By Corinne Heller
Feb 21, 2008
HOLLYWOOD, California - Under several layers of nylon, on the ground floor of a popular shopping center in Hollywood, a rich red color peeps out.
This Sunday, tourists and shopping fanatics will be replaced by Johnny Depp, Daniel Day-Lewis and Ellen Page, new and old Hollywood stars, who after a three-month-long writers' strike -- and despite a forecast of rain -- will march on this carpet for the 80th time.
"We are prepared for everything," said one of the ceremony's organizers.
During the strike, dubbed by many "Angelenos" as "The 100-Days War," no one knew if the Oscars would indeed be held this year. Dozens of television productions were halted and thousands of crew members fired. The Academy Awards ceremony is, after all, another production.
The solidarity celebrities showed with the striking writers turned the once-glittering Golden Globes Awards into a tiresome press conference.
But this time, the party is on.
"I am relieved that the men and women of the entertainment industry are going back to work and I am ecstatic that the 80th Academy Awards presentation can now proceed full steam ahead with talented writers working on the show, a fantastic array of presenters and performers and, most importantly, the ability for all of our honored nominees to attend without hesitation or discomfort," said Academy President Sig Ganis in a press release.
While a large part of Israel's delegation representing "Beaufort", which is nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, sits on a plane en route to Los Angeles, Hollywood stars are trying on tuxedos and formal gowns.
Hundreds of people at the Hollywood and Highland complex, where the ceremony is to be held, are building poles, checking lights and cameras, yelling into earpieces and wiping clean large golden statues that will be lined along the carpet on the big day.
Journalists have been going in and out of the area all week. Only some 100 print reporters and some 100 print photographers received permission to stand on the red carpet, along dozens of video crews from news agencies and large networks from around the world.
The ceremony will be broadcast live in some 200 countries and will be shown in Israel at 3 a.m. on the HOT and YES networks.
(c) 2008 Ynet News Israel