Showbiz is big business as Oscars hits town

HOLLYWOOD: The Oscars are big business for stars and filmmakers - but they also spell big bucks for limo firms, caterers, designers and thousands of others as Hollywood rolls out the red carpet.

In fact, the Academy Awards on Sunday are the climax of the annual awards season which generates fortunes for those behind the scenes in Tinseltown, who keep the champagne flowing, parties buzzing and posh frocks just right.

From the Golden Globes to the Grammys, the Screen Actors Guild ceremony to the Razzies, the awards shows -- and all those pre- and after-parties, keep everyone busy from November to February every year.

You don't have to go far to stumble on a red carpet in Hollywood - even outside awards season, film premieres regularly attract scrums of cameramen, photographers and fans spilling across sidewalks outside key movie theaters.

So a visit to the cinema can sometimes turn into a scramble through a melee created by an arriving celebrity, lensmen's flashlights and shouts of "Angelina, over here!" ricocheting around the cinema lobby.

But Angelinos are used to it, and many depend on it for their livelihoods, as - like the annual harvest elsewhere - the first two months of the year bring huge crops of orders for everything that surrounds the shows.

Tony Adzar, founder & CEO of Red Carpet Systems, is one of those reaping the benefits: in February, he sells twice as much carpet as he does in August, and his is only one of dozens of similar firms.

To get to the parties, people of course need limousines.

The larger companies, which have a fleet of maybe 25 luxury vehicles, are booked to capacity and are able to give their affiliates and subcontractors a lot of business.

ITS works closely with Sequoia Productions, which has organized Hollywood events for 23 years and produces the traditional post-Oscars soiree known as the Governors Ball.

The ball brings together the governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars. On Sunday night, 1,500 people will attend.

For Sunday's ball alone, Sequoia employs 150 technicians, 400 catering staff and a management team of 30. The company unveiled its menu last week, chosen by Austrian celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, also an Oscars veteran.

Red Carpet provider Adzar said awards season is exhausting, but essential for his and many other businesses in Hollywood. (AFP)

Stewart, Pattinson kiss at pre-Oscars party

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson celebrated the Oscars by sharing a kiss at a pre-Oscar party.

Stewart and Pattinson were two of the many celebrities in attendance at a Friday night party at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, according to Us Weekly.

A witness said: "They definitely kissed a few times."
The witness went on to say that the Twilight couple enjoyed dancing to the music as well.
"They went nuts for 'Empire State of Mind'!" said the witness.
Other stars present included Scarlett Johansson, Halle Berry, Ryan Gosling and Natalie Portman.

How The King's Speech got an outside edge at the Oscars

The success of independent cinema at the Oscars is nothing new, but it's always a welcome sight. Sunday night's marginal triumph by The King's Speech over the studio's biggest heavy hitter, The Social Network, will have spread good cheer among the movie's many backers outside the studio system. The King's Speech is one of the moribund UK Film Council's last hurrahs, although there are quite a few forthcoming releases that will bear the stamp of the ill-fated funding body, such as Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, Terence Davies's The Deep Blue Sea and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights.

The UK Film Council was one of several key elements on the project, along with UK financiers Prescience and Aegis, UK distributor Momentum Pictures and Australian distributor Transmission, whose sister company See-Saw, run by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, came on board to produce with Gareth Unwin's Bedlam Productions, which had been a longtime champion of the project. That's quite a list and I'm not even sure it's comprehensive, but it illustrates a truism in independent film financing: the tougher the sell, the greater the number of investors. No studio would have gone near this because the project lacked brand recognition, wasn't part of a franchise and didn't offer clear merchandising opportunities.

And then, of course, there is Harvey Weinstein, the Oscar impresario extraordinaire whose apparently resurgent company did such a bang-up job distributing The King's Speech in the US. The film launched modestly in a handful of theatres last December and climbed from 43 to 700 theatres over the Christmas weekend, rising steadily after that. Heading into the final weekend before the Oscar nominations on 25 January, the movie played in 1,680 theatres, and by the time it emerged as the frontrunner on 12 nominations it was in 2,557.

It went on to gross more than half of its current $114m (£70m) running total in the so-called Oscar corridor between the day of nominations and the show itself. That's the Oscar bump in action and you see it with another success story, Black Swan, which amassed roughly one-fifth of its $103m running total in the same period. Both will continue to prosper now that they have gongs to their name. The King's Speech will go out as a PG-13, too, after Weinstein cut a few expletives from the original R-rated version. Colin Firth disapproves and thinks the movie should be seen "as is", and I wholeheartedly agree. Alas the gatekeepers in the US believe audiences must be protected from the brutal spectrum of the English language, even though they are happy to expose under-13s to a disgraceful level of on-screen violence week-in, week-out.

