Gold bears boy ash mantle.

Gloomy times for the glittering world of Hollywood: The producer of the Oscar ceremony, although offer a great show - but in times of recession, while modest type. This balancing act to master, it is so difficult, because the gala already in a deep crisis.

 

Los Angeles - This Oscar smells of fish. More precisely, according to smoked salmon. Dozens of small, handy salmon canapés at Oscar statuettes punched and refined, each with one spoon of caviar on the trophy chest. How are they edible tin soldiers lined up on trays, ready to be eaten by the stars.

Wolfgang Puck, Hollywood VIP Koch, bends over the table like a salmon father on the baby crib. The Austrian is in his element. His forehead shines, his face is full of joy, his fingers flit over all the courts, which he has designed for the Food: Tuna tartare on sesame croissant, vegetable salad with ginger-soy vinaigrette, Maine Lobster ( "everything organic ingredients" ). And of course his patented mini chocolate Oscars, with 24-carat gold pollinating.

"Elegant's should look," says Puck the slogan of this year, "but not too exaggerated."

And that should not only be the motto of Pucks mega party, the traditional governor Ball, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the Oscar ceremony on Sunday, and the puck as always cared culinarily. It is also the motto for the entire 81st Oscar ceremony - a ritual from entrenched gloss, glamor and navel-gazing in the recession year 2009, threatening to act anachronistic than ever.

This dichotomy manifests itself in a tent in front of the Kodak Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, where the Academy Awards since 2002 are over. Outside, just start working, the red carpet manner, on the parade of those soon Couture Coiffure and will expire, which an equally important role PR meets as the Oscar show. Inside the tent served Puck and his co-caterer tastings of their Oscar-menus - a sensitive issue in several ways.

Symbol of the excess

One offering a leggy hostesses since the ancient symbol of excess, Moët & Chandon ( "Mo-Etten-Shandong") in green magnum bottles. Other hand, there even Napa Vintners Mike West-Ring - the "official Oscar wines" there is nowhere else - to feel the recession: "A little bit anyway."

The Oscar organizers practice the balancing act: Is the Hollywood marketing machine beweihräuchern itself, while the whole world in the economic crisis is sinking? Send it to the stars, their riches on display to make on the red carpet and the Kodak Theater - while the CEOs of the financial world by train to Washington zuckeln to new modesty about mimes?

These are legitimate questions that the Oscar producers since weeks. Especially since their mammoth gala, in the night on Monday live in more than 200 countries will this year, even deep in the crisis.

Already the last time before the recession in the U.S. so allocated had decreased rates of glittering show at its lowest level ever: 32 million U.S. viewers, one fifth less than in 2007. Disney's ABC Network, which holds TV rights, was forced to raise the price for a 30-second commercial from 1.7 to 1.4 million U.S. dollars to cut.

Everywhere is saved

Despite saying this large number of Oscar-sponsors from their participation. For example, the ailing auto company GM and L'Oreal Paris, the cosmetics company, the Oscar-viewers, on average, have become too old. American Express makes just a TV spot. Expected total advertising revenue: 68 million U.S. dollars - 14 million U.S. dollars less than the 2008th "Oscar," writes the Los Angeles Times, "is less golden."

Everywhere is saved. The presidential suites in which stars previously free gifts for product placement on your body can pick up, are less abundant this time equipped. Even the after-parties engage in frugality. Elton John invites while back on his charity event, others, like Madonna and Prince, however, refrain, and the magazine "Vanity Fair" has his party - which traditionally heißbegehrteste ticket the night - significantly reduced. Hollywood party outfitter Michael Gapinski complained about cuts querbeet: Some would have their holiday budget by up to 75 percent cut, he told the Reuters agency.

Even in the pre-fashion show on the red carpet, there is modest. Since 2002 designer Stuart Weitzman missed a selected Star "Cinderella" Pumps, which he set with diamonds, worth one million dollars had occupied. This time he sees by this marketing gimmick pietätvoll from.

Covered tones were announced, the stylists whisper - like 1941, when the guests were asked to match the war raging in Europe to wear dark colors. Oscar-favorite Kate Winslet was in this season is already almost entirely in black look. Even price tag-Protzerei is passé: "It was once chic to boast that 16-million-dollar jewels bears," said celebrity publicist Howard Bragman of the Los Angeles Times. "It is now considered a bad taste."

Not all the new tastes humility. "Who wants to turn on the TV and a bunch of women in black trouser suits on the red carpet to see run?" Said Hal Rubenstein, fashion head of the VIP newsletter "Instyle", an ABC-TV breakfast. "This is a recession, no apocalypse." Even celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe warns against Oscar Tristesse: "Teach us to make people smile, even when it's only for an hour."

It's the film industry itself not too bad. The 2009 cinema revenues are currently at nine percent above those of 2008, the last holiday weekend was the strongest in the history of Hollywood. The problem lies elsewhere - in the case of ailing companies, which the studios include: Viacom, GE, Time Warner, News Corporation. The need to save all around.

Much intimacy and little Lamé

The Oscar producers try any case, to break the curse - with a production that "the DNA of the entire show to redefine" is, as the architect David Rockwell says that the current Bühnensets designed. Co-producer Bill Condon ( "Dreamgirls") wants to date "more intimacy, less Lamé," Virile and Hugh Jackman, the "Sexiest Man Alive" ( "People"), will serve as a new MC women as men to lure Mattscheibe.

Whether that's enough, you will only know on Monday. Some criticized the poor quality of the films nominated for the David Denby, the influential film critic of the "New Yorker", even the word "scandal" was: "2008 was not a good year for movies." Other bekritteln anything other than the Oscar-faire Abstimmsystem, which is unchanged since 1936. Concerns: Many viewers will be away from the outset.

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck may not disturb anything. Whether or not to recession: It has more than a thousand people for a gala dinner to be off. While he strives to crisis emphasizes friendly understatement, for example by giving clear mini Kobe burger served in Hollywood gourmet circles currently the court-du-jour.

At the end of the Oscar, but can not otherwise veteran: "There will be a crazy party. One has but to spend money so that Obama's economic package is working."