| Celebrities Will Not Give Red Carpet Interviews
Academy Awards show producer Gil Cates says the red carpet arrivals portion of the pre-show will be "truncated" this year.
Some Oscars watchers had speculated that the show might be canceled in light of an almost certain war with Iraq. That will not be the case, but Cates said things will be a little different for this year's ceremony.
"Keeping in mind the world situation, the Academy has elected to prepare a more sober pre-show and a scaled-back arrivals sequence," Cates said during a Tuesday afternoon news conference.
He said celebrities will not go through, as he puts it, the "business-as-usual" interviewing and photograph-taking familiar to television audiences from ceremonies in the past.
Cates said the celebrities will get out of their limousines and go directly through what's known as the "arrivals arch."
Cates said that many celebrities simply would feel uncomfortable, given the world situation, about doing some of the usual things.
He says there will be some pool television coverage of the arrivals, but that plans for that are still being formulated.
"We hope that everyone involved will understand that this change is being made in response to the critical situation in the Middle East and will help us make these changes work," Cates added.
Asked if there is a possibility that the show could be canceled, Academy President Frank Pierson said he wouldn't address the question at this time.
"We're preparing the show for Sunday. But we are all -- all of us in this room -- are at the mercy of the winds of war, and we just simply don't know," Pierson said. "We don't have enough information and we will be having our usual Friday afternoon press conference, and so we may know more then to address that question."
Cates said if he were a betting man, he would expect the show to go on.
The changes, he said, have "nothing to do with security. It just has to do with what I read, which was that celebrities just feel uncomfortable and worried."
Source: Louisville Channel | |
