The Oscars Countdown
Searching for Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. Finding Regis Philbin. And who was that mysterious man in the tux? The city was abuzz with all things Oscar as celebrities and their fans flocked from around the world for Sunday's Academy Awards ...
AND THE EARLY ARRIVAL AWARD GOES TO: A little more than four hours before curtain time, those gathered in the bleachers along the Oscar show's red carpet finally had a few things to cheer about.
First, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, putting an end to the day's driving rain. Then Regis Philbin emerged from a long, black limousine and waved to the crowd.
Cheers and shouts of "R-E-E-E-G!" and "I Love Regis" quickly swept the packed bleachers as word spread of the first bona fide star sighting.
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Philbin jumped into a golf cart that whisked him away to a podium area. As he vanished, the bleacher crowd quickly settled back into its pre-show routine of reading magazines, chatting on cell phones and photographing one another.
Among those waiting was Debbie Simons, who had hosted an Oscar viewing party at her Phoenix home for 15 years until she scored bleacher tickets this year.
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"The rest of the girls are awfully jealous back home," she said.
WHO WAS THAT TUXEDOED MAN?: One of Hollywood's darkest, deepest secrets is that not every smiling face you see on TV when the camera pans the Oscar audience belongs to a famous actor, a behind-the-scenes big shot or even someone who knows one.
No, some of those people sitting there have nothing to do with the Oscars except sitting there. They are professional seat fillers, the people who show up dressed to kill and ready to sit the moment a star gets up to accept an award or go to the bathroom.
Their mission: Ensure that people watching the Oscar show at home never see an empty seat during the broadcast.
They arrived by the score outside the Kodak Theatre complex late Sunday morning, all of them under orders not to reveal their true identities or even talk to anyone.
They included a woman who donned a pair of Ugg boots and wore a puffy down jacket over her aqua-blue evening dress as she picked her away around puddles in the parking lot left by the heavy rain. Another wore flip-flops but carried a pair of Jimmy Choos in a bag.
Rumor has it that many are employees of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or ABC, the network that broadcasts the Oscar show. One man did say he is a professional seat filler who owns a tux because he works numerous Hollywood shows.
"I do this all the time," he said.
BETTER THAN THE DENTIST: There's just something more exciting about seeing Nicole Kidman amid all the glitz and glamor of an Academy Awards show rather than back home at the dentist's office.
That's why Becky Brown of Nashville knew she had to book a flight to Hollywood as soon as she won her lottery tickets to sit in the bleachers along the red carpet before Sunday's Oscars show.
As she took her seat, Brown, 53, said she most wanted to catch a glimpse of Kidman and her husband, Keith Urban, who are arguably her hometown's most famous couple. It doesn't matter that she already sees them all the time around Nashville.
"They're spotted all over the place," she said. "We go to the same dentist."
OUTSIDE IN THE RAIN: Umbrella over her head, Kiyoko Nagae arrived outside the Kodak Theatre in a steady downpour early Sunday to stake out a piece of sidewalk in hopes of seeing movie stars as they arrived for the evening's Oscars ceremony.
Nagae, 41, couldn't get a ticket for the bleachers that line the red carpet and are protected from the rain by an awning. So she was hoping the downpour might drive away others and give her an unobstructed view.
"I'd like to see anyone," said Nagae, a Japanese native who recently moved to North Hollywood with her American husband. "Stars have a raw power you can feel."
Taking up another section of sidewalk were Tine Bojanna, 37, and her 11-year-old daughter, vacationers from Europe who had no qualms about the weather.
"We're from Denmark, so we're used to the rain," said Bojanna.
"The opportunity to see stars - we never get that in Denmark," she said.
NOT EVERYONE AN OSCAR FAN: Not everyone along Hollywood Boulevard had Oscar fever Sunday.
With the street closed to traffic and parking not available for blocks, Rosy Nishad hadn't seen a single customer all day at her Roopa Indian gift shop.
"Lots of people come for the show, to see the actors, but not for belly dancing clothes or incense," she said, "How can I make rent?"
Several stores along the boulevard didn't even bother to open. That wasn't the case, however, at the movie memorabilia store Larry Edmunds, where clerk Jeff Mentor said the main concern was getting home before the crush of celebrities created "limo gridlock."
FOOD FIGHTS: Language and war may divide us, but catering troubles are universal.
Directors of the five Oscar-nominated films in the foreign-language category met Saturday, showing clips from their movies - little-seen so far in the U.S. - and talking over the joys and frustrations of international production.
Sergei Bodrov said his epic "Mongol," Kazakhstan's entry, was shot in Mongolia over the course of two years, with two separate cinematographers. The Russian crew of the film about a young Genghis Khan refused to eat the Chinese food they were served so workers drove 12 hours to pick up new meals, Bodrov said. Picturehouse will release his movie in the U.S. on June 6.
Nikita Mikhalkov, actor-director for Russia's entry, "12," recalled similar difficulties on the set of his Oscar-nominated 1992 film "Close to Eden."
"We had Chinese food and the Russians lost their minds," he said through a translator.
SHOE FLAP: Fancy-footwear designer Stuart Weitzman chose Diablo Cody to wear his specially designed $1 million Retro Rose shoes on the red carpet, but the "Juno" screenwriter might leave the diamond-encrusted high heels off her feet Sunday. Cody's not completely thrilled, "now that I think about it."
