Culture

Sundance's Stars: Adrian Grenier, Marisa Tomei, James Franco and More

January 25, 2010, 1:54 PM

PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 25, 2010  -- Red carpet fiestas and bags o' swag, low-budget films and no-frills screenings: Welcome to the dichotomy that is the Sundance film festival.

Sundance 2010, which kicked off Thursday in Park City, Utah, and runs through Sunday, is really what you make of it. You can be like Adrian Grenier or Joseph Gordon-Levitt -- learning about some of the most talked about films ("Catfish," "Cyrus") while promoting your own (Grenier's "Teenage Paparazzo," Gordon-Levitt's "Hesher").

Or you can be like former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star Ian Ziering. Festival-goers have seen the '90s actor making the rounds at Park City's many swag stations, snatching up bag after bag of free loot, such as Under Armour clothing, LG cell phones and Nexxus haircare products. Same goes for Jon Gosselin, who was spotted at the gift suites at Park City's Sky Lodge hotel, picking out Rebecca-brand jewelry for his new girlfriend, Morgan Christie.

Sundance founder Robert Redford said last week that he wanted to keep out Hollywood's red carpet happy hoi polloi such as Paris Hilton and bring the 32-year-old festival back to its original, rebellious roots. The former ain't happening. Over here, it's not a party until a D-list celebrity shows up at the door.

But the veteran star's other goal -- to get festival-goers to buck mainstream Hollywood's trends -- is coming to fruition. You're not going to find any "Avatar"-like behemoths here, just actors, actresses and filmmakers doing what they do best.

Below, check out what some of Sundance's most prominent attendees told ABC News Now's "Popcorn With Peter Travers," and check out ABCNews.com's Not Another Celebrity Gossip Blog for dispatches directly from the festival.

"Teenage Paparazzo" actor-director Adrian Grenier on befriending celebrity photogs for his documentary: "There's this base, animalistic drive to survive, to feed themselves. It's a layer of every human being. But I think there's another layer that's more thoughtful, that has ethical decisions to make. One side of the paparazzi that needs improvement is that ethical consciousness. On the other hand, the paparazzi, when you get to know them, they're us. They're human. They're charming, they're smart. I'm glad to have gotten to know them."