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Oscars Find New Producers, Search For Host: After a much-needed upswing in viewers last year, the board of directors at the Academy Awards was hoping to continue its relationships with last years producers, Larry Mark and Bill Condon, and host Hugh Jackman. But both producers are tied up with other projects and Jackman is apparently uninterested. Instead, they'll try to maintain momentum with Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic, both filmmakers of a similar pedigree. As for a new host, there are rumors that Tom Hanks has been asked. [Deadline Hollywood]

Izod Wraps First Season With IndyCar: After signing on for a five-year marketing partnership with IndyCar in March, Izod spent its first season on the tour justifying the millions of dollars that have already gone into its largest marketing effort to date. As the official apparel sponsor, Izod was present at 17 races, 20 in-store events, and advertising in every medium. The label finished the season last week with two in-store events at a Miami Macy's that brought drivers and shoppers together. [WWD] MORE >>

Oscars, Academy Awards, Hugh Jackman, Tom Hanks, Izod, IndyCar, Volkswagen

NEWS 10.20.09 6:32 PM

Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman to Produce Oscars Telecast

Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman will produce the 82nd Academy Awards telecast, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Tom Sherak announced today. This will be the first significant Oscar show involvement for both.

Mechanic is the chairman and C.E.O. of Pandemonium Films and the former chairman and C.E.O. of Fox Filmed Entertainment. His producer credits include this year's Coraline. Shankman’s directorial credits include Hairspray and The Wedding Planner.

In an announcement, Sherak said that Shankman's experience in producing, directing, and especially choreography would prove assets to the production—suggesting dance could play a significant role in the program. He also said that Mechanic's experience as a producer, studio exec, and film historian would come into play. MORE >>

Oscars, Award Season, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, ABC

NEWS 08.03.09 3:03 PM

Academy Introduces New Award Dinner Set for November

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will host its new black-tie Governors Awards banquet on November 14, according to a report in The New York Times. The dinner will be held in the grand ballroom at the Hollywood & Highland Center. The academy plans to present its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and Honorary Award Oscars at the event, as well as the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, according to The Times. Recipients of those awards used to receive them during the main Oscar broadcast, along with the other winners. The 2010 Oscars broadcast is set for March 7 (a bit later than recent years' typical February date, an effort to avoid a conflict with the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada). —Alesandra Dubin

Oscars, Award Season, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

NEWS 02.25.09 4:06 PM

In the News: Northern Trust Upsets Congress, Mardi Gras Carries on Despite Recession

Magazine Publishers of America Downsize Conference: The annual American Magazine Conference, planned as a three-day function in Boca Raton, Florida, this October, won't go ahead as planned. Instead, the Magazine Publishers of America will host a one-day event in New York. [Mediaweek]

Washington Riled Over Northern Trust Corp. Spending: A group of congressional representatives, led by Barney Frank, has called out Northern Trust Corporation for misuse of the $16 billion in U.S. bailout funds it received last year. TMZ reported earlier this week that a firm-sponsored golf tournament in California included nights in the Beverly Wilshire and Ritz-Carlton hotels for clients and employees, lavish parties with A-list entertainment, and Tiffany souvenirs. A spokesman wouldn't divulge details of costs, but insisted the spending "is part of a business decision regarding an annual event to show appreciation for clients.” [Bloomberg] MORE >>

Magazine Publishers of America, Northern Trust, Mardi Gras, Liz Smith, Oscars, Academy Awards

EVENT REPORT 02.24.09 11:00 AM

Montblanc Stages Big Reveals to Heighten Drama at Charity Dinner

Montblanc's Signature for Good event
Photo: Line 8 Photography

Two days before the Academy Awards—with so many top-tier celebrities swirling around Hollywood—Montblanc hosted a charitable gala, dubbed Signature for Good, to benefit education and literacy programs for Unicef. Michael Friedman of Delphi Productions spearheaded the production for the event, which began on Friday when a group of 250 arrived to a red-carpet set on the Paramount’s New York Street.

During the cocktail hour that preceded the gala in the foyer, larger-than-life portraits of 12 celebrities for the cause were revealed, including portraits of Susan Sarandon, Milla Jovovich, Emily Blunt, Helen Hunt, Eva Longoria, Mira Sorvino, Andie MacDowell, Sienna Miller, Christina Ricci, Jessica Lange, Lauren Hutton, and Marcia Cross. A rigging system brought in all the portraits, which stood onstage behind the celebrities during the gala's presentation portion. MORE >>

Montblanc, Paramount, Unicef, Oscars, Award Season

EVENT REPORT 02.23.09 2:10 PM

Oscar Night Parties: Mercedes-Benz Grows, A.P.L.A. Shrinks, and Leeza Gibbons Joins the Fray

The Night to Make a Difference fund-raiser at Mr. Chow
Photo: Dale Wilcox for BizBash

On Oscar night—after the academy doled out its awards at the Kodak and many guests scattered to the Governors Ball and Vanity Fair's and Elton John's bashes—a host of other parties was taking over town. Included in that group last night was at least one substantial newcomer, one annual party that grew, and one that shrank: Leeza Gibbons’ new fund-raiser with Olivia Newton-John and David Foster, Mercedes-Benz’s bash, and AIDS Project Los Angeles’s viewing party respectively.

