Caption This
Posted on 03/21/2003 6:52:19 PM PST by Chi-townChief
LOS ANGELES--They rolled up the red carpet Thursday morning on Hollywood Boulevard, and took down the bleachers where the fans scream every year at the arriving stars. Oscar circled its wagons as war clouds loomed over the Academy Awards.
In other years, the red carpet ritual is the glittering curtain-raiser to the Oscars, as stars emerge from limousines and are interviewed on their way into the ceremony. Not this year, as the Academy canceled the pre-show and put itself on wartime rationing.
There were rumors that the Oscars themselves, scheduled for Sunday, might be postponed. Even before the first bombs dropped Wednesday, actor Will Smith quietly withdrew as a presenter--not for political reasons, he said, but because he felt uncomfortable appearing, "in view of the world situation." Peter Jackson, director of best picture nominee "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," canceled his trip from New Zealand because he was afraid of being marooned by canceled flights. Aki Kaurismaki, director of the foreign film nominee "The Man Without a Past," said he could not attend while the United States was committing "a crime against humanity."
Whatever the reasons given by the dropouts, they added up to a dilemma for the Academy: If there are enough cancellations, does there come a turning point when a pall settles over the Oscars, and Hollywood loses the spirit to carry on?
One industry insider told me that a post-production house working on footage for the Oscarcast had been told to stop work for the day; in an ordinary year, it would have been told to work all night, if necessary. Is that an omen that the footage won't be needed? An announcement one way or the other was expected from the Academy this morning.
Some remained optimistic. The Academy's press office continued to issue plastic-laminated credentials to reporters Thursday, although one staffer said they'd been ordered to triple-check IDs. Wolfgang Puck, the celebrity chef who prepares the feast for the Governors' Ball following the awards, was upbeat as he surveyed luncheon diners in his Vert restaurant, upstairs in the Kodak Center. "We are still going ahead with our plans," he said. "I've heard nothing of cancellations."
The logistics involved in rescheduling the Oscars are almost unthinkable. The theater, the stars, the TV production, the whole nine yards, would have to be reassembled at a later date. Front-running films booked in thousands of theaters would have to open without ads boasting of their Oscars. And what future date could be guaranteed free of war and terrorism?
Yet there was a curious feeling in the air here late Thursday that Hollywood was losing its heart for the Oscars. There was already one American-sponsored event on the world's television screens, and the Oscars just didn't seem like good counter-programming.
E-mail Roger Ebert at answerman@suntimes.com
Once again, we see Roger Ebert brooding in a dark theatre, his snout deep in a bucket of greasy popcorn.
I'm really hoping that the surrender of Baghdad will be announced just as the Oscar program is about to start but that's probably pushing things. A successful Oscar program, though, could feature all of our wonderful "celebrities" going up to the microphone and saying what a great country this is, how wonderful it is to be an American, and how appreciative they are of our armed forces fighting for freedom, our own and others.
Me, I'm going to give the show a pass. There's something much more compelling to watch. It's called real life - you should try it some time. This week's episode is the freeing of a people held in bondage for decades. You don't know what you're missing.
"I'm square, you're not."
You're good!
Beautiful evocation of Ebert
LOL! Does he realize how few of the Hollywood bimbos wanted our troops to fight? If Hollywood wants the oscar show, let them pay for their own security ---ironically against their own side, possible terrorists and other leftists.
And isn't it a shame that actors in WWII actually did know their parts in the war movies, because they had been there and done that already.
Dear God!
I wish Jim would lift the ban on cursing for about 60 seconds and I'd tell you what I think of that.
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