By Jason Korsner

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, but if you're a member of the Hollywood elite, recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar nomination, not only do you get a free lunch, but a goody-bag too.

More than a hundred and forty nominees turned up for this year's Nominees' Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, to enjoy a slap-up meal of smoked salmon, chicken and sorbets, at one of the more informal events of the Oscar calendar, or at least that's how it's billed. But from the huge number of international press and fans, it seems every bit as formal as any other event.

One by one, huge black limousines pull up at the sheltered entrance to the hotel, with expectant paparazzi, professional autograph hunters, film fans and lucky tourists waiting to see which of their favourite stars are about to appear from behind the blacked out windows. With so many nominees and so few of them recognisable stars, more often than not, the opening of the doors is greeted with a disappointed sigh, but when the likes of Will Smith appear - with his equally famous wife Jada Pinkett Smith - the screams are deafening. Whether it's photographers calling 'To your left, Mr Smith. Second row!' or fans begging for autographs, you can't hear yourself think.

Both outside the hotel and inside the lobby, publicists allow their stars a few poses for the non-accredited photographers and a few autographs for the fans, before whisking them into the ballroom for the official photographs, media interviews and of course, lunch, beyond the view of the public. Some of the first timers, like Dreamgirls' Jennifer Hudson, allow themselves to bask in the glory a little longer, as for them, it's still fresh and fun - for the old pros like Clint Eastwood, bounding straight inside without even stopping isn't unusual. But his co-producer on Letters from Iwo Jima, Steven Spielberg, was more friendly to the crowds than I've ever seen him.

The likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg certainly got the crowds going this year - both of them stopping to greet their fans and even posing for photographs with them. So, plenty for the young girls to scream at, but less so for the young men - Kate Winslet was a no-show, and elegant as she is, Dame Helen Mirren, bless her, is regrettably no longer really pin-up material.

Although most people turned up just to see the big names, the event honours nominees in all of the less prominent categories. If you don't know who they are, everyone in attendance - even the biggest stars - have to wear black name badges, saying who they are and why they've been nominated. One interesting case in point was Davis Guggenheim, the director of the environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth. When he first arrived, most people didn't realise who he was and were more interested in photographing and meeting his wife, the actress Elizabeth Shue - formerly an Oscar nominee herself, for Leaving Las Vegas.

Hang around for long enough and you can catch the stars on their way out too. Some exit by the back doors, but those who leave the way they came in tend to be more relaxed, without the hustle and bustle of the formal press to deal with. They're now more inclined to stop and chat with fans. Forest Whitaker even had a joke with some of the professional autograph hunters - year after year, the same burly blokes turn up with boxes of photos of actors and whip out the relevant ones to get as many signed as possible, so that they can sell them on eBay. 'I've already done you twice!' he said to one hopeful, pushing real fans out of the way to try to get a third signed. They might all be pampered stars, but they're not stupid and their not thoughtless. Last year, Reese Witherspoon threatened to stop signing autographs unless the professionals stopped squeezing a couple of elderly women at the front.

With all the clamour over these stars, it's sometimes easy to forget that the reason they are here because they are - in a sense - artists. They've all worked hard to manipulate our emotions with moving images. But at moments like these, no-one really cares how good the films were or which were the best - people just want to see the celebrities at about the closest quarters they would get outside a premiere.

The lunch out of the way, it's just three more weeks of hard campaigning and nail biting before the big ceremony in Hollywood.

END

(c) Jason Korsner 5 Feb 2007