By Steve Pond at TheWrap
Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:34pm EST
The stage of the brand new theater caught fire. The announcer walked off. The network demanded to know what was going on. The smoke alarms kept triggering. The budget soared out of control. Russell Crowe was a jerk. Will Smith went home halfway through the ceremony. Nipples showed. And the show went on and on and on, until it shattered all existing records for the longest Oscar show ever.
That was the Academy Awards 10 years ago. It also happened to be one of the most creative and historic Oscars of recent years, a crazy triumph snatched from the jaws of catastrophe by the late producer Laura Ziskin, who was suicidal after Friday night’s rehearsal and jubilant (if exhausted) after Sunday’s show.
The 74th Oscars was the first show in the theater inaugurated as the Kodak. It had just been built for the Academy and definitely had some bugs that needed to be ironed out.
Also read: Oscar's in Desperate Need of Surprises -- Here's Where They Could Come From
It was the first one after 9/11, which meant finding a tone of both remembrance and celebration. It was the first for Ziskin, who was also in the homestretch with the first Spider-Man movie. And it was the first and only Oscar appearance for Woody Allen, whose booking to introduce a film package about New York City was kept so secret that at one point an ABC executive stormed into Ziskin’s office demanding to know why she was wasting so much time on Nora Ephron. (Ephron made the film that Allen introduced—and to keep Woody’s appearance a secret, her name was listed on all the rundowns and call sheets in place of his.)
“I did about 75 percent of what I wanted to do, and I never get that percentage on anything I do,” Ziskin told me after the show. But it wasn’t easy. She had lots of ideas and was determined to fit them all in, including using Glenn Close and Donald Sutherland as announcers and putting a Cirque du Soleil performance in the middle of the show. (She did have to scratch a plan to have David Fincher direct all the commercials.)
Also read: 2012 Oscars: Complete List of Nominees
Situated at the rear of a Hollywood mall, the Kodak itself turned out to be smaller and more cramped than the crew expected: “Retail came in, and it seems my stage left [became] a Krispy Kreme Donuts store,” grumbled director Louis J. Horvitz. The green room was one level below the stage, which was unacceptable—so a hallway used by Wolfgang Puck’s caterers was commandeered and turned into a makeshift green room. Impossible to solve was the fact that the Kodak only had two restrooms anywhere near the stage, so the area in front of them became the best place for star-gazing.
During rehearsals, stray smoke in an elevator shaft twice triggered the Kodak’s alarm system, which opened huge panels in the ceiling containing fans designed to suck the smoke out of the building. But with the doors to the loading dock open, the fans created winds that threatened to topple set pieces into the orchestra seats.
Smoke was also a problem for Donald Sutherland, who abruptly walked off the set midway through one rehearsal because he smelled the smoke from a single crew member’s cigarette in the designated smoking area, a good 125 feet away from Sutherland’s station in the wings. Ziskin instituted a new decree: no smoking in the smoking section. She took it upon herself to inform Russell Crowe, who did not take it well.
Then, during the Friday night rehearsal less than 48 hours before showtime, Cirque du Soleil set the stage on fire when it rehearsed its elaborate, multi-faceted routine. The brief blaze destroyed 17 of the tiles on the Kodak stage, and prompted panicky, heated discussions between the Oscar crew and the circus troupe.
That night, with the Cirque problem still unsolved, Ziskin went back to her room at the adjoining hotel and called her partner, Alvin Sargeant. “I said, ‘I am suicidal,’” she told me later. “I had more crap, more junk in that show. That was the first time we were seeing it all, and we couldn’t get through it.”
Also read: At the Oscars, It's 'The Kodak Theater' No More
Over the next day and a half, things gradually came together. Set designer Michael Riva ordered a round, flame-resistant mat to be laid over his floor for the Cirque performance, the staff endured one more smoke alarm, and then Paul McCartney showed up to rehearse and turned everybody in the building into swooning teeny-boppers. (Cameron Crowe, who wrote a 9/11-themed opening for Tom Cruise, asked for and received the rehearsal seat card sporting McCartney’s photo.)
When the show finally started, the ABC censor spotted visible nipples through Cameron Diaz’s and Gwyneth Paltrow’s tops, and ordered Horvitz to shoot them in close-ups that wouldn’t reveal the offending nipples. He complied on Diaz but couldn’t on Paltrow, who had to appear in a two-shot with Ethan Hawke.
