GM and the Oscars -- What are you riding in?

Ahh the Oscars- an event renown as the 'apex of art' in film-making.  With a reputation for liberal mindedness and the world stage, why not show your "green" when it comes to the car you ride in?

General Motors decided to take full advantage of the green scene at this year's 80th Annual Academy Awards. The company will feature 75 "fuel friendly" vehicles in a staging area near the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

Although nothing's yet confirmed, stars such as George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Laura Linney, and Daniel Day-Lewis may end up stepping out of one of these vehicles on their way to the red carpet.

This, of course, is only a small piece of a larger vision GM has launched to spread the word about their fleet of environmentally conscious cars, trucks and SUV's in Hollywood. They did the same at the Grammy awards -- see the photo above of Cyndi Lauper on the Chevrolet Volt concept.

Chevy also joined Disney with "Chevy Rocks the Future." The program has been using a website and sweepstakes to entertain, engage, and educate the "generation neXt" of students and Hollywood personalities by introducing them to GM's environmental solutions and technologies as well as Chevy's gas-friendly to gas-free vehicles.  The highlight of the program was an event on Tuesday, February 19, featuring a live performance by the Jonas Brothers, the teen sensations from the Disney Channel series "Hannah Montana," with fellow Disney star Jordan Pruitt opening the concert.

The challenge to GM is to now actually build the "Concept Chevy Volt," their much publicized green vehicle which can be configured to run on electricity, gasoline, E85 or biodiesel.  That would putting their money where their marketing mouth is.

-Josh Hancock