Behind the Oscar [antikvár]

Cl/futliox'iThe Academy Awards for any given year are presented in the following year; for example, the 1991 Oscar ceremony was held in March 1992. To avoid confusion throughout this book, the year cited is that of the film's release, and thus of the award rather than of the ceremony: e.g., 1991 for The Silence of the Lambs, although it was presented with its awards at the 1992 Oscar show. Discussion of the ceremony (or telecast) itself naturally uses the year in which it took place."Oscar" and "Academy Awards" are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This book is neither authorized nor endorsed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.c/fviiuaLiIt's the most exciting part of the industry, the night it all conies together and you get to see the movie stars.Meryl Streep, 1983Sy midafternoon, from behind the tinted windows of a stretch limousine, the sun already seems to have set on downtown Los Angeles. Stepping out into fiercely bright light, on arrival at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, provokes the same guilty thrill as emerging from a daytime movie. In dark glasses, above evening dress worn since lunchtime, the evening begins on a surreal note that is not going to fade.The show is not due to start until six pm, the optimum hour for coast-to-coast television. But guests traveling the ten miles from Beverly Hills have been advised to hit the road by three, so dense is the gridlock as eight hundred limos ferry the movie world to its annual orgy of self-congratulation.Among the first to arrive, unnoticed by the screaming crowd on the bleachers, is the imposing figure of Frank Johnson, 55-year-old managing partner of the Los Angeles branch of the accountants Price Waterhouse. His briefcase chained to his wrist, Johnson is