Oscar Presenters, Performers and Parties

The Oscars

The day is finally here! The 78th Annual Academy Awards will be handed out at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. The Daily Show's Jon Stewart will host this year's grand ceremony (his invitation seems to have been widely embraced by the public, and might even help ol' Gil Cates finally achieve his goal of improving viewership!) Oscar nominations were announced January 31, 2006 (see below).

Following tradition, last year's Best Actress Hilary Swank, Best Actor Jamie Foxx, Best Supporting Actor Morgan Freeman and Best Director Clint Eastwood will be presenters at the 78th Oscars Presentation. Unfortunately, last year's Best Supporting Actress Cate Blanchett will be unable to fulfill the tradition this year because she's playing the title role in a stage production of "Hedda Gabler" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

Jessica Alba, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Bana, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Steve Carell, Gorgeous George Clooney, Will Ferrell, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hanks, Selma Hayek, Terrence Howard, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Rachel McAdams, Jack Nicholson, Queen Latifah, Keanu Reeves, Will Smith, Meryl Streep, Ben Stiller, Charlize Theron, Lily Tomlin, Uma Thurman, John Travolta, Naomi Watts, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon and Ziyi Zhang will also present the prestigious Academy Award.

Director / producer / writer Robert Altman will receive an honorary Oscar to commemorate "a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike."

Dolly Parton will perform her nominated original song, "Travelin' Thru" from "Transamerica." Ms. Parton wrote both the music and lyrics for the song. Kathleen "Bird" York will perform "In the Deep" from the film "Crash," for which she is nominated for writing the music and lyrics (co-composer Michael Becker also is nominated for the music.) Jordon "Juicy J" Houston, Paul "DJ Paul" Beauregard and Darnell "Crunchy Black" Carlton of the Memphis rap group Three 6 Mafia will also perform at the 78th Academy Awards. Beauregard and Houston, who are nominated for writing the music and lyrics for "It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow," will perform their nominated song with group mate Carlton and actress Taraji Henson, who sang the hook in the film. Cedric "Frayser Boy" Coleman, who is nominated with Beauregard and Houston, will also perform. The song will be the first rap song ever performed on the telecast in the history of the Academy Awards.

The show will be broadcast on ABC at 5:00 pm PT/8:00 pm ET. It will be preceded by ABC's "official" red carpet coverage, as well as day long coverage on the E! Entertainment Television Network.

And while Gil Cates has said he won't be repeating last year's presentation fiasco, he isn't exactly planning to return the awards presentation back to it's traditional format. Once again, in the interest of saving time, Cates will be rounding up the nominees in the artistic (otherwise known as technical) categories to play a game of musical chairs with them during commercial breaks. The nominees will be temporarily placed in the first rows of the Kodak Theater, so that the winners can sprint to the stage to accept the award. Cates has already advised these nominees that, if they want their full 60 seconds of fame, they are not to bring out any paper to read from or even stumble during their speeches. Any fumbling will cause Bill Conti to cue up the orchestra and end the winner's moment in the spotlight. The Academy has taken every measure to make sure that this year's traditionally lengthy Oscar speeches go off without a hitch - along with the nominee's tickets to the Oscars, every nominee received a 15 minute DVD, narrated by Tom Hanks, featuring examples of "good" speeches vs. "bad speeches" from previous year's Academy Awards ceremonies.

Official websites: Oscar.com / Oscar.org / Oscar.org Academy Awards

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