Chapter 29
1794 Words
On the evening of March 23, 1998, in front of the lavish and opulent Los Angeles Sacred Theatre in Los Angeles, four huge models of golden Oscar statues stood on the front.
The Walk of Fame, a 277-foot-long red carpet in front of the doors, was a star-studded affair.
The plaza and the red carpet are crowded with fans.
Many fans slept for two nights to get a good seat on the bleachers in front of the theater in order to get a glimpse of the Hollywood stars as they made their entrance.
When Leonardo DiCaprio and Margaret Adjani walked down the aisle, fans who had spent two nights sleeping rough nearly wept with joy.
--It was so worth it!
Television viewers, who watched the red carpet live in every country in the world through the broadcasting rights of about a billion people, cheered from all corners of the world.
Not only the fans were delighted, but also the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organizer of the Oscars, who knew a few days ago that the two would be walking together on the red carpet, was pleasantly surprised by the buzz created by the young couple.
And ABC, which owns the rights to broadcast the Oscars live and has the exclusive rights to produce and distribute the show, nearly screamed at the ratings as they continued to climb to new heights.
The 70th Oscars, which had already received a lot of attention worldwide because of the global popularity of "Titanic," not only brought a lot of money to Los Angeles, "the entertainment capital of the world," but also seemed to bring back the golden age of Hollywood at the end of the century with its superstar style.
Inside the magnificent Sacred Theater, 5,500 VIPs filled the theater to capacity.
"Live from the Sacred Auditorium in Los Angeles, where we honor the film industry's most outstanding achievements at the 70th Academy Awards, ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome tonight's host, Billy Crystal."
The curtain pulls back and what appears before the guests' eyes is a prop on the bow of a ship that looks like the Titanic, and Billy Crystal is stepping down from the ship with ease, "Good evening everyone, and welcome to the Titanic."
Although the atmosphere of the Oscars party, in general, is quite a bit more serious than the Golden Globes, it always has to be light-hearted and humorous so as not to bore the TV audience.
"We're like this big ship, we're big, we're expensive, and everybody wants us to be fast, so let's try to accommodate you tonight."
Billy Crystal humorously referenced the fact that the Oscars have often been criticized for being slow-paced and on the serious side, often making for sleepy viewing.
"Is everyone ready to get the real party started?" Before Billy's voice dropped, the entire theater resounded with a beautifully operatic accompaniment.
"It's a marvelous night for the Oscars-" Billy Crystal sang the Oscar song straight through.
"Let's talk about the Best Picture nominees for a moment, we're sitting right back in that big boat," the camera sweeps over James Cameron in front of the TV, "the story started many years ago, before it went over budget, this boss is a big Hollywood director, it's made over a billion dollars now, and I'd really like to leave it open for a crack. After all, other movies have to be sold."
As he sang, the camera swept over the cast and crew of Titanic from time to time, and when focused on Leonardo - the
The billion viewers watching the live TV broadcast realized that Margaret Ajani was sitting next to him!
Just one second of footage caused ratings to climb again.
It took a while for anyone to realize - is this Leonardo pushing Jude Law aside and sitting hard next to Margo?
Billy's hand-waving opening was far from over, and after introducing a couple of nominees with an opera, was now facing Leonardo - the
"Leo, you look practically like you're glittering with gold and have an influence on the girls as if you were God himself, but you know what? I'm totally mesmerized by the girls around you."
With that, he actually walked off the stage and pulled his camera out of his suit pocket and handed it to Leo, "Stand up, I'm going to sit in your spot and take a picture with Ajani."
The whole crowd was amused by him, and just as Leo stood up to take the camera, Billy grabbed his seat and cheered into the camera, "Look, I know the most beautiful girl in all of Europe!"
When Margaret's sideways face appeared on the TV screen, ABC simply wanted to give Billy Crystal a mansion, and by golly, the viewership topped fifty million!
Leo spreads his hands at the camera and raises it to press the shutter a couple of times, the cameras and radios are being aimed all over him.
The audience in front of the TV heard Mr. Man-Maniac's voice, and there was a hint of resignation in his deliberately posed tone of displeasure, "Oh, Billy, you have no idea how cold she is."
"Really?" Billy Crystal looked at Ajani with feigned surprise, "Oh my God, that's such a sexy personality."
