Sundance Diary: Featuring Celebrity Guest Blogger Elle Fanning!

Hey, kids. I'm posting this direct from EW headquarters on Main Street, where the Fanning family has just arrived to drench us all in cute. And of course, seeing Elle Fanning (pictured at Sunday's premiere of The Nines) in the flesh isn't helping me get over my obsession with The Nines any -- WHY HASN'T ANYONE BOUGHT THIS YET -- and now I'm being swept back into that world, all those rich colors and the warm humor of Melissa "Sookie" McCarthy and the abs of Ryan Reynolds and the way the last instant exploded into my stomach and made me remember why we live, why we put up with all this, excuse my French, bullcrap... jeez, I can't say enough about that damn movie.

OH! PopWatchers, get excited... I'm gonna pass the mike to a very special guest...

"hey i'm elle fanning. Yesterday I went skiing for the first time and it was the funnest thing I have ever done!!!!!! Picabo Street and Jonna Mendez taught Dakota and I. I would love to come back to Utah again!!!"

Okay, that kid types faster than I do. Anyway, we're having fun here right now, which is making me feel better because I had a rough morning. You're gonna kill me, but I didn't get up in time for Grace is Gone. I guess that's what I get for blogging until 5 a.m. and thinking I'm going to make a 9 a.m. movie. Sigh. I'll try and catch it again before I go. But that's Sundance in a nutshell: The best laid plans, etc, etc. It's still pretty freakin' stressful, even though I think I've got the rhythm down.

So let's stop talking about this frantic race to see every movie ever (and the desperate hunt for a shuttle bus in the dead of night when something is starting in five minutes but is a 10-minute drive away) and instead talk about famous people and free stuff and parties. This part is not bad. On Friday, EW's Missy Schwartz and I hit a bunch of style suites, scoping out the swag and which celebs were picking up what swag. We didn't see a whole lot. Matisyahu picked up some Snow Joggers boots for his wife. Nick Nolte's people pretty much clubbed us over the head to get to the Lacoste shirts. Molly Shannon, according to what she said while some autograph hounds were taking her picture, really enjoyed her massage at the American Eagle spa. (I'll get the inside scoop on those first-hand on Wednesday, ahem.) The whole thing is kind of gross, I'll admit -- and more and more we're getting the sense from the celebs that they don't want to be tied to the swag process in any way, because it's just so gauche. (Blame Edward Norton.) You gotta wonder, then, given this sea change in the way people perceive "gifting," how long this concept is going to live on. There's already a style suite that's set up a mail-order process so the stars don't have to be seen toting giant bags of stuff and can just have it shipped to their home. Still tacky, but more stealthy, I guess. But the mystique of the shopping spree lives on, and all up and down Main Street, plenty of non-famous people are clamoring for whatever they can get. In fact, one of them actually posed as Missy Schwartz in order to get pants. I am not kidding. It was brilliant.

As for what I picked up, I'd like to thank the nice people at Hanes for the most comfortable underwear ever. Was that too personal? Eh, deal. I feel very close to all of you. And now I gotta run for a bit and do some interviews for Adrift in Manhattan. Will be back soon with party coverage. And maybe I'll talk Billy Baldwin into guest blogging. Hold your breath!