Leeza Gibbons
The first Night to Make a Difference benefiting the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation and Olivia Newton-John’s Cancer and Wellness Centre took to Mr. Chow, where about 250 guests dined on a 10-course meal during the broadcast that showed on 16 plasma screens in the space. Ken Paves hosted a red carpet arrivals program, volunteer correspondents interviewed celebrities about nonprofit causes, and musical guests including R&B and pop singer Thelma Houston and DJ Steve Aoki performed at the event, which streamed live online for six hours on Sunday, beginning at 4 p.m. The new event—for which tickets sold out the week before show time—has a three-year contract with Mr. Chow for future Oscar night galas. MORE >>

Oscars, Award Season, Mercedes-Benz, AIDS Project Los Angeles, Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation, Olivia Newton-John’s Cancer and Wellness Centre, Metrosource

EVENT REPORT 02.23.09 1:49 PM

Vanity Fair Oscar Party Returns With New Venue, Smaller Guest List, and Chicken Potpie

Vanity Fair gobos on the Sunset Tower Hotel
Photo: Alberto E Rodriguez/Getty Images

Vanity Fair put its hat back in the Oscar ring last night, returning after last year’s sabbatical with a smaller viewing dinner and after-party at the Sunset Tower Hotel. Long known as the evening’s hottest ticket, the fete drew an A-list-only crowd, seeing the likes of Kate Winslet, Sean Penn, Penélope Cruz, Mickey Rourke, Madonna, Elton John, and Meryl Streep make their way down the red carpet.

Party host and Vanity Fair editor in chief Graydon Carter told reporters last night that he wanted to create a glamorous but cozy party this year, and he achieved the latter with a whittled-down guest list of 650—compared with 1,150 in 2007—in a venue known for its striking views and old-Hollywood cache, but lack of event space. Carter had announced back in November that the party would be pared down, saying, “We’ll celebrate Hollywood’s big night the way we did when we first threw the party 15 years ago—it will be a cozier, more understated event.” (That said, Cityfile noted on Friday that an event permit filed by the mag in West Hollywood listed the head count at 1,000 guests.) MORE >>

Oscars, Award Season, Vanity Fair

NEWS 02.23.09 12:17 PM

What the Press Said About the Oscar Ceremony: Different Is Good

The press is decidedly divided about what worked and what didn’t at last night’s rejiggered Academy Awards ceremony, but everyone seems unanimous in the assessment that it was different. And any departure for a show that saw its lowest recorded ratings just last year seems to be a welcome one.

The New York Times’ Alessandra Stanley posited that the night’s best move was the selection of Hugh Jackman as host. “Mr. Jackman was high-spirited, not mean-spirited," she wrote. “He spoke with sass, but unlike more satirical predecessors like Chris Rock and Jon Stewart, there were no smirks; he came to the task with Broadway sizzle, not a stand-up routine.” [NYT]
Whether the production numbers were effective or not doesn’t seem to matter to most. The fact that there was such a dramatic change to the format was enough for The Hollywood Reporter to note that the franchise is "undeniably the better for it.” [Hollywood Reporter]
Variety’s Timothy M. Gray—who was actually inside the Kodak Theatre—wrote an overwhelmingly positive review, praising the set design and, particularly, the incorporation of music. “The best decision was to move the orchestra onstage, which made a closer physical connection between audience and performers, helping break down that best-behavior attitude; the looser mood was contagious even to the balconies.” [Variety]

MORE >>

Oscars, Academy Awards, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

EVENT REPORT 02.23.09 11:23 AM

Elton John's Recession-Appropriate Gala Still Glitters—and Offers Guests a Chance to Hit Vanity Fair, Too

Elton John's black-and-white Oscar party
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

With Vanity Fair’s party canceled last year on account of the writers' strike, Elton John’s bash rose to the top of the Oscar-night clutter. But the reemergence of the magazine’s party this go-round did little to quash the glitter of last night's 17th annual Elton John AIDS Foundation benefit at the Pacific Design Center—and neither did the woeful economy, which necessitated careful budget review, but no cuts that looked jarring to guests.

John and husband David Furnish hosted the viewing dinner and party, and Chopard, Jo and Raffy Manoukian, and VH1 were the evening’s cosponsors. Foundation executive director Scott Campbell oversaw the event, tapping Virginia Fout again this year to produce it. MORE >>

Award Season, Oscars, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Raphael Saadiq, Chopard, VH1, Ciroc, Sterling Vineyards, Budgets, Vanity Fair

EVENT REPORT 02.23.09 11:22 AM

Oscar Governors Ball Chooses Zen-Inspired Understatement Over Splashy Opulence

The Governors Ball
Photo: Line 8 Photography

When an economy of unprecedented lousiness met one of the the most traditionally lavish parties of the year last night, the result was a Zen-looking Academy Awards Governors Ball marked by restraint, compared with the drama of past years. The party took over the grand ballroom at Hollywood & Highland following the awards at the Kodak Theatre in the same complex.

The classic elements of air, fire, wood, and earth inspired this year's event, which Cheryl Cecchetto of Sequoia Productions produced with ball chair Cheryl Boone Isaacs. This was Boone Isaacs' seventh year as chair, and Cecchetto has worked on the event for more than two decades. "In this economy, we wanted to go with a pared-down look, but keep it elegant and beautiful," said Cecchetto, who drew some of her inspiration from a teahouse in Beijing. She characterized the look and feel as a "marriage of simplicity and beauty." Boone Isaacs added that the use of organic elements in the design was "like a breath of fresh air," and something "totally different"—an important difference from past years, you might say, in light of the glum atmosphere in the world outside the ballroom. MORE >>

Award Season, Oscars, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Sterling Vineyards, Patron, Ultimat Vodka, Moët & Chandon, Governors Ball

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