奧斯卡：備好紅毯並非易事

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For Most Oscar viewers, the red carpet is little more than a fluffy delight — a few hours filled with insanely expensive dresses, over-caffeinated commentators and false modesty.

But for Joe Lewis, whose job is to make sure the red carpet is ready to be tread upon come Sunday, it's serious business. For the past seven years, Lewis has been contracted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to hire hundreds of vendors for the big day, overseeing everything from power and lighting to fan bleachers and porta-potties. His company began preparing for theOscars in September.

Around two weeks before the Academy Awards, Lewis relocated from his home in Manhattan Beach to the Loews Hollywood Hotel so that he could be close to the action. Not that the proximity has helped his sleeping schedule much.

"I got 70 minutes last night," he said with a chuckle Tuesday morning. "But I like the intensity of it. We're essentially building a little city out there."

The actual red carpet — which begins after the stars exit their limos at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue and travels all the way up the staircase to the Dolby Theatre entrance — is more than 600 feet long and won't be laid until Friday evening.

Until then, Lewis will repeatedly check the weather forecast — the area is tented in the case of rain (a distinct possibility this year). And on Oscar day, just before the 289 media outlets credentialed for the show arrive, he'll even make sure the carpet has been vacuumed.

Lewis, of course, isn't the only one busy this week preparing for perhaps the world's splashiest red carpet. The Times spoke to some of those who work the Oscars to get a sense of what goes into readying for the big day.

At E! — the network home to the Kardashians and Joan Rivers — there is no day bigger than the Oscars.

"Oscar day is our Super Bowl," said Kolb, president of E! Entertainment, who will send 20 cameras and 350 employees to the red carpet this weekend. The plethora of producers, stylists and camera operators will all help create nine hours of Oscar-centric programming set to air on the cable channel Sunday.

"We literally started planning the day after the Oscars last year," said Snegaroff, the executive producer of all of E's red carpet programming.

Though the main event will be Ryan Seacrest interviewing celebrities on the red carpet, dozens of other E! personalities will also be dispatched to critique fashion and cover big parties, like the Governors Ball and the Vanity Fair bash.

This week, research teams dig up information on the various Oscar nominees and presenters for Seacrest, who is given a card on every celebrity who might approach his platform.

"His first question is thought out, but the rest is often pretty spontaneous," said Kolb. "Ryan is a tremendous draw for celebrities. We don't have to do any bending over backward to get them to stop because he's not a reporter they've never met before from an outlet they've never heard of."

E! representatives will reach out to celebrity publicists in advance in the hopes of locking them into the schedule. But on the red carpet, where hundreds of people are chaotically rubbing elbows, those plans often fly out the window.

"Honestly, if it rains, the limo is gonna be late, or there might be a dress malfunction," said Snegaroff. "You can never count on them, but I get it. They want to look good."

The vote count starts on Wednesday in a windowless room at an undisclosed location. That's where eight PricewaterhouseCoopers employees will begin tabulating the Oscar ballots of 6,028 academy members, which were due Tuesday evening.對於大多數奧斯卡觀衆來說，紅毯不過是象徵着空洞的虛榮——充斥着價格昂貴到令人咋舌的服飾、過於興奮的評論者和虛僞的謙遜的幾個小時。

但對於喬·路易斯來說，並不只是這麼簡單。他的工作是確保紅地毯在即將到來的週日能夠安全地供人們行走。在過去的七年中，路易斯已經和美國電影藝術與科學學院（AMPAS）簽訂合同僱傭了上百名供應商來爲這一盛會做準備，負責監督從電力、燈光到觀衆看臺、便攜廁所等所有工作。九月份，他的公司開始爲奧斯卡頒獎禮做準備工作。

大約在頒獎禮開始前兩週，路易斯從他位於曼哈頓海灘的家搬到了洛斯好萊塢酒店以便工作。然而住得如此之近並不能給他更充足的睡眠時間。

“我昨晚只睡了1小時零10分鐘，”週二的早上，路易斯輕笑着說。“但我喜歡這樣的工作強度，我們實際上就是建造了一座小型城市出來。”

真正的紅地毯——從明星們走出他們位於好萊塢大道和高地大街拐角處的豪車開始，直到走完所有樓梯到達杜比劇院的入口——足足有600英尺長，並且直到週五晚上纔可以開始鋪設。

在那之前，路易斯會反覆查看天氣預報——爲了防止下雨（今年很有可能會出現），整塊區域已經用帳篷遮蓋了起來。到頒獎禮當天，在289家允許進入的媒體到達之前，他還會確認下紅地毯是否已經被真空吸塵器打掃乾淨。

當然，路易斯並不是唯一一個忙於爲本週這個全球最引人注目的紅毯做準備的人。《泰晤士報》也採訪了其他爲奧斯卡而忙碌的人，看看人們爲了這次盛典還準備了些什麼。

在E！——對於卡戴珊一家人和瓊·裏弗斯來說就像家一樣的網絡——沒有什麼比奧斯卡頒獎禮更盛大的日子了。

“奧斯卡對我們來說就像超級碗比賽”，E！娛樂公司的老闆Kolb說，本週末他將派出20臺攝像機、350名工作人員前往奧斯卡頒獎禮。這些數量衆多的製片人、造型師、攝影師都是爲了能夠在週日成功直播頒獎禮。

“事實上，去年奧斯卡一結束我們就開始準備今年的奧斯卡了，”E！娛樂公司此次奧斯卡項目負責人Snegaroff說。

儘管主要事件是瑞安·西克雷斯特採訪紅毯上的名流，但E！公司的還是會派出一些人士負責評論明星們的着裝、採訪一些奧斯卡中一些重大聚會比如頒獎禮晚宴以及舞會。

本週，研究團隊已經爲瑞安·西克雷斯特挖掘到了關於這屆奧斯卡提名者及演講者的各種信息，西克雷斯特手中會有一張卡片，卡片上寫有每一位可能會走過他身旁的名流們的各種信息。

“他的第一個問題是仔細想好的，剩下的絕大多數都是即興提出來的”，Kolb說，“瑞安對名人們來說就是一個很大的吸引力。我們不需要費盡心思地努力讓明星們停住腳步，因爲瑞安並不是來自那種名不見經傳的媒體的無名記者。”

E！娛樂公司的代表會提前聯繫那些明星以便將他們列入計劃之中。但是在幾百人摩肩接踵的紅毯上，這樣的計劃經常會落空。