Chapter 789: The Oscars Need Hype Too

"What do you think is the biggest favorite this year?"

Across the Pacific Ocean, because a certain TV network had purchased the broadcasting rights but never aired the event live, film fans following global cinema trends could only stream the Academy Awards online.

Fortunately, the internet offered more freedom. It wouldn't chop the awards ceremony into a chaotic mess the way that station did during its evening rebroadcasts.

Wang Ziming sat in front of his computer, listening to the website's host and a guest ramble on.

After the host asked that fluff question, the guest, Zhang Yibai, answered immediately, "I think the biggest favorite, or the most promising film, is The Social Network!"

The host pressed, "Why is that?"

"It's simple..." The guest put on the full airs of an Oscar expert. "At the Golden Globe Awards, the biggest bellwether before the Oscar Awards Ceremony, The Social Network was the biggest winner. Going by past conventions..."

Hearing this, Wang Ziming almost spat out his water. He had studied the film industry across the ocean. Even though he wasn't a self-proclaimed expert like the guy on the stream, he knew the Golden Globe Awards had little to do with the Oscars. Moreover, at the crucial guild awards, The Social Network had suffered a miserable defeat, which practically foreshadowed its fate at the Oscars.

As the two on the stream kept discussing it, Wang Ziming switched windows and opened a forum where the debate was in full swing.

"Will Duke win his second Best Director Golden Statuette?"

This was the central topic everyone here was discussing.

"He'll definitely win it, otherwise the Oscars have no fairness at all!"

A reply below followed, "The box office for Duke's two nominated films, Inception and Gravity, is higher than all the other nominated films combined!"

"Duke is the most popular director among audiences!"

Although most netizens in the discussion favored Duke to win, some people kept a cool head.

"Box office numbers are completely useless for winning an Oscar. The old geezers in the Academy couldn't care less if a director or a movie is liked by the audience..."

As soon as this was said, the forum quieted down considerably. Anyone with even a slight understanding of Hollywood knew this was the truth.

When had the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences across the Pacific Ocean ever cared about the audience when giving out awards?

As the red carpet kicked off, Wang Ziming returned to the live stream. It was still morning on this side of the Pacific Ocean, but in Los Angeles on the opposite shore, evening was approaching.

It was public knowledge that the viewership ratings for the Oscar Awards Ceremony had repeatedly hit new lows in recent years. This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Oscar organizing committee had spent a fortune to build the most luxurious crystal stage in history, aiming to visually capture the audience's attention. According to the news Duke had received, the stage for the 83rd Academy Awards—designed by Broadway set master David Rockwell—was decorated with 92,000 Swarovski crystals. They formed a spectacular "crystal waterfall" to create a fairytale world.

The Oscar organizing committee had not only completely revamped the stage decorations this year, but also made bold reforms to the broadcast segments. During the breaks of the awards gala, the committee would emulate the Super Bowl, heavily airing trailers for upcoming Hollywood blockbusters to attract more eyeballs and rake in more advertising revenue.

The committee had also deliberately added interactive segments to boost audience enthusiasm.

It was entirely fair to say that in order to save the Oscars' continuously declining ratings year after year, the Academy and the organizing committee were truly going all out.

After all, the Oscar Awards Ceremony had historically been a stable second or third in national viewership. Aside from the Super Bowl—which no program or sporting event could compete against—it had virtually no true rivals. However, the slump in ratings and viewership demographics in recent years had made the entire Hollywood industry feel the crisis.

Promotion, hype, and throwing out eye-catching gimmicks were the surefire ways to boost ratings.

Of course, if the Academy were willing to consider those massive box-office hits for the major awards, the ratings definitely wouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately, the Academy wouldn't do that easily.

Looking at it from another angle, the decline in Oscar viewership was inextricably linked to the Academy's increasingly conservative and niche choices.

Perhaps the Academy felt the highlights they released weren't appealing enough, or perhaps it was just media hype, but just two days before the ceremony, shocking news broke online that the Oscar winners list had been leaked.

According to this list, The Social Network would win three major awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography. Meanwhile, another hot favorite, The King's Speech, would only secure two technical awards for Best Costume Design and Best Makeup. In the acting categories, Leonardo DiCaprio narrowly lost to his fierce rival Colin Firth, missing out on Best Actor, while Natalie Portman would ride Black Swan to defeat a host of formidable opponents and claim Oscar Best Actress.

The list even claimed to bear the signature of the newly appointed Academy rotating chair, Cheryl Boone Isaacs. It stated Amy Adams would win Best Supporting Actress, the Best Supporting Actor award would go to Christian Bale, and the Best Director Award winner would be The Social Network's director, David Fincher.

