Our tech reporter's off to the L.A. premiere of Sin City, jockeying for a nanosecond of face time with Hollywood’s A-list.

So I had a hardtop. With a decent engine. And in that big trunk, I had stuffed a fistful of shiny new tech schwag.

Yeah, I was off to the L.A .premiere of Sin City, jockeying for a nanosecond of face time with Hollywood’s A-list among a crowd of similarly desperate cable hacks. I had two distinct advantages, as I saw it: one, I’m a good head taller and 50 pounds heavier than most of my colleagues; and two, I came with props. When an actor’s worked a press line all evening, answering the same inane questions about researching his role, looking to the Sin City graphic novels for inspiration, and "who are you wearing?" maybe the grinning geek with his arms full of gadgets will come off as a pleasant diversion.

It didn’t work in every case (hi, Rutger Hauer!). But for the most part, the famous faces looked kindly on this week’s crop of high-tech goodies:

ThinkGeek’s Tiki God USB memory drive was a hit with the smart set, particularly the sweetly avuncular Jon Voight.

Nobody–-not Benicio Del Toro, not Michael Clark Duncan, not even the indescribably lovely Brittany Murphy–-could resist the siren song of Epson’s L500V digital camera.

While not technically a portable, the Yahoo Micro DVD player comes in a comfy pocket size.

Michael Madsen was the first guy all evening to get the joke behind the DVD Rewinder.

And finally… It’s no surprise that Sin City director Robert Rodriguez was already hip to the PSP–“Yeah, I got one for each of my kids!” And, come to think of it, even less of a surprise that Rutger Hauer could not give a rat’s ass about it.

And not for nothing, but… I think Brittany Murphy digs me.