It's Oscar night: Let the races begin
( 2002-03-25 08:55 ) (7 )

The stars will be out Sunday night in Hollywood, literally. For the first time in 42 years, the swanky Oscars ceremony will actually take place in Tinseltown. The new Kodak Theatre along Hollywood Boulevard is playing host to the 74th Annual Academy Awards.

It's just a block from where the first Oscars were handed out in 1929. The champagne is on ice, the limos are warmed up and a small army of security men are at work.

With its red carpet parade of stars, Sunday's Oscars ceremony is expected to mark a full return to the kind of pomp and circumstance normal for Hollywood after an awards season in which the flash and dash was toned down out of respect for the victims of the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks.

Air traffic was banned over Hollywood and concrete barriers lined the entryway to the theater, visible signs of heightened security measures.

Hundreds of private security guards and police patrolled the area as Hollywood Boulevard - home to the Walk of Fame -and surrounding streets were closed to traffic. Police bomb squads and hazardous materials teams were also on hand to respond to any threats, officials said.

RACE FOR BEST PICTURE

In the best-picture category, "A Beautiful Mind" is up against "Gosford Park," "In the Bedroom," "The Lord of the Rings" and "Moulin Rouge."

And for the first time in 29 years, three black actors have been nominated in lead-acting categories: Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball," Will Smith in "Ali," and Denzel Washington in "Training Day."

Adding to the black presence, past Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg returns as the ceremony's host, while Sidney Poitier, the only black to win a lead-acting Academy Award, receives an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.

Unlike many years, when a clear favorite such as "Titanic" or last year's "Gladiator" emerged as likely best-picture winner, two main films are dueling for the top Oscar. "A Beautiful Mind," starring Russell Crowe as schizophrenic math scholar John Nash, and the fantasy epic "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" split many film honors leading up to the Academy Awards.

Some Oscar analysts give "A Beautiful Mind" the edge because it is a more down-to-earth drama that voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences often favor.

"Moulin Rouge," a comic tragedy set in 1899 Paris that became the first musical to compete for best picture in 22 years, is regarded as a longshot spoiler. The ensemble satire "Gosford Park" and the dark family drama "In the Bedroom," though widely acclaimed, generally are thought to have little chance of winning.

"Fellowship of the Ring" has a leading 13 nominations, with "A Beautiful Mind" and "Moulin Rouge" next with eight apiece.

BOOKIES LAYING ODDS

Professional oddsmakers are putting their money on "A Beautiful Mind" to win best-picture and best-actor Oscars.

Bookmakers at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and British bookmaker William Hill both liked "Mind" to win the awards for best film and best actor for Crowe.

Hill was the most bullish on "Mind" for best film, giving the picture 4-7 odds to take home the Oscar. Caesars was more conservative, pegging the film at 5-2.

Hill gave the actor the most bullish odds of 2-5. Caesars pegged Crowe's chances of winning at a more conservative 7-2.

Caesars said "Gosford Park" was the dark horse in the category at 12-1. Hill put the film at an even more distant 14-1, but made "In the Bedroom" its longshot at 33-1.

The two sides also agreed that Sissy Spacek was the favorite to win best-actress honors for "In the Bedroom," with Hill again giving the most confident odds of 5-6 versus 5-2 for Caesars.

Caesars also gave 5-2 odds in the category to Nicole Kidman for her performance in the musical "Moulin Rouge, while Hill made Kidman its No. 3 favorite at 5-2. Hill said Halle Berry had a 2-1 chance of winning best actress for "Monster's Ball" while Caesar's said she was a 6-1 shot.

Both sides agreed that Ren閑 Zellweger has only a tiny chance in the category, with Caesars offering a relatively generous 12-1 while Hill pegged her at 50-1.

OSCAR'S NEW DIGS

The Oscars' new home is smaller than last year's digs, leaving more people who wanted to attend the Academy Awards ceremony without seats this year.

The Kodak Theatre is also television-friendly, its architect says, with a vertical design that includes room for TV-camera movement.

"The theater is designed to look good from 365 degrees, because many of the shots are reaction shots from the audience," said architect David Rockwell. "And we wanted it to be intimate enough so that there is a real connection between the audience and performers."

Hundreds of seating requests - including about 300 from academy members - were refused for Sunday's show, said Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The 3,100-seat theater has about 900 fewer seats than last year's Shrine Auditorium.

"In general, people have been understanding about the crush of requests, but there are always a few who can't understand why you can't produce six extra tickets just for them," Davis said.

TICKET LOTTERY

Tickets were guaranteed for nominees, studios, and honored guests such as the governor and mayor. Also guaranteed seats were academy officers, and sponsors who purchased 30-second commercials on the ABC telecast.

After that, a lottery was held for interested academy members.

"Those who fail at the lottery get a priority for the following year," Davis said. "It's as fair as we can make it."

The Kodak is actually larger than the 2,700-seat Dorothy Chandler Pavilion downtown, which was the show's site 25 times.

The theatre is next to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where the awards were held three times during the 1940s, and less than a block from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where the first Oscars were presented in 1929.

Sunday's ceremony will be the first major event at the Kodak complex, part of a $615 million redevelopment project designed to revive Hollywood's downtown.

WHEELCHAIR-ACCESS SUIT

Meanwhile, several dramas are grabbing attention besides the Oscar races themselves.

Even as the Motion Picture Academy proclaims that the Kodak represents a return to Oscar's Hollywood roots, the owner of the theater is being sued by a group that claims the building lacks proper seating for people who use wheelchairs.

The theater violates state and federal laws designed to provide the disabled with access, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in federal court.

During a tour of the theater two weeks ago, officials "couldn't show me a single seat that complied with the law," said Eve Hill, director of the Western Law Center for Disability Rights, a nonprofit group based in Los Angeles.

Representatives of the theater's owner, Canada-based TrizecHahn Corp., said company officials had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.

PERSONAL DRAMA

Another drama being played out as final preparations are made for the Oscar telecast is whether actor Ryan O'Neal, who has been battling chronic leukemia for the past year, will appear as a presenter. He is scheduled to appear alongside actress Ali MacGraw, his co-star in the 1970 big-screen romance "Love Story," his publicist said on Friday.

But People magazine reported last week that O'Neal's younger brother, Kevin O'Neal, 56, had some of his bone marrow harvested earlier this month to have available should the actor need a bone marrow transplant. O'Neal's daughter, actress Tatum O'Neal, told the magazine that it was unclear whether her father would require transplant surgery. Because his younger brother was in poor health, doctors did not want to wait before performing the painful extraction.

The 60-year-old actor has responded well to other leukemia treatments so far and was in good spirits, Tatum O'Neal told the magazine.

The actor was diagnosed about a year ago with chronic leukemia right around the time he was finishing work on his latest movie, "People I Know," a romantic comedy also starring Al Pacino and Kim Basinger.

Sunday night's ceremony will be broadcast live from the Kodak Theatre on ABC. Following various pre-ceremony telecasts, the show itself is to begin at 5:30 p.m. PT (8:30 p.m. ET).