Hollywood Gears up For Oscar Night
PHILLIPS: The stars and the fans will be out in full force tonight in Hollywood. It's Oscar night. The fans hope to catch a glimpse of their favorite actors and the actors hope to grab the gold. CNN's Sherri Sylvester has this look at Oscar preparations.</s>SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The image of Oscar preparations is not exactly picture perfect. First there were the ballots mailed in third class bags missing and presumed dead letters and then the 55 trophies stolen, all but three recovered in a dumpster. Add a chance of rain.</s>BRUCE DAVIS, EXEC. DIR., A.M.P.A.S.: We're not just planning for rain, we're planning for one of those rains of frogs this year. We think you'll need to watch out for anything because 2000 has certainly been a very strange year for us.</s>SYLVESTER: It is all comic material for host Billy Crystal. Sometimes Oscar's best jokes come from unexpected places, so says writer Bruce Filanche (ph).</s>BRUCE FILANCHE, WRITER: And we wanted to see what people do that we can comment on and when something wonderful happens, we tear up the script and we write a new one as we go.</s>SYLVESTER: Better prepare for the annual protesters. This year, pro-life teens are picketing "The Cider House Rules." The best picture nominee deals with abortion. Some invited guests are here by unconventional means. Willie Fulgear, the man who found the Oscars, gets two tickets.</s>WILLIE FULGEAR: They called me and asked me would I like to be on the show and I told them yes, I would love to.</s>SYLVESTER: And Tyrine Manson (ph), the subject of a nominated documentary, has been in prison on a drug conviction. She was granted a weekend furlough to attend.</s>TYRINE MANSON, "ON THE ROPES": All that I'm experiencing right now, it doesn't really make up for it. It's just like, it's just the next level.</s>SYLVESTER: Back on the red carpet, the show goes on. Camera rehearsals require stand-ins for big stars and fans who were swept off the sidewalk earlier in the week can now line up for a chance to see their favorites arrive. Fans from around the world can view flowers from around the world. LARRY KRANE (ph),</s>OSCARS FLORIST: Ecuador and Costa Rica, Hawaii and Holland.</s>SYLVESTER: Oscar florist Larry Krane is not worried about the rain, rather, the arranging.</s>KRANE: We have about 60,000 blooms here that we are working with because there's over 600 running feet of just flower boxes of potted plants on the red carpet.</s>SYLVESTER: While he deals with floral patterns, Joe Groves (ph) is planning the traffic patterns.</s>JOE GROVES, LIMO COORDINATOR: We'll get about 1,200 limos that night arriving all right over here on the red carpet. So we're unloading about 35 limos at a time and they're still backed up all the way, about a half mile to a mile down the street just trying to get here.</s>SYLVESTER: The "Wall Street Journal" may be predicting the winners, but what else might happen is anybody's guess. Sherri Sylvester, CNN, Los Angeles.