But somehow, miraculously, it all worked. Woody Allen’s appearance took everybody by surprise, both in the auditorium and backstage; he delivered a priceless monologue, then immediately ripped off his tie and made a beeline for the exit. And the night turned historic when Denzel Washington and Halle Berry were named Best Actor and Best Actress, the first time two African-Americans were so honored on the same night. (If Will Smith had won for Ali, he would have been notified by phone: He and his wife left midway through the ceremony because their daughter had been taken to the hospital with an ear infection.)
Of course, Ziskin’s ideas ate up time: The show ran four hours and 26 minutes, 15 minutes longer than the previous record-holder. But appreciative letters came in from the likes of Sidney Lumet, Harvey Weinstein and Hugh Jackman, and the producer shrugged off the marathon length. “We were hoping to get four standing ovations,” she said, “and we got eight.”
In the aftermath, the Academy passed new rules limiting the number of honorary awards to cut down on the show’s length, and tightened its financial oversight of the show. Ziskin produced the show once more before her death of cancer last June. The Kodak served as home for the Oscars for the next decade, though the Academy recently exercised an escape clause in its 20-year deal and is now free to entertain other offers. And during the 11 months when the Academy isn’t putting on its show, Cirque du Soleil now performs Iris on the same stage they once set on fire.
the Oscars being possibly in a new venue (Nokia Theatre, Staples Center) or a return to one of its former homes (Shrine Auditorium, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion).
Would be interesting to have the Oscars back in the Shrine Auditorium.
I think 2001 was the last year it hosted the Oscars.
Saka 'di ba, the Oscars used to take place on the last Sunday of March? Hence, laging tumatapat sa Holy Week noon? Why was it moved to the last Sunday of February again?
the Oscars being possibly in a new venue (Nokia Theatre, Staples Center) or a return to one of its former homes (Shrine Auditorium, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion).
Would be interesting to have the Oscars back in the Shrine Auditorium.
I think 2001 was the last year it hosted the Oscars.
Saka 'di ba, the Oscars used to take place on the last Sunday of March? Hence, laging tumatapat sa Holy Week noon? Why was it moved to the last Sunday of February again?
What I love about her is that she accepts any kind of role as long as magustuhan niya. I read one of her Adaptation interviews, daming kumwestyon sa kanya kung bakit niya pinursue yung Susan Orleans na role, sabi niya, she loved the screenplay and wanted the role. Her performance in Adaptation is one of thos performances na gugulatin ka ni Meryl Streep. Sobrang humang ako sa kanya doon. Akala ko pa naman sobrang boring lang ng role niya doon.
I finished The Great Gatsby last year coz I thought hahabol sa 84th Oscars season ang movie.
Now I have to get back to reading again.
I suggested Anna Karenina as a book read in a thread in Arts and Literature....hopefully they do it....although am not hoping they do since they previously ignored my suggestion of WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN ....and then recently I found out they are talking or are reading it.....
I suggested Anna Karenina as a book read in a thread in Arts and Literature....hopefully they do it....although am not hoping they do since they previously ignored my suggestion of WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN ....and then recently I found out they are talking or are reading it.....
Would be interesting to have the Oscars back in the Shrine Auditorium.
I think 2001 was the last year it hosted the Oscars.
Saka 'di ba, the Oscars used to take place on the last Sunday of March? Hence, laging tumatapat sa Holy Week noon? Why was it moved to the last Sunday of February again?
it would be very interesting to see it being held at the Shrine Auditorium once again, although i am thinking that if AMPAS won't enter a new contract with the owners of the venue that was once known as the Kodak Theatre, the awards ceremony might be held at the much newer Nokia Theatre in Downtown L.A.. i doubt that the Staples Center, home of the Grammy Awards, will be tapped as an Oscars venue since it is too big for a venue and that the Oscars usually prefers a theater-like venue (Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Shrine Auditorium, the former Kodak Theatre).
yes, the last time the Shrine Auditorium hosted the Oscars was in 2001. from 2002 until this year, the venue that was once known as the Kodak Theatre hosted the Oscars.
from the looks of it, the Oscars might be headed back to Downtown L.A., with the Nokia Theatre being the main choice of AMPAS, although Shrine Auditorium and the L.A. Music Center (Dorothy Chandler Pavilion) are also being considered.