"They're using me to publicize their stupid shoes and NOBODY ASKED ME," Cody wrote on her MySpace blog Friday. "I would never consent to a lame publicity stunt at a time when I already want to hide."
Weitzman wasn't at his Four Seasons Hotel shoe suite in Beverly Hills on Saturday afternoon while Taryn Cox, assistant to Scarlett Johansson (size 9), and "Today" show entertainment correspondent Jill Rappaport (size 10) browsed Weitzman's wares.
"I would expect she probably won't wear them. She made that very clear," Weitzman later told the AP about the shoe tussle during a telephone interview Saturday night. "If she decides not to wear the shoes, that's Diablo's decision, and I wouldn't try to convince her otherwise. It's Diablo's day, and she can do whatever she wants."
Weitzman says he made the cost of the metallic beige shoes - more than $2.5 million, including parts that were not used in the final pair - clear to Cody when he met with her. He blames Cody's behind-the-scenes team for not communicating the value of the shoes to the Oscar-nominated screenwriter.
"I'm just embarrassed that she wrote what she wrote," he said.
Even so, the designer says he wouldn't change his decision to give the ultra-expensive slippers to Cody.
IRISH ALLIANCE: After running through his lines on the Kodak Theatre stage Friday morning, Colin Farrell joined a handful of stand-ins and other Oscar workers to watch a rehearsal of "Falling Slowly," the nominated song from the Irish indie film "Once."
Wearing a torn T-shirt topped with a vest and blazer, his shaggy hair tucked under a gray fedora, the Irish actor tapped his toes as the film's stars, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, played their original ballad.
Hansard, cradling the same beat-up acoustic guitar featured in the film, sat on a stool in front of Irglova's grand piano. The two shared a smile as the full sound of the Oscar orchestra rose up behind them.
When the song ended, Farrell bounded onto the stage to greet Hansard with a hug. Academy Awards producer Gil Cates chatted with the two Dubliners, and Farrell joked that he would "do some accent work tonight" so his Irish lilt would be show-ready.
"By Sunday I'll have the accent down," he said.
STARS IN SNEAKERS: They'll don designer tuxedoes and gowns on Sunday, but stars dressed down for weekday rehearsals at the Kodak Theatre.
Denzel Washington wore sneakers, track pants and a backward ballcap as he ran through his lines Thursday afternoon. Veteran stage manager Dency Nelson guided him through the two-minute rehearsal before sending him on his way with a friendly "See you Sunday."
A ponytailed, makeup-free Hilary Swank embodied superstar casual chic in a silky white blouse, skinny black pants and towering high heels. She stepped on stage, read through her lines and quickly disappeared into the Kodak commotion.
OSCAR NOMINATIONS EQUALS PARTY TIME: Everyone loves recognition from their peers, and actors, directors and film execs are no exception. That's why for many in Hollywood, Oscar week is party week.
Paramount Vantage toasted its nominees - best-actor favorite Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood" writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson and "Into the Wild" supporting actor Hal Holbrook, among others - with a private dinner-and-drinks soiree Thursday night at the week-old STK restaurant in West Hollywood.
John C. Reilly, Sissy Spacek, Maya Rudolph and celebrated cinematographer Roger Deakins joined the nominated guests, nibbling on tuna tartare, mini steak sandwiches and oversized french fries. Day-Lewis, wearing a tan leather jacket and a woven fedora, was all smiles as he shook hands with fans.
Fox Searchlight was set to fete its nominees - including "Juno" director Jason Reitman, screenwriter Diablo Cody and star Ellen Page - with a dinner Friday at the same new hotspot. The festivities continue Saturday with Jeffrey Katzenberg's annual "Night Before" party, which benefits the Motion Picture & Television Fund and typically draws an A-list crowd.
BRING ON THE BLING: The red carpet wouldn't be complete without oodles of jewels, and stars and stylists have their pick of the bling during Oscar time.
Costume designer and sometime stylist Sophie de Rakoff stopped by Neil Lane's jewelry showroom in Beverly Hills on Thursday afternoon to select diamonds for Maya Rudolph, who was set to accompany her longtime partner, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, to Sunday's ceremony.
"The jewelry is as important as the dress," said de Rakoff, who picked out three possible pairs of earrings and a set of stackable diamond bangles.
Rudolph will choose from 20-karat leaf-shaped dangles, 20-karat chandeliers and 15-karat teardrop-shaped earrings. Average price: $45,000 a pair.
In Hollywood's golden age, actresses wore their own jewelry to events, Lane said. But Rudolph, like most red-carpet beauties, is borrowing the pricey gems.
"A star could not buy enough jewelry to accessorize every red carpet she does," Lane said. "Now because everything is a fashion statement, everything is an accessory to be looked at. Every detail is looked at. If she wore that (piece) last time, she'd get ridiculed."
De Rakoff, whose costume-design credits include "Legally Blonde," "Sweet Home Alabama" and "All About the Benjamins," considers Lane her go-to diamond guy.
"In Hollywood," the jeweler said, "it's all about relationships."
By Sandy Cohen