If you are looking to hobnob with the once and future famous, CES (News - Alert) -- more specifically, the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show -- brings out celebs of all shapes and sizes to promote new products at the annual January event.   Where else will you find Dennis Rodman promoting a new VoIP product, Gary "Baba Booey" Dell'Abate and John Hein of the Howard Stern show hosting a Mobile Apps Showdown, and Eliza Dushku serving as the Ambassador for the show's Entertainment Matters program?

Paltalk (News - Alert), boasting more than four million active members, lays claim to be the world's largest video chat community. Rodman, an NBA Hall of Fame basketball legend with five championship rings, will launch Paltalk's new FireTalk product. Users will be able to get unlimited calling and texting around the world on any mobile platform through Firetalk, according to the press announcement inviting people to show up at the Paltalk booth on January 12.

Dell'Abate and Hein, staff members on the Stern show, will be the guest emcees of the Mobile Apps Showdown. Ten app producers will be pitted against each other during the event. Each team will have two minutes to demo its app, with an applause-o-meter to measure audience enthusiasm to determine the winners. Two winners will be selected, one will be based on the live vote and the other based on online voters.

Last year's winners of the showdown were VoIP app/service Line2 (offered by Toktumi (News - Alert)) and the Drive Safely SMS text to speech application by iSpeech.  Finalists who will participate in the showdown on January 12 include the Magisto video app, Macaw health care program, SkyQ astronomy app, and a car remote-start app from VIPER.

If mobile apps aren't your thing, actress Eliza Dushku -- with roles in TV series including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Tru Calling," and "Dollhouse," plus movie and video game credits on her resume-- will be running around at CES. Her duties include contributing to Spike TV's "CES All Access Live" broadcast coverage throughout the show and will also host the network's "exclusive VIP CES party" at Tryst Nightclub. 

One person you won't see having a high profile at CES after this year is Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (News - Alert).   Microsoft has delivered the opening keynote at the show for 14 years, but the company says it doesn't need CES since it no longer conduct product launches in conjunction with the event. So no Microsoft execs and no more memorable (NOT!) products like Windows Media Center Extender Technology, SPOT gadgets, Windows Home Server, and Windows Phone (News - Alert) 7.