Who said nothing in life is free?

This Friday the movie "A Good Year" will be released in theaters. It stars Russell Crowe who plays an investment banker from London who winds up in Provence attending to a small vineyard he inherited.

One of Crowe's main gadgets is the Palm Inc's Treo Smart Phone. This phone is not just used for calling people, but taking pictures, having video conferences, e-mailing, and even helps Crowe with some wine selections, all of which the Treo can do in real life.

For a placement this big companies usually pay thousands of dollars, however Palm Inc did not pay anything. The Treo got placed based on its reputation alone. Im curious if the script writers were given Treo phones to influence their decision or if this placement was done without any influence from Palm Inc what-so-ever. Either way, Palm Inc is receiving about 2 hours of a free commerical and word of mouth advertising. It doesn't get any better than that!