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Academy: Oscars will go on -- for nowABC would interrupt broadcast if news breaks
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The Oscars will go on as scheduled Sunday, barring any significant incidents related to the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Frank Pierson said Friday. At a news conference with show producer Gil Cates, Pierson said they are continuing efforts to bring the 75th Academy Awards show together as planned at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. "As you saw on the last two nights, the situation is so unpredictable that we want, like the president himself, to keep our options open and to be flexible. So I'm not going to speculate under what conditions we might or might not postpone," Pierson said. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has said the Kodak Theater will be among the safest places in the country Sunday, and Pierson said there are no worries about security. "But we are most certainly concerned about the feelings of our audiences at home and abroad and of the members of the academy," he said. "We will be watching what is happening hour by hour, and in the meantime, all of our crew, nominees, presenters and past Oscar winners, Steve Martin our host, are all here and preparing like us for Sunday night," he added. The 75th Oscars are scheduled to be broadcast live by ABC beginning Sunday at 8 p.m. EST. Cates has said ABC might adjust for war coverage and that the network will cover news as it happens. He added that any decisions on broadcasting the show will be made jointly by the academy and ABC. With war looming Tuesday, organizers decided to cancel the splashy red-carpet arrivals of celebrities Sunday, saying they wanted a more sober ceremony and that celebrity attendees had asked not to speak to reporters. The entertainment industry's glitzy awards shows have been affected several times since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the start of the nation's war on terrorism. Television's Emmy Awards were delayed twice in 2001, initially because the program had been set to take place a few days after the attacks, and then because the rescheduled date coincided with the start of the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan. A toned-down Emmy show was broadcast in November. Celebrities wore business attire rather than evening gowns and tuxedos. The Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences canceled its Latin Grammys show, scheduled for September 11, 2001. The Oscars have never been canceled, but the ceremony has been postponed three times. The awards were delayed a night in 1981 because President Reagan was shot earlier that day. The assassination Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 pushed back the ceremony two days. Extensive flooding in Los Angeles delayed the Oscars by a week in 1938. The ceremony went on throughout World War II but on a less ostentatious level.
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