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-- Nokia Theatre, part of the AEG-owned L.A. Live complex (which also includes Staples Center) in Downtown Los Angeles.
UPDATED: The downtown Los Angeles venue is offering a lease with a perks package that includes more seats, better infrastructure and more ancillary facilities for parties and press.
Only days after the motion picture Academy notified the Kodak Theatre in late December that it won’t automatically renew its option to present the Oscars there after 2013, an aggressive suitor with deep pockets has emerged.
AEG, which operates the L.A. Live and 7,100-seat Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, already is in discussions with Academy officials, according to a source close to the talks.
The downtown venue is offering a lease comparable to what the Academy currently pays CIM Group, owner of the 3,400-seat Kodak, but with a perks package that includes more seats, better infrastructure, greater promotional opportunities and more ancillary facilities for parties and press.
AEG declined to comment. UPDATE: An Academy representative says, “The Academy has not begun venue negotiations for the Oscar telecast beyond 2013."
The Hollywood Reporter reported on Dec. 31 that the Academy is not looking to leave the Kodak, home of the annual Oscars telecast since 2002. But its lease with the venue allows it to explore whether better options exist.
“The opportunities are so much greater at the Nokia,” says Ron Semiao, senior vp at ESPN, which in 2008 moved its annual Espy Awards from the Kodak to the Nokia. "AEG has an infrastructure with so much marketing support it can really help you grow. It kicked the Espys up a notch as an event just because of everything that is there.”
And while both the Kodak and Nokia have big stages and are great places to put on a TV show, D!ck Clark Productions president Orly Adelson says the Nokia offers easier access: “The Kodak has only one entrance to load in and load out [sets]. At the Nokia there are two. That’s crucial on the American Music Awards because we change sets every three minutes.”
Adelson also praises the promotional opportunities and range of adjacent spaces, from hotels to the Staples Center, all surrounded by a plaza for fan events. “LA Live has different events, from sports to music to conferences and they cross-promote for us,” adds Adelson. “When you put on an event you need and want that cross promotion.”
For instance, a month in advance of an event it is promoted on electronic billboards both inside the L.A. Live venues (including the Nokia and Staples center), as well as on outside signage that can be seen downtown and from the nearby freeways.
AEG also helps bring in sponsors for events and sends out flyers and emails to its huge list of potential attendees, including those who attend sports events like the L.A. Kings and L.A. Lakers games.
“We also do the L.A. Food and Wine Festival there,” says Adelson. “They helped us bring in sponsors and helped make our first year there a huge success.”
Also expected to bid are L.A’s Shrine Auditorium and Music Center, both of which have hosted the Oscars, but they are smaller and neither matches AEG’s marketing muscle. Other venues that could host the show, but are unlikely to be seriously considered, include the Pasadena Civic Auditorium (which hosted the Emmys for years and has 3,029 seats), the Gibson Ampitheater at Universal Citywalk (6,189 seats), the Walt Disney Concert Hall (2,265 seats) and the Wiltern Theater (2,344 seats).
The value of the lease is unknown, but the money at stake is significant: Academy tax records reveal the group spent $21.4 million to put on the 2010 Oscars, plus $1.6 million for the Governors Ball.
For the venue, the biggest benefit may well be the association with an event with international recognition that reaches a global television audience. That is what makes it so attractive to CIM Group, which may soon have to replace Kodak as the naming rights sponsor of the venue. Kodak is expected to file bankruptcy soon, or at the very least be reorganized in a way that may make it unlikely they will continue its $4 million a year commitment for another decade.
^ but when the Oscars does move to the Nokia Theatre in Downtown L.A., it will "abandon" Hollywood, the place where the venue formerly known as Kodak Theatre served as home for ten years, once more. even the AMPAS Museum might move out of Hollywood should AEG wins the bid for the Oscars and bring the awards ceremony to the Nokia Theatre and the rest of the L.A. Live complex in Downtown L.A.
-- interior, Nokia Theatre, L.A. Live, Los Angeles, CA.
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Originally Posted by jayjay09
Magtatagalog lang si Meryl!
