Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Brett Favre, and Ray Lewis in Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills, CA - The 82nd Annual Academy Awards, like the other Oscars before it, really sends this already moneyed place into a another gear. If you like people, glamour, beauty, good food, fine cars, entrepreneurs, movies, and the Oscars, Hollywood and Beverly Hills is for you. This is a place that - forgive this blogger's first time eyes - seems to not know it's an economic downturn.

Or more accurately, it doesn't want to get the bad news. It's a place where Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Minnesota Vikings QB Brett Favre, and Baltimore Ravens Linebacker Ray Lewis were spotted Thursday night (not by me but according to a source) at my new favorite place for steak: Maestro's Steakhouse. (And for anyone wondering, they don't sponsor this space, yet.)

What Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Brett Favre, and Ray Lewis were doing here in Beverly Hills during Oscar weekend was not known, but my source says that Ray Lewis has a house in the area. One guess is that celebrities get invited to the big parties that other celebs throw, so they go to them. That party was at an incredible eatery.

Wow, what an incredible rib-eye steak I had at Maestro's Steakhouse after having drinks, some with alcohol and some not, with my friend Paul Pollack and his wife. Paul was a regular at The Balboa Cafe in San Francisco where he met the woman who became his lovely wife over a decade ago. Now they have a little one and live outside California.

After they left for their next appointment, I enjoyed the best steak I've ever had in my life, and only the 22-ounce Alley Steak (off the menu at The Alley in Oakland) can match it, but not top it. That plus a bed of mashed potatoes, steamed spinach, and a great glass of merlot and that was it.

Coming here to work media for the Oscars is an experience best shared with someone. There's just too much to literally look at, from the newest Rolls Royce motorcars, to women with a lift here, a tuck there, and a tan - real and manufactured. There's a good and healthy number of people of color here and everyone mixes very well.

What's so funny is that people seem to look at each other as of they're on the constant watch for a celebrity, and the place is crawling with photogs. That's the funniest part of being here. But people do engage with each other - they talk.

Hollywood and Beverly Hills has a pulse and it's not because of the Oscars, but it gave birth to The Oscars. I'm not one to want to live here as the urban design is not something I can embrace, but this part of LA, for anyone who's a pop culture junky like this blogger, is intoxicating.

Stay tuned.