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Thursday, April 7, 1983The Daily Tar Heel5 WE fp) (H 1) ry ((D) By BOB THOMAS Hie Associated Press LOS ANGELES The Oscar fever starts Mon day at dawn, when the first spectators curious tourists and hard-core movie fans" begin filling the bleachers in front of the Music Center. The excitement rises as the first celebrities start ar riving in late afternoon. The ceremonies begin at 9 p.m., the drama playing to 3,000 fancily dressed observers in the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion and an estimated 350 million TV watchers throughout the world. Early Tuesday morning, the last loser will toss down a brandy and leave the Board of Governors Ball at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Then history will claim the 55th awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Oscars are the oldest and most prestigious of the show business awards. They are also big business not only to the winners of best picture and the acting awards, who can enjoy added millions. The Academy itself is also the winner. The 1982 awards telecast provided $3,734,870 in revenue. The show cost $2,811,499, providing a $923,371 profit to help finance the Academy's library, educational and cultural activities. The Oscar season begins in December, when the late entries are released in theaters amid much hoopla. The noise level rises as the studios campaign for nominations, then maintains a steady pace until the balloting closes six days before the awards. The county-operated Music Center is shut down for a week before the awards. Then the ABC net work starts moving in equipment, and Howard W. Koch and Marty Pasetta begin intensive operations. Koch is a veteran film producer (The Odd Couple, Airplane) who is producing the Oscar cast for the eighth time. Multiple Emmy-winner Pasetta is directing his 12th Oscar show. Producer and director started meetings last December, assembling staff and making plans. When the nominations were announced, their work began in earnest: hiring dancers, scenic designers, costumers. "During the last week I start 16-hour days," Pasetta said. "After Saturday I have an apartment in the Music Center so I can sleep two or three hours a night." Koch, who has lined up all the presenters and per formers, has a standby list in case of dropouts. "If anybody gets sick, I can find somebody else," he said. "It's not too hard. Most people want to ap pear on the Oscar show." On Friday the 50-piece orchestra records the song numbers in a Hollywood studio. "The singers are live on the show, but the orchestra is recorded," Koch explained. "It would be impossible to main tain a balance." The 17 television cameras are moved into the Music Center on Friday, and Pasetta begins to work on lighting and staging. Saturday brings a run through with the emcees this year four of them: Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore, Richard Pryor and Walter Matthau. Sunday is the day of the big dress rehearsal. The production numbers and nominated songs are per formed, and the presenters go through their paces. "This year we have a mixture of young and old," Koch said. "From Jeanne Crain and Cornel Wilde to Kristy McNicholand Tom Selleck." Pasetta works from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday to perfect the staging, using stand-ins for the stars. Then the ushers take down the "No Smoking" -signs, remove the coffee cups and spruce up the theater. Pasetta starts taping the arrivals as they are greeted by columnist Army Archerd in front of the Music Center. . . . Three minutes before 9p.m., Pasetta concludes editing the arrival shots. The network is cleared, the music swells; and the announcer begins the show: "Live from the Los Angeles Music Center 55th annual Academy Awards ..." the - I rc a VV aw " ' : v - :Af vw h$V' . : am !t-. -.AV'i A . J - I x 'k v frits x " x a f a I r ti t i . s - s J ....vv, -.vv 1 Lmwctkk It X W ifcwiooo& Wow: : :- Oscars '83 Who's going for the gold? The major categories and nominees for the 55th annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in clude: Best Picture: E.T. The Extra Terr est rial, Gandhi, Missing, Tootsie, The Verdict. Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Dustin Hoffman in Toot sie, Ben Kingsley in Gandhi, Jack Lem mon in Missing, Paul Newman in The Verdict, Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year. Gossett Jr. in An Officer and a Gentle man, John Lithgow in The World Ac cording to Garp, James Mason in The Verdict, Robert Preston in VictorVic toria. Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Glenn Close in The World According to Garp, Teri Garr in Tootsie, Jessica Lange in Tootsie, Kim Stanley in Frances, Lesley Ann Warren in Victor Victoria. Best Director: Richard Attcn borough for Gandhi, Sidney Lumet for The Verdict, Wolfgang Petersen for Das Boot (The Boat), Sydney PollacTf'for Tootsie, Steven Spielberg for E. T. The Extra- Terrestrial. Best Original Song: "Eye of the Tiger" from Rocky III, "How Do We Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Julie Andrews in Vic torVictoria, Jessica Lange in Frances, Sissy Spacek in Missing, Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice, Debra Winger in An Keep the Music Playing?" from Best Officer and a Gentleman. Friends, "If We Were in Love" from Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Charles Durning in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Louis Yes, Giorgio, "It Might Be You" from Tootsie, "Up Where We Belong" from An Officer and a Gentleman. Ben Kingsley plays the famous spiritual end political Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's 'Gandhi' Kingsley, Attenborough and the film are all up for Academy Awards, which will be presented at 9 p.m. Monday. Community people make thel r predi ctions By TOM GREY Staff Writer So, who do people think is going to win an Oscar? "Let's see," a man on the street answers. "Is that for television shows?" Some people don't watch television or go to movies. But others do and many seem to agree with those who say that when awards are handed out Monday night Gandhi will be named Best Picture. "Gandhi is an extraordinary work at so many levels. It's an epic," said Arthur Housman, professor of dramatic art. "While Tootsie is a tour de force for Dustin Hoffman, and E. T. The Extra Terrestrial is wonderful popular enter tainment, Gandhi is much more, a leg up on the others." Herman Jones, a graduate student in the master of fine arts program agreed. "I liked the subject matter. Ben Kingsley gave himself to the role," said Jones, who is studying acting. "He lost weight for the role. He adopted the mannerisms. He had to play someone whom we know from history, while Tootsie is Dustin Hoffman's own idea of a woman." Jones, not surprisingly, said he thought Kingsley would win in the Best Actor category, but this may be the hardest of the five major awards to pick. "I think Hoffman has the edge," Gorham Kenden, associate professor in the RTVMP department, said. "While Hollywood does not usually reward com edies, Hoffman showed great versatility in his performance." Another contender for Best Actor is Paul Newman for his role in The Verdict. Newman has never won an Oscar. "Paul Newman has paid his dues," said J.C. Brookhouse, an English pro fessor who teaches movie criticism. "He's a company man and will probably be rewarded." In other categories, the professors and others interviewed have not seen several of the choices. Meryl Streep is the favorite, however, of most people interviewed for the Best Actress category, even of those who haven't seen Sophie's Choice. Many who had seen the film said that Streep's per formance as the concentration camp sur vivor was remarkable. ' Housman called her a remarkable ac tress for our times. "She seems bland, but her range is extraordinary," he said. "She plays a fully fleshed character in an otherwise flawed film." . "What can you say?" Jones said. "She's the hottest thing out. She's well connected with her training at Yale." Kim Snooks, a senior English major, disagreed. She said she thought Jessica Lange would win for Frances. "This movie showed what she's capable of do ing. It's not just a King Kong role." , Louis Gossett Jr. has been mentioned as a likely Oscar winner for his role in An Officer and A Gentleman since the movie came out. Jones said he would like to see a black win an Oscar. "I also think that Gossett brought out Richard Gere's acting." For Best Supporting Actress category, the choices spread out again. Jerry Rhodes, a junior RTVMP major said he thought Glenn Close would win for her role as Garp's mother in The World According to Garp. Housman said he thought one of the two actresses in Tootsie would win Teri Garr or Jessica Lange. Angela Barbano, a journalism graduate student who saw Teri Garr on a recent morning talk show, said , she thought that Garr wanted to win badly. "I'll support her on the basis of that," she said. So, how important is it to win an Oscar? What makes an actor, actress or studio want to win? "It's important financially for the film industry," Kenden said. "I'm not sure of the politics of the voting or how much the studios push a vote, but it's an important showcase for the industry." . Academy Awards may give new