After posting my git prompt shell snippets, someone pointed out on news.YC pointed out my daftness. All you need is the following in your .bashrc:
PS1 =
'$(git branch &>/dev/null;
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo "\[\033[00m\]{$(git branch | grep ^*|sed s/\*\ //)}";
fi)\$\[\033[00m\]'