A year after Will Smith strode on stage at the Dolby Theatre and slapped Chris Rock in the face, the Oscars are reconvening Sunday for a ceremony that will try to move past one of the most infamous moments in Academy Awards history.
Stars are streaming down the red carpet — or, this year, the champagne-colored carpet — at the Dolby in Los Angeles. After several days of rain in and around Los Angeles, the sun is out again for a ceremony the Academy Awards are hoping is less stormy than last year.
James Hong, co-star of best-picture favorite “Everything Everywhere All at Once” arrived with googly eyes on his tie, a reference to one of the film’s absurdist props.
“It shows if you wait long enough, you’ll make it,” the 94-year-old Hong told ABC on the carpet.
The telecast begins at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC. The broadcast can be streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T; TV and Fubo TV. You can also stream the show on ABC.com and on the ABC app by authenticating your provider.
Jimmy Kimmel, the show’s first solo emcee in five years, is hosting for the third time. The late-night comedian has promised to make some jokes about The Slap; it would be “ridiculous” not to, he said.
Bill Kramer, chief executive of the film academy, has said that it was important, given what happened last year, to have “a host in place who can really pivot and manage those moments.”
“Nobody got hit when I hosted the show,” Kimmel bragged tongue in cheek Thursday on “Good Morning America.” “Everybody was well-behaved at my Oscars.”
Kimmel will preside over a ceremony that could see big wins for the best-picture favorite, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s action-comedy indie hit comes in with a leading 11 nominations, including nods for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan.
Producers are giving some aspects of the Oscars a makeover. The carpet is champagne-colored, not red. The broadcast has been planned to be more interactive than ever.
There were surprises before the show even got started. Just days after producers had said Lady Gaga wouldn’t be performing her nominated song “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” a person close to the production with knowledge of the performance confirmed Sunday afternoon that the pop superstar would perform, after all.
And presenter Glenn Close told The Associated Press that she would no longer present at the show because she had tested positive for COVID-19.
But the academy, still trying to find its footing after several years of pandemic and ratings struggles, is also hoping for a smoother ride than last year. A crisis management team has been created to help better respond to surprises. The academy has called its response to Smith’s actions last year “inadequate.” Neither Rock, who recently made his most forceful statement about the incident in a live special, nor …read more
Source:: News Headlines
