Organizers promise surprisers for Oscar ceremony · 2009-02-03 12:36
Oscar organizers promise a three-hour ceremony later this month that will break with tradition.
The producers "are going to take some risks, many risks, some bold," Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said at the annual luncheon given by the academy for Oscar nominees.
Producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon are organizing their first Academy Awards telecast, set to take place on February 22 from the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. But Mark and Condon have never produced the show before. They are best known for making musicals such as 2006 film "Dreamgirls."
According to Reuters, instead of hiring a comedian to host the Oscars, as has been typical of Oscars past, they brought in Australian actor and song-and-dance man Hugh Jackman, and they have axed the famous opening monologue hoping for more spontaneity.
Ganis would not tell the nominees what to say or do if they were one of the lucky winners. He advised that acceptance speeches "be brief, be personal and, of course, be heartfelt."
The show remains annually the second-most watched program on U.S. television, and a crush of celebrities are expected to turn out, including Penn, Cruz, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Meryl Streep.
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