- Title: USA: FASHION AND FOOD PREPARATIONS CONTINUE FOR THE 74TH OSCAR FILM AWARDS
- Date: 20th March 2002
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MARCH 21, 2002) (REUTERS) WIDE/ PAN OF KODAK THEATRE ON HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD PAN TO OSCAR STATUES BEING CLEANED IN ARRIVALS AREA WIDE OF DO NOT ENTER SIGN IN ROAD WHICH HAS BEEN BLOCKED OFF FOR OSCARS SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) RIC ROBERTSON, EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ACADEMY SAYING: "Because of security concerns we wanted to do
- Embargoed: 4th April 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Entertainment,General
- Reuters ID: LVA9QB5LYDRS2UQDY2ZVPE9C6QHW
- Story Text: With the 74th Academy Awards only a couple of days away, Reuters takes a peek behind the scenes to see how organisers and celebrities alike are preparing for the most celebrated night in the movie calendar.
This year's awards ceremony marks Oscar's return to an actual Hollywood venue for the first time in 42 years.
The change of location has brought heightened security making it impossible for regular fans to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars. And, unless you're on Hollywood's "A"
list, entering bashes like the annual Governors Ball, one of the hottest tickets in town following the 74th annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, is without doubt out of the question.
About 1,650 guests, including nominees Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Oscar host Whoopi Goldberg, have been invited to the party in the grand ballroom near the $94 million Kodak Theater, the new home to the Oscars ceremony.
Guests at the dinner will be treated to a sumptuous 3-course dinner - the inspiration of Hollywood's favourite chef, Wolfgang Puck. No stranger to the Oscars or celebrities, Puck has been catering at the Oscars for years.
Reuters caught up with Puck at his new kitchens in the Hollywood & Highland complex, where he is preparing for the Governor's Ball.
With 1200 staff on-site to help, Puck expects his guests to dine on 60 pounds (130kgs) of caviar, 14,000 hors d'oeuvres and 500 bottles of the finest champagne - and that's before the guests sit down to dine.
But Hollywood may look more like a no-man's land than party-central, with heightened security after the Sept. 11 attacks. Police this week began closing streets and subways in the area around Oscar's new Hollywood home, sharply curtailing pedestrian flow.
A spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said only 400 people were cleared through an application process for the time-honoured tradition of watching celebrity arrivals for the awards from the bleachers.
Despite the lack of fans to cheer them on as they arrive, it's business as usual for the stars of the night as they get ready for the red carpet arrivals on Sunday. Probably the biggest concern some of the nominees will have is deciding what they're actually going to wear.
In keeping with tradition, many of the hottest designers on the planet have descended on Los Angeles to tempt the big names to their labels. Reuters caught up with Vivienne Westwood's fashion consultant Mark Palmen, at the L'Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills, to find out how they do it.
'You know we don't really follow trends at Westwood, it's more about dressing a certain person, or an individual, we offer choice in a sea of other designers where they are commercially kind of throwing everything out there and it's the same one dress for everyone. And we really try and work with the celebrity and bring out something that's personal in them and fit them of course quite well.' And it's not only the dress that's important, as British hairdresser, Charles Worthington pointed out to Reuters.
Having flown to LA especially for the Oscars, Worthington has set up a temporary hair salon adjacent to Vivienne Westwood's suite in order to help celebrities and their stylists choose not only the right outfit, but a hairstyle to match.
'I think it's very important to at least get a very very good description of the dress to make sure that I am giving somebody a total look because if it is a very structured dress, then the hair style probably will suit being quite straight and sleek but as many of the dresses this season are kind of they've got either movement to them or chiffon or they've got lace then when you've got that kind of feel..curls and tumbling waves really will look well as well,' Worthington said.
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