The ever-popular Conan O’Brien will host the Oscars Show on Sunday.
By BERNICE FOX
Oscars night is the biggest night in Hollywood – and often in Pacific Palisades! Several high profile names with ties to the Palisades will be part of Sunday’s Academy Awards.
Front and center will be Conan O’Brien. As host, the Riviera resident did such a good job at last year’s Oscars that he’s charged again with keeping the jokes coming and the show moving.
There are the nominees, of course. And at least two Palisadians are nominated for Oscars.
Kate Hudson is up best actress for playing half of a Neil Diamond tribute duo in Song Sung Blue. This is Hudson’s second Oscar nomination. Her first was in 2001 for her supporting role in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous.
Steven Spielberg is mostly known as a director. But he’s one of the main producers of Hamnet about William Shakespeare and his wife, called Agnes in the film. Hamnet is nominated for best picture. So as producer, Spielberg has a best picture nomination. This is Spielberg’s 14th nomination for best picture. And that’s a record for an individual producer.
With a best picture Oscar nomination for his film, Hamnet, Steven Spielberg now has a record 14 best picture producer nominations. This photo shows Spielberg last year at Francis Ford Coppola’s AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony.
A parade of stars will present the lists of nominees and announce who “the Oscar goes to.”
Robert Downey Jr. as Rear Admiral Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer. Downey won an Oscar for this supporting role.
Robert Downey Jr. will be one of those presenters on Sunday. Though he lives in Malibu, over the years he’s owned a couple of homes in Pacific Palisades. Downey received his own Oscar two years ago for supporting actor in Oppenheimer.
Long-time former Oscars host Billy Crystal, who’s also a former honorary Palisades co- mayor, is reportedly featured in a special part of the “In Memoriam” segment. Variety says Crystal will join on stage with his When Harry Met Sally co-star, Meg Ryan.
The two are expected to pay special tribute to Rob Reiner, who with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, was murdered in their Brentwood home in December. Reiner directed the 1989 classic When Harry Met Sally. Crystal and Reiner remained friends all these years later.
Billy Crystal, director Rob Reiner, and Meg Ryan on the set of the 1989 movie, When Harry Met Sally
The Academy Awards will air Sunday, March 15, on ABC, Channel 7, starting at 4 p.m. The show also can be watched on Hulu.
A full list of this year’s Oscar nominations is available: click here.