The Complete Viewer's Guide to the 75th Annual Academy Awards
plans had the show functioning as it usually does, to do red carpet interviews with the arriving stars. But since the Academy has announced that there will be no red carpet arrivals and interviews, producer Gil Cates said that the pre-show would instead change to having more historical clips from Oscar's past instead of red-carpet interviews, so we'll have to wait and see what the pre-show ends up being.
In addition to the 24 categories awarding excellence in film for 2002, the Academy's Board of Governors typically votes honorary Oscars to long-time legends in the film industry. This year, the Academy is awarding only one Honorary Academy Award (at least, that's all that's been announced). The Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement this year will be going to actor Peter O'Toole, who has been nominated seven times over the course of his career but never won. The citation on his Honorary Oscar will read "Peter O'Toole -- whose remarkable talents have provided cinema history with some of its most memorable characters." And O'Toole's characters have indeed been igniting the film screen for four decades now. O'Toole has appeared in some 50 films, his most notable and remembered role being one of his earliest performances in the 1962 Best Picture winner LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, playing the immortal role of T.E. Lawrence in what is unquestionably one of the greatest epics ever made.
But besides his work in LAWRENCE, O'Toole is remembered for such remarkable performances in films such as MAN OF LA MANCHA, BECKET, THE LION IN WINTER, GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, THE RULING CLASS, THE STUNT MAN, MY FAVORITE YEAR, LORD JIM, and THE NIGHT OF THE GENERALS.
With only one special Academy Award planned to be given out, that should save a lot of time in the Oscar telecast, especially compared to last year's marathon (which was the longest Oscar telecast yet at 4 hours and 15 minutes). Of course, the Academy will no doubt have several surprises in store, and reflections back on Oscar history to celebrate the 75th anniversary. We do know that several living legends are scheduled to be on stage towards the end of telecast, as Elizabeth Taylor recently revealed that she planned on being there for this final tribute. Because of the situation with the war in Iraq, things will undoubtedly be more subdued (and more may be announced this weekend as far as show changes), but I'm sure the Academy will still go
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