life to movies By JEFF GROVE and DAVID SCHMIDT Staff Writers ' - Now showing, the film nominated for 49 Academy Awards ... Starring the Oscar-winning actress Featuring a brilliant score by Academy-decorated com poser ... Directed by that sentimental Oscar favorite ... If a picture is worth a thousand words, are these words worth thousands of dollars for the pictures they advertise? Local theater managers agree that Oscar nominations and victories can affect their businesses. But they disagree on the amount of influence the awards carry. Nominations help box office business a lot, said Warren Stiles, manager of the Carolina Theatre since August. Stiles has managed theaters for one-and-one-half years. "A lot of times they re-release films just for that purpose, because it does create more revenue," he said. As for the victories, Stiles said they probably don't help business any more than nominations alone. s C.H. Deaver was more terse in his evaluation of how much extra business the Oscars bring. "From the nomina tions very little," he said. "From the actual awards a great deal. The re-booking of films is predicated on the chance that (a film) might win." Deaver, director of advertising and publicity for the Charlotte-based Eastern Federal Corp., books films for the Plaza Theatres in Chapel Hill and has 40 years' experience in the film business. A Ram Theatre manager Frank Elkins said the effect of both nominations and awards on a film he has shown for 18 weeks should not be dramatic. "We have had a lot of repeat business on Tootsie," he said. -"It seems like everyone has seen it. Tootsie kind of sells itself." Elkins, a four-year veteran of theater management, has been with the Ram since December. Varsity Theatre manager Jim Steele holds an even lower opinion of whether Oscar victories help films. "I expect that it would," he said. "But it's hard to say how much. Our audience pays more attention to the notices, arid they tend to hold the Academy Awards in contempt." Steele, who came to the Varsity in early March, spent five years as assistant manger and manager of the Carolina Theatre in Durham. Managers definitely try to have nominees playing in the theaters at the time of awards night, Elkins said. This week's movie listings prove that most have succeeded. Gandhi, which has been nominated in 11 categories, begins a second run Friday at the Plaza Theatre. Sophie's Choice will rejoin Tootsie at the Ram Theatre the same day. Frances makes its Chapel Hill debut Friday at the Carolina Theatre. And later this month, the Varsity Theatre will premiere Best Foreign Language Film nominee Coup de Torchon. . "We always make sure people know about the nomina tions, and it will especially improve the business of a film like An Officer and a Gentleman," Stiles said. He predicted an Oscar victory for Jessica Lange's perfor mance in Frances, saying it should help at the box office if she wins. Otherwise, he said, the film will stay for only a week or so. " Elkins said theaters in Raleigh and Durham "really hype them up" but said his limited newspaper advertising budget in Chapel Hill prohibits him from promoting nominated films that way. Steele plans no extra hype for Coup de Torchon. The film was booked before the Oscar nominations were an nounced. "It's the one foreign film (nominated in the foreign film category) that the average moviegoer might see. The Oscars are not a reflection of quality, I can't recall a year in recent memory when the nominations were less interesting, and when the nominated films were less interesting." Steele added, "I have no idea who might win (in the category). I've been surprised a lot recently. Some years the choice is political; some years it seems like it's drawn from a hat." . Deaver said he didn't push for added advertising based on nominations. "If a film should win an award of substance, we can increase the advertising space," he said. "We think Gandhi will perhaps win Best Picture and Best Actor, but that's our judgment. If the public reacts favorably, we'll keep it." Stiles hedged his bets on E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial, which enjoyed a six-month run at the Carolina this year. "I don't think E.T. will win Best Picture because it's so commercialized now," he said. "I don't know so much of it seems political." Elkins did not seem to care much about the politics of the awards. "I would like to see E T. get Best Picture," he said. "It was really for everybody." A v " " "' i ' ..jinn. j .z. cm" Jrv t . v C r i i no . m.q
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 7, 1983, edition 1
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