The whole audience roared with laughter, and the audience in front of the TV nearly hooted.
And the ABC offices are screaming, 52 million views now!
Billy finally gave Leo his seat back and went on to introduce the rest of the cast and the nominated movies.
It took a few minutes for the long but entertaining opening to come to an end and the awards to begin.
When it comes to the 70th Oscars, the hottest topic is, of course, Titanic.
But at the awards ceremony, Titanic went out on a limb, as the oldest actor nominated in Oscar history, eighty-seven-year-old Gloria Stuart, who plays the elderly Ruth, failed to win the Best Supporting Actress award.
Television in front of a large number of "Titanic" fans, can not help but begin to worry, the movie will also be like the year claimed to be unsinkable ship, in the maiden voyage that suffered a catastrophe.
The cast and crew of "Titanic" were inevitably on edge.
It is important to realize that the Oscars are different from most award ceremonies in that the list of winners is highly confidential and the Academy never informs the winners of the results in advance.
After the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences vote, the ballots are counted by Price Waterhouse LLP.
The ballots are kept in a safe, guarded day and night by a heavily armed security detail.
The paper used after counting was even burned in its entirety to keep it absolutely secret.
The list of the winners of each award, on the other hand, was put into sealed envelopes until the moment of the award presentation day, when it was unsealed and announced by the guest of honor in front of the public.
So even Leo was beginning to worry about the big ship at this point, while Margo, sitting next to him, whispered, "I think you can award Titanic's next trophy yourself."
That's right, hand award it.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, on the same day Leo suggested he would attend the Oscars dinner, invited him to be the presenter of the award for Best Costume Design.
And Margaret had been invited to present the award two weeks earlier.
You see, the Academy is quite capable of creating news points in order to increase viewership and attention.
Since it's already gotten a billion simultaneous viewers worldwide for this Oscars because of Titanic, why not try to create a legend?
Although "Titanic" is not quite to the liking of those old fellows in the Academy, the lure of making the Oscars the most watched movie awards in the world has apparently convinced the ever-curvy Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
When one performance was over, Billy's host continued, "Next, please welcome Leonardo DiCaprio and Margaret Adjani."
When Billy said the honorees, the ratings on ABC hit an all-time high, with more than 55.2 million simultaneous viewers across the United States.
But after the surprise, viewers realized that the entrance music had been playing for a while, but no one was on stage.
Just as people were getting nervous, the camera brought over to the screen -
Leo, who had dazzling blonde hair, was standing at the edge of the stage screen with his arms clasped and a very disgruntled looking expression on his face.
The brunette beauty, on the other hand, was looking at him expressionlessly, slightly raising her head to look at the camera, and the charm between her eyes was so charming that it made her heart skip a beat and took her breath away.
God, her eyes simply seemed like the eyes of the sky.
Leo looked at her in exasperation, "I can't believe you said I looked like an unweaned little wildcat, that's just vicious."
He yelled at the photographer, "Get it on film, get it on film, let the world know what a cold woman she is."
"Relax, Mr. DiCaprio," Margaret said with a chilly look on her face, "I didn't mention the little wildcat, the cat pups are much cuter."
Immediately there were bursts of laughter from the stage, not to mention the audience in front of the television.
It was simply unimaginable that the Oscars could one day make people laugh non-stop.
Leo is quite a bit taller than Ajani in heels, and the interaction is not only extraordinarily funny at this point, but the picture is beautifully mesmerizing.
"Come on, apologize to me, you want to screw up the Oscars?" Leo, who is twenty-four years old but still looks like a classically beautiful teenager, is colorfully threatening her at this point, the little expression on his face amusing the audience.
Margo leaned against the edge of the stage and looked at him indifferently, "Or are you going to threaten me with jumping overboard? You jump, I jump?"
Leo's look of dismay and not knowing how to retort appeared on the TV screen as the viewers once again surpassed fifty-six million.
Man, are these two rising Hollywood A-list superstars getting ready to form a group to venture into the stand-up comedy industry? Or are they about to make a comedy movie?
In front of the TV, tens of millions of girls, madly infatuated with Mr. Man-Maniac, looked at the classical beauty who frequently disliked Leo to the point of dumbfoundedness, and inexplicably felt that-
She's so good looking, of course she's going to be forgiven.
Leo is simply being unreasonable.
- Writer
