135-square-foot Vera Wang Suite, with 24-hour butler service and items the guest can take home from Vera Wang's gift, bath and acessories collections. Also included is a signature treatment at the hotel's spa, dinner for two at Hawaii's only 5-star restaurant, La Mer at Halekulani.

*The least expensive item in the gift bag is $600 in products for a coffee lover -- a Krups XP4050 Premium Pump espress machine and coffee products from the illy coffee company.

*There's the "Unlimited Card" (worth $2,500) from the Cornelia Day Resort on New York City's Fifth Avenue, including a $500 facial, massages, a whole range of beauty products and an entire day of beauty treatments.

*Vonage, the broadband phone company, is giving the Academy Award participants its new VTech Expandable Broadband phone system (worth $550).

*Rosewood Hotels & Resorts has put together a $2,300 Oscar basket package that includes two nights in a large suite at New York's famed Carlyle Hotel.

*Those Oscar show participants will be made to feel cozy, as well. Frette, the famous Italian linen house, is giving them its Voyage throw -- a leather-trimmed cashmere travel blanket, valued at $1,495.

*There's something of a Chicago connection to the Oscar "gift bags" this year. Morton's steakhouse is offering each presenter and performer the opportunity to host an exclusive dinner party in Morton's Private Boardroom, available at any of their 69 restaurants around the world. The value of that package is $1,500.

While this wasn't included in the gift bags, the Glenlivet Scotch whisky firm made an unusual offer to the best actor and best supporting actor nominees for 2006. Noting that much attention is always paid to the what the women wear to the Academy Awards, the Glenlivet people decided to hook up with Kinloch Anderson, tailor and kiltmaker to Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and Prince Charles. Glenlivet has provided a full Scottish outfit -- including kilt, jacket, sporran and accessories -- custom made for the nominees, including Heath Ledger, Terrence Howard and David Strathairn.

There's no word on whether the gentlemen being honored March 5 will show up in their kilts!