For some years now a movie's prospects outside the US have played a key role in assembling the financing and distribution. Central to this is the international pre-sale, whereby a company licenses distribution rights to a forthcoming project in return for a portion of the budget. In this regard kudos is due to FilmNation, the New York-based company run by the vastly experienced former Weinstein lieutenant Glen Basner. FilmNation handled international sales on The King's Speech and ensured it ended up in safe hands outside the US. To date the movie has grossed more than $130m outside the US, bringing worldwide ticket sales to around $245m.

Black Swan had a pretty tortuous route to the big screen, too, but when Fox Searchlight came on board as financing partner it knew a good thing and held on to worldwide distribution rights. It's been Hollywood's leading title in the international market for the past few weeks and so far has racked up $123m overseas and $226m worldwide.

These are astonishing and rare numbers for specialty film, but what's so gratifying is that because both movies got made for a price and were expertly released in the US and overseas, they're profitable. The rumour doing the rounds at the recent Berlin film festival was that Weinstein is plotting a sequel to The King's Speech called The Windsors at War. Harvey and his cohorts are keeping mum about that right now as they focus on this year's movies, which include Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in the Oscar hopeful My Week With Marilyn.

Credit : The Guardian UK

Stars gather as 'King's Speech' eyes Oscars crown

HOLLYWOOD: British royal drama "The King's Speech" got another boost on the eve of what supporters hope will be its Oscars coronation Sunday, as stars gather for the climax of Tinsel Town's annual awards season.

The movie, nominated for 12 Academy Awards including best picture and best actor for Colin Firth, won best foreign film at the Spirit independent movie awards, barely 24 hours before the main Hollywood show.

Ballet thriller "Black Swan," nominated for five Oscars, won best film at the Spirits as well as best actress for Natalie Portman -- who is frontrunner in that category on Sunday.

With less than 24 hours to go before the annual awards mega-bash, stars were fine-tuning their acceptance speeches -- fingers crossed -- and preparing to don their gowns and tuxedos for the Oscars red carpet.

While "The King's Speech" is the frontrunner, no one is taking anything for granted as rivals including Facebook movie "The Social Network," classic Western remake "True Grit" and boxing movie "The Fighter" vie for Oscars glory.

That said, Firth is considered all but certain to be named best actor for his portrayal of Britain's King George VI, helped by Australian voice coach Lionel Logue -- played by Geoffrey Rush -- to overcome his crippling stammer.

David Fincher could well be named best director for "The Social Network," which tells the story of how Mark Zuckerberg created the game-changing website from a controversial start while a Harvard student, some critics say.

"The Social Network" started the awards season as favorite, taking four Golden Globes in January. But the British royal film has since swept up a series of prizes, in the US as well as at Britain's BAFTAs.

On Sunday the 10-strong shortlist for best film also includes hi-tech thriller "Inception," "127 Hours" -- about a hiker forced to amputate his own arm -- and "Toy Story 3," widely tipped as best animated feature.

Others hoping for a touch of Oscars gold include Britain's elusive graffiti artist Banksy, whose film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" is nominated for best documentary Oscar. The movie won the Spirit awards prize Saturday.

The best foreign film contest is between Mexico's "Biutiful" -- whose star Javier Bardem is also up for best actor -- "Dogtooth" from Greece, Denmark's "In a Better World," "Incendies" from Canada and Algeria's "Outside the Law."

Actors James Franco and Anne Hathaway will host the Oscars show, while organizers this week released more details of who will present awards, the latest including Helen Mirren, Bardem, Mila Kunis and Amy Adams.

The Oscars weekend also provides an excuse for endless festivities, ranging from Elton John's traditional bash in west Hollywood to one reportedly co-hosted by Madonna and Demi Moore.

Once the big show is over, the real fun starts: Oscars after parties -- and after parties -- go on well into Monday, as Hollywood recovers from its annual awards season binge.

Before that, though, some of the Hollywood's finest were preparing to cringe Saturday night when the traditional Golden Raspberry Awards -- or Razzies -- were to be revealed.

Stars including Jennifer Aniston, Ashton Kutcher, Robert Pattinson, Miley Cyrus and Barbra Streisand are on the shortlist for the Razzies, billed as "saluting the worst that Hollywood has to offer each year."(AFP)