Oscar® Red Carpet Ready to Roll

Academy members have cast their votes. The polls closed yesterday at 5 p.m. PT. By tomorrow, they will all be counted and some trusted secretary (administrative assistant) will begin typing away on the envelopes and the cards that will be inserted within them. Lucky person now, because most of the work is already done by computer and it is mainly "type winning name in the proper place on the data page that will be merged with the template."

The Oscar® red carpet will be in place Saturday, 23 February, when 50 students from Inner-City Filmmakers (ICF), a training and film industry job development program, will carry the Oscar statuettes for the 80th Academy Awards® down the red carpet and into the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center® this Saturday at 10 a.m.

The statuettes, which have been on display at the “Meet the Oscars” exhibition since 1 February, will be transported to the red carpet, along Hollywood Boulevard, where they will be placed in the hands of the ICF students, and they will then carry them down the red carpet into the Kodak Theatre. Once inside, the Oscar statuettes will be kept backstage, under close watch, until they are presented to the winners during the 80th Academy Awards ceremony the next day.

Academy Award nominees, presenters and performers will be greeted on Oscar’s red carpet on Sunday by film historian, television host, and Hollywood Reporter columnist Robert Osborne. This will mark his third time as official greeter. Red carpet guest arrivals are expected to begin at approximately 3 p.m. PT. Therefore, on the East coast the red carpet show will begin at 6 p.m. ET, followed by "The Barbara Walters Special" at 7. The Oscar® telecast will begin at 5 p.m. PT, 8 p.m. ET. Barbara Walters will be seen after the Oscar broadcast, Central and Pacific Times.

The guy who thinks of himself as "the king," Regis Philbin, will host the official 30-minute red carpet arrivals show preceding the 80th Academy Awards® presentation gala. This will be Philbin’s first time hosting the show that airs on ABC, immediately prior to the Academy Awards presentation.

This hosting assignment marks a return to the Oscar® red carpet for Regis, who was a pioneer interviewer of arriving stars beginning in the 1970s. Regis will be joined by first-time co-hosts Samantha Harris and Shaun Robinson. Who?

Samantha Harris is best known for her daily reporting for E! Entertainment Television’s “E! News” and co-hosting duties on “Dancing with the Stars.” A two-time Emmy nominee, she also serves as a special correspondent for “Good Morning America” and as an occasional guest co-host on “The View.” Prior to joining E!, Harris served as the weekend co-host for the nationally syndicated entertainment news magazine “Extra.”

Shaun Robinson is the weekend co-host and correspondent for the syndicated entertainment news show “Access Hollywood.” She is an Emmy® Award-winning journalist who has served as a guest co-host on “The View” and contributed reports for “The Today Show,” MSNBC, CNN and “NBC Nightly News.” Prior to joining the world of entertainment, Robinson was an anchor and reporter for WSVN-TV in Miami, Florida.

Now you know. Enjoy the red carpet show, or ship it. As for me, I shall save my "couch time" for the presentation show, and perhaps the "The Barbara Walters Special," as mentioned above, also on ABC, before or after the presentation show, depending upon where you live. Check your local station for all the times.