By Stephanie DuBois Luxury tax be damned! Annette Bening, Lisa Kudrow, Jeremy Piven and James Gandolfini were among the recipients of one of the hottest items at HBO's Luxury Lounge at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. For years found only in chi-chi boutiques in Vail, Aspen and the Grand Cayman Islands, Ammolite is cracked up to be the most rare and precious stone in the world and has been called "the Sleeping Beauty of the gem world" by the Discovery Channel.

The almost otherworldly looking stone comes from 75-million-year old fossils and captures the complete spectrum of the rainbow, shimmering like the Northern Lights. Korite, the owners of the world's only Ammolite mine in Alberta, Canada, offered Ammolite and silver pendants featuring the Chinese characters for happiness, wealth and longevity as well as the "Cinta Manichakra, which represents "God of Goodwill" in the ancient language of the first Buddhist. Thank you very much!

However, special pieces were designed for nominees Bening, Kudrow, Piven and Gandolfini. For Annette, a large Ammolite stone encircled by gold filaments with beautiful diamonds floating within. Ms. Bening had the option of wearing it on the gold piece it comes on or hanging it on a string of pearls. Kudrow's pendant was a column of Ammolite with white and yellow gold that could also be used as a pearl enhancer. For Jeremy Piven they designed something young and hip that even his "Entourage" character, Ari Gold, might sport - an arrow-shaped piece of Ammolite inspired by the Egyptian arrow of the Pharaohs in white gold and black leather. And for Mr. Big Stuff himself, "The Soprano's" James Gandolfini, a beautiful oval shaped Ammolite stone set in a 14 karat gold ring.

"It's the largest stone we've set in a ring," said Korite rep, Ken Oschipok, adding that the Ammolite line ranges from a few hundred dollars to around $10,000.

"Ammolite is magical," said Helen Mirren, who was nominated and won for "Elizabeth 1." "Elizabeth the 1st would like all of this. Next time you see me photographed I will be wearing it."

Debra Messing was wowed by the beautiful pendant she received. "I am going to cry," she said. "It's so spectacular. I can't get over the colors." And, of course, native Canadian Howie Mandel couldn't help but quip, ""Cool Canadian gem like me."

Also among the hot ticket items for the celeb crowd that included Cheryl Hines, Bill Maher, Beverly D'Angelo, Henry Simmons, Jean Smart, Powers Boothe, Lorraine Bracco were the increasingly popular Elaine Turner bags that have been worn by Debra Messing and Jennifer Aniston and featured as must-haves in such magazines as Elle, Gloss and Marie Claire. The Dallas, TX, based designer is known for using such exotic leathers as ostrich, croc and python. Turner's bags range from $275 to around $1,000, pretty reasonable by most celebrity standards actually. Jennifer Morrisson from House took a Elaine Turner Python clutch to wear to the Emmys. Jaime Lynn Sigler decided it was too hard to choose because "all the bags were so beautiful," so she took two of each, one for her and one for her girlfriend.