Roll out the red carpet, it's time to hand out some statuettes.
The 90th Oscars ("Academy Awards" have been dropped from marketing) will air on ABC today, beginning with Oscars Opening Ceremony: Live From the Red Carpet from 5:30 to 7 p.m., followed by three hours of live statuette presentations.
Jimmy Kimmel will host from the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles. The proceedings will be televised in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
Kimmel did the honors last year, making him the first host to repeat back-to-back since Billy Crystal doubled up in 1997 and 1998. In total, Crystal hosted nine Academy Awards between 1989 and 2012.
Trivia: There have been 73 different people (plus Donald Duck in 1958) who have hosted or co-hosted the Oscars.
For those of us of senior status, Bob Hope will always be the quintessential Oscar front man. He served 18 times between 1940 (Gone With the Wind was best picture) and 1978 (Annie Hall).
Douglas Fairbanks co-hosted the first Academy Awards with William C. deMille in 1929. Held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the event was not quite the sprawling global gala it is today. The presentations in 12 categories lasted a mere 15 minutes.
Tickets to the private dinner cost $5 and there were only 270 folks attending. By comparison, 40 million watched the first televised Academy Awards in 1953, hosted by Hope in Hollywood and Fredric March in New York. Inexplicably, the brilliant and heavily favored High Noon lost best picture to The Greatest Show on Earth, later considered among the worst Best Picture winners.
The most Oscars viewers -- 57.3 million -- came in 1998 when Titanic won best picture. Just under 33 million watched last year when Moonlight took top honors.
What's in store for this year?
The Shape of Water heads the list with 13 nominations, followed by Dunkirk with eight and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri with seven.
There are 24 Oscar categories, but most folks tune in for the Big 4 -- best picture, actor, actress and director.
In addition to The Shape of Water, Dunkirk and Three Billboards, the others up for best picture are Call Me by Your Name, Darkest Hour, Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread and The Post.
Nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role are Timothee Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name), Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), and Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.).
Up for Best Actress in a Leading Role are Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird), and Meryl Streep (The Post).
And on tap for Best Director are Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Jordan Peele (Get Out), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread), and Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water).
You'll get no predictions from me. Being the TV guy, I rarely get out of the recliner into a theater. I've only seen one of the nominees (Get Out) and found it just swell.
I also know that in addition to watching the winners gush, stammer and thank their managers and mothers, many viewers tune in to the Oscars to check out the presenters and the performers.
Among those handing out statuettes this year will be Mahershala Ali, Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Margot Robbie, Kumail Nanjiani, Laura Dern, Tiffany Haddish, Jennifer Garner, Gal Gadot, Mark Hamill, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Armie Hammer, and Zendaya.
And here's the list of those singing the nominated songs.
"Remember Me" from Coco -- Gael Garcia Bernal, Natalia Lafourcade and Miguel (Miguel Jontel Pimentel).
"Mighty River" from Mudbound -- Mary J. Blige. She co-wrote the song with Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson.
"Stand Up for Something" from Marshall -- Common and Andra Day. Common won an Oscar in 2014 for "Glory" from Selma.
"This Is Me" from The Greatest Showman -- Keala Settle.
"Mystery of Love" from Call Me by Your Name -- Sufjan Stevens.
For Oscarphiles (is that a word?) wanting to get an early jump on the proceedings, E! Live From the Red Carpet kicks off at 4 p.m. and runs until 6 with celebrity arrivals. (Who arrives at 2 p.m. Hollywood time?)
That'll be followed at 7 p.m. by Red Carpet Rundown, which will deal with "the hottest fashions."
Drinking game? Belt one down every time you hear, "You look mahvelous, dahling! Who are you wearing?"
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 03/04/2018