Spring Break
Glitz and glamour
Critics favor 'The Aviator' for Best Picture Oscar
Eric Gagnelius
Issue date: 2/24/05 Section: Showcase
The Academy Awards attracts 43.5 million viewers for the country's oldest awards show. Hollywood's brightest stars are set to emerge once again from the seclusion of their high-security mansions to pay tribute to the world of cinema at the 77th annual Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars. The Los Angeles event will air live on Sunday, on ABC.
Tuxedoed men and scantily-clad women will run a red-carpet gauntlet of questions from the likes of Star Jones and nip-and-tuck queen Joan Rivers. Once inside the new Kodak Theatre, the rich and famous will endure a new barrage of witty insults, courtesy of first-time host Chris Rock.
The producers of the three-hour extravaganza have pinned their hopes for a younger audience on the coattails of Rock, who will tone down his controversial, profanity-laced humor for the event.
There's a nifty fail-safe, just in case, in the form of a seven-second delay of the live broadcast, upped from last year's five seconds. Producers are taking no chances with Rock, who already has started the buzz with comments made during a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. He called the awards show "idiotic" and claimed no straight black man would watch it.
Junior Sean Tallant disagreed. "I think the Oscars are cool, because you learn about good movies that might not make it to Eau Claire theaters," he said. "Watching famous people make asses of themselves is fun, too."
The Academy Awards show is no stranger to controversy - that's part of its appeal. In 1972, Marlon Brando declined to accept his Oscar for best actor in protest of the Vietnam War.
Just two years ago during an acceptance speech, Michael Moore said, "We have a fictitious president ... from a fictitious election," before he was booed from the stage.
For the few men and women nominated for an Academy Award, though, it's worth enduring the controversy, egos, long-winded speeches and technical awards; it's even worth that excruciating moment when nominees' faces are shown as the winner's name is read, so that everyone glued to their TVs at home can watch the losers try to hide their disappointment.
Tuxedoed men and scantily-clad women will run a red-carpet gauntlet of questions from the likes of Star Jones and nip-and-tuck queen Joan Rivers. Once inside the new Kodak Theatre, the rich and famous will endure a new barrage of witty insults, courtesy of first-time host Chris Rock.
The producers of the three-hour extravaganza have pinned their hopes for a younger audience on the coattails of Rock, who will tone down his controversial, profanity-laced humor for the event.
There's a nifty fail-safe, just in case, in the form of a seven-second delay of the live broadcast, upped from last year's five seconds. Producers are taking no chances with Rock, who already has started the buzz with comments made during a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. He called the awards show "idiotic" and claimed no straight black man would watch it.
Junior Sean Tallant disagreed. "I think the Oscars are cool, because you learn about good movies that might not make it to Eau Claire theaters," he said. "Watching famous people make asses of themselves is fun, too."
The Academy Awards show is no stranger to controversy - that's part of its appeal. In 1972, Marlon Brando declined to accept his Oscar for best actor in protest of the Vietnam War.
Just two years ago during an acceptance speech, Michael Moore said, "We have a fictitious president ... from a fictitious election," before he was booed from the stage.
For the few men and women nominated for an Academy Award, though, it's worth enduring the controversy, egos, long-winded speeches and technical awards; it's even worth that excruciating moment when nominees' faces are shown as the winner's name is read, so that everyone glued to their TVs at home can watch the losers try to hide their disappointment.
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