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Roll out the red carpet
The cream of the crop descends on Hollywood
By Jacqueline Spendlove TV Media
The red carpet and designer duds are ready for cameras to start rolling when the glitterati descend on Los Angeles once again for Hollywood’s biggest night.
Another glamorous awards season comes to an end with the granddaddy of them all when the last golden Oscar statue is handed out at L.A.’s Dolby Theatre this month. Hosted for the first time by award-winning stage and screen star Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”), The 87th Annual Academy Awards airs live Sunday, Feb. 22, on ABC.
If you only tune in to one awards show this season, the Oscars is the one to catch. This year’s ceremony honors some of the best films of 2014 and shines a light on many of the biggest names in the business.
This is the third consecutive year that Neil Meron and Craig Zadan are producing the event, and despite some mixed reviews, particularly where the hosts were concerned, the previous two Oscar telecasts received a notable spike in ratings from previous years. The 86th Academy Awards, hosted by muchloved comedian Ellen DeGeneres (“Finding Nemo,” 2003), drew in more than 45 million viewers, making it television’s most-watched entertainment event in a decade and netting an eight per cent increase over the previous year. The host’s celebrity-filled selfie, now famous for being the picture that broke Twitter, was the most retweeted photo of all time with nearly 33 million views.
Though some critics denounced the ceremony as dull and far too long, citing DeGeneres’ unremarkable and, at times, cringe-worthy emceeing, Meron and Zadan wanted her back this year — after all, the ratings speak for themselves. The talk show darling was against hosting the awards for the third time, however, and the next two on the list, Chris Rock (“The Chris Rock Show”) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Seinfeld”), didn’t pan out either. (It should be noted that Rock denied he was ever offered the gig, and Meron and Zadan said in a statement to Deadline.com that the