Numerous media outlets were instantly in an uproar. Almost all entertainment publications began hyping up this incident wildly, collectively plastering the question across their prominent front pages—could the highly classified Oscar winners list actually be leaked?

It was a given that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would come forward to dispel the rumors.

"This list is absolutely fake," Leslie Unger, the spokesperson for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, responded during a media interview. "PricewaterhouseCoopers is still conducting the final tally of the votes. Before the results are revealed at the ceremony, only two people will know where the awards are going. The Academy will not inform the winners of the results in advance, nor would we ever release such a list of winners."

Generally speaking, an Oscar leak was virtually impossible.

The Oscar selection was a rigorously tight process. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the renowned accounting firm, was responsible for supervising the voting and tallying process. Ever since they took over the Oscar ballot counting, not a single leak had ever occurred.

After collecting the ballots, PricewaterhouseCoopers would dispatch two trusted ballot-counting supervisors to oversee a small team conducting the final tally in a secret location, right up until the winners list was produced and sealed into two separate envelopes.

Only these two supervisors knew the final voting results. On the night of the ceremony, they would take two separate cars via different routes to the Kodak Theater, preventing both of them from simultaneously encountering traffic jams or other unforeseen accidents. The entire process seemed absolutely foolproof.

However, only the rotating chair of the Academy and the current rotating committee knew whether there were actually any underhanded tricks going on behind the scenes.

Perhaps the Academy bigwigs saw a fake list online and intentionally rode the momentum to hype it up, boosting the appeal of this year's Oscar Awards Ceremony. Or perhaps they had forged the list themselves, deliberately feeding the media and the public a hot topic to discuss...

After all, even now, the theft of the Golden Statuettes at the dawn of the new millennium still lacked a truly convincing conclusion.

The Oscars, representing Hollywood's highest artistic achievements, similarly needed hype and gimmicks to attract viewers. In this day and age, commerce had already infiltrated every corner of the film industry. Even the most artistic endeavors within this business could ultimately never detach themselves from commercial interests.

When the sun neared the horizon, Duke appeared on the red carpet right on time, arm in arm with Scarlett Johansson.

Just like always, he wore a crisp, traditional black tuxedo. However, Scarlett Johansson beside him was dressed far more beautifully and fashionably.

Scarlett Johansson wore a handmade purple trailing evening gown from Dolce & Gabbana. The form-fitting design, coupled with patterned lace, made her look exceptionally elegant, while the backless and sheer details further enhanced her sexy charm.

"If your hairstyle were just a bit more refined, it would be even more perfect," Duke said to Scarlett as they stepped into the interview area.

Scarlett lightly touched her meticulously styled blonde curls and replied dismissively, "Your fashion sense has never been all that great."

Duke shrugged, tacitly agreeing with Scarlett's remark, and the two walked together into the interview area.

On such occasions, the reporters asked nothing but cliché questions, mostly focusing on their thoughts regarding the awards they were nominated for.

"In a few hours, you'll know whether I can win or not," Duke answered just as formulaically.

In contrast, Scarlett said a bit more. "Among all the actresses nominated for Best Actress, I am the youngest. The other four are all outstanding actresses, and they are much more qualified than I am to receive this Golden Statuette."

Whether anyone believed these words didn't matter. What mattered was that almost every nominated actor was saying the same thing; they were clearly cultivating a humble and easygoing public image.

In truth, Scarlett knew very well that her chances of winning were at least thirty percent. Her biggest competitor was Natalie Portman. Both of their roles and acting performances were essentially on the same level; the rest would depend on how well the behind-the-scenes work was handled.

During the critical voting phase, Duke had heavily capitalized on Benjamin Millepied's ex-girlfriend to create a media stir, which would inevitably offset some of the advantage the other woman held due to her pregnancy...

Following Duke into the Kodak Theater, they headed straight to the second row where the Gravity and Inception casts and crews were seated.

"Godmother..." Releasing Duke's arm, Scarlett took a quick step forward and hugged Mrs. Leah tightly. "I'm so happy you could come!"

Mrs. Leah gently patted her back. "Darling, I had to come witness your moment of glory in person."

Over the past few months, she had also reached out to quite a few old friends in Hollywood.

After Duke greeted Mrs. Leah, Scarlett sat down in her seat. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but seated right next to the Gravity crew was the Black Swan crew. When she turned her head, she happened to catch Natalie Portman observing their side, and the two women's gazes collided.