Congratulations, President Obama! I must admit my heart of stone did thaw a bit when I saw Barack Obama raise his right hand to be sworn in as 44th President of the United States yesterday. Mind you, I was on the treadmill at the gym, so it could have been a struggle for breath that I mistook for emotion. Or a minor heart attack.

Hollywood heavyweights fled New York and Los Angeles in force over the past few days to make their way to a very chilly Washington DC for the inauguration. Some are due to perform. Some were supporters of the Obama campaign right from the get-go. Others just seem to want to be present for the historic occasion. At any rate, it must be a rare occasion that celebrities are totally and utterly eclipsed by the presence of someone far more important than them. I bet that really irks some of them!

Oprah was there with long-time partner Stedman, and apparently bestie Gayle King is lurking round town somewhere as well. Denzel Washington turned up three hours early to secure a good vantage point for the proceedings. Beyonce and Jay-Z, long-time Obama supporters (and the feeling is mutual - Obama has said he's a big fan of Jay-Z) were snapped in the crowd, Jay-Z fending off the -11C chill with a Russian-style fur hat.

Beyonce was due to perform last night at one of the ten (ten!) inauguration balls that the Obamas will attend in the city, singing the Etta James classic ‘At Last' while the President and the First Lady take to the dance floor. The song was supposed to be kept a secret, but Beyonce blabbed several days ago. I bet she blames that slip of the tongue on Solange.

I know the inauguration is a dead serious occasion, but can you imagine how good it would be if the Obamas pretended to slow dance to ‘At Last' and then busted out the ‘Single Ladies' dance?

Awesome, that's how good. I bet Obama can dance too. I can only imagine George Bush doing the mashed potato.

Bruce Springsteen, Courteney Cox Arquette, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Whitney Houston, Diddy, Ben Affleck, Jessica Alba, Will.i.Am, Mike Tyson, Demi and Ashton, Ed Norton, Muhammad Ali, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony and Halle Berry have all been spotted in the capital to mark the occasion.

President Obama's inauguration (it's so nice typing President and not having to follow it with the letters B-U-S-H, hurrah!) even left the normally jam-packed Sundance Film Festival in Utah rather devoid of celebrity star power. Sure, there were some bona fide movie stars in the town of Park City - like Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor (swoon!) promoting their flick I Love You Phillip Morris. Someone keeps giving Mariah Carey movie roles, so she's there too. I do love seeing Mariah in her cold weather wardrobe. It seems her cleavage is impervious to chill.

Liam Neeson is there pushing his flick Taken (is that still not out in the US? It came out here last year!) and Pierce Brosnan, who was seen being accosted by The World is Not Enough co-star Denise Richards. Denise, who was last year voted the Worst Bond Girl of All Time by EW magazine, was rumoured to be trying to talk Brosnan into appearing on her reality show It's Complicated.

Otherwise, star spotters have had to make do with Paris Hilton, who doesn't come to town to promote anything, but leaves with the freebies, and Linda Hogan with her boyfriend-who-looks-like-her-son, who's probably doing the same. Ewwwww.

Amy proves quite the charmer

Amy Winehouse is showing no signs of calling her Caribbean holiday short and returning to London. Mind you, would anyone if they had the cash and the inclination? Hmmm, London in mid-January, or sitting on the beach in St Lucia with a rum cocktail? I know what I'd choose.

But Amy being Amy, being away from the hubbub of press doesn't mean she's making any fewer headlines. Her banged-up husband Blake has filed for divorce, she's had a very public holiday romance with wannabe actor Josh Bowman (anyone else think that's not a coincidence on his part?) and rumour has it now that Amy's found another bloke to focus her attentions on.

The Sun reports he's the tennis instructor at her resort.

I can't understand why so many guys would be falling all over Amy. I mean, she's a bit of a fright. I did an informal survey of guys (okay, my husband, brothers and dad, plus the guy that sits across from me at the office) and asked whether they'd find Amy Winehouse shag-worthy, and the answer was a united, unequivocal ‘Hell no!'

Amy's been joined on the island by her dad Mitch, who's always been quite keen on blabbing to the press about his wayward daughter. Mitch denies reports that Amy's been banned from service at the hotel bar and has had to resort to crawling around, nicking unfinished drinks of people's tables. Like any self-respecting booze hag! And some monkeys at holiday hotspots around the globe. Mitch dismisses photos of his daughter crawling around the hotel complex as "Amy playing horses."

Anything's plausible with the Wino, I suppose. But I choose to believe she was following the lure of sweet, sweet booze.

Tom struggles to make it work

Tom Cruise's new flick Valkyrie has been a modest success in the USA, but doesn't look set to fare so well in overseas territory. The flick, in which Cruise plays real-life Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who plotted to assassinate Hitler, has received a decidedly lukewarm response from German critics after premiering in Berlin.

The Colonel's family has also weighed in on the Cruise debate, which descendant Franz von Stauffenberg calling the actor ‘Too stiff, too short and too dull to play the real-life plotter.'

‘He tries to seem elegant but comes across as extremely stiff. He seems not at all decisive in the role and above all, not charismatic enough. On the whole he just seems too small,' the Daily Mail quotes von Stauffenberg as saying.

Ouch. That's not gonna help Tom get over his short man's syndrome in a hurry.

Reviews in the US have been mixed, with some media in support of the movie and some laying into Cruise - which admittedly, is probably a worldwide pastime. The AP called him "disturbingly bad," while USA Today referred to his performance as "unenchanting and stiff."

After the flop that was Lions for Lambs, Tommy Girl needs a hit. Would you go and see Valkyrie? I do like movies about Nazis and the Second World War. And the cast surrounding Cruise - Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard and Terence Stamp - is top-notch. But I don't like the idea of them all keeping their own accents, giving these particular German soldiers a collective cross-Atlantic drawl, and with the price of movie tickets heading steadily skywards I don't think I want to shell out my fifteen bucks for something that has a high chance of being a turd.

Valkyrie is released in New Zealand in February.

Spotted

Coleen Rooney paddling in the sea while on holiday in Barbados...A very pregnant Alyson Hannigan and husband Alexis Denisof on their way to a pilates class in LA...Tea Leoni and Billy Bob Thornton snapped together at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah...Ethan Hawke walking his dog in a snow-covered NYC...Zach Braff and Sylvester Stallone, not together, watching the LA Lakers take on the Cleveland Cavs...Paris Hilton at a photo shoot for FILA sportswear on an LA beach...Paul Walker, sans shirt, on holiday in Hawaii...Lily Allen walking through London wearing an extremely large fur hat...A bikini-clad Pamela Anderson on the beach in Malibu...Victoria Beckham leaving a Vogue Italia party in Milan...