It's the show behind the show. Take a sneak peek behind the curtain of the Academy Awards ceremony. But the nominations for the 71st Academy Awards are about to be announced, so the place is crammed with cameras, cameramen, reporters, publicists, studio executives, and the flotsam and jetsam of the movie industry. In the audience, more than 550 reporters ready their cameras and notebooks.
Television personalities touch up their makeup.
And in the aisle, producer Gilbert Cates takes in the entire pageant. Now, waiting for everyone else to learn the same thing, Cates puts his hands in his pockets, looks around, and shakes his head. Fast-forward one month, and the metaphor has changed. This is the annual production meeting, a time when the show's producers bring everybody up to speed. By now, Whoopi Goldberg has agreed to host her third Oscar show, and most of the presenters have been booked by Cates and by Danette Herman, for 21 years the show's executive in charge of talent.