2017奥斯卡：备好红毯并非易事

For most Oscar viewers, the red carpet is little more than a fluffy delight — a few hours filled with insanely expensive dresses, over-caffeinated commentators and false modesty.

But for Joe Lewis, whose job is to make sure the red carpet is ready to be tread upon come Sunday, it's serious business. For the past seven years, Lewis has been contracted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to hire hundreds of vendors for the big day, overseeing everything from power and lighting to fan bleachers and porta-potties. His company began preparing for theOscars in September.

Around two weeks before the Academy Awards, Lewis relocated from his home in Manhattan Beach to the Loews Hollywood Hotel so that he could be close to the action. Not that the proximity has helped his sleeping schedule much.

"I got 70 minutes last night," he said with a chuckle Tuesday morning. "But I like the intensity of it. We're essentially building a little city out there."

The actual red carpet — which begins after the stars exit their limos at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue and travels all the way up the staircase to the Dolby Theatre entrance — is more than 600 feet long and won't be laid until Friday evening.

Until then, Lewis will repeatedly check the weather forecast — the area is tented in the case of rain (a distinct possibility this year). And on Oscar day, just before the 289 media outlets credentialed for the show arrive, he'll even make sure the carpet has been vacuumed.

Lewis, of course, isn't the only one busy this week preparing for perhaps the world's splashiest red carpet. The Times spoke to some of those who work the Oscars to get a sense of what goes into readying for the big day.

At E! — the network home to the Kardashians and Joan Rivers — there is no day bigger than the Oscars.

"Oscar day is our Super Bowl," said Kolb, president of E! Entertainment, who will send 20 cameras and 350 employees to the red carpet this weekend. The plethora of producers, stylists and camera operators will all help create nine hours of Oscar-centric programming set to air on the cable channel Sunday.

"We literally started planning the day after the Oscars last year," said Snegaroff, the executive producer of all of E's red carpet programming.

Though the main event will be Ryan Seacrest interviewing celebrities on the red carpet, dozens of other E! personalities will also be dispatched to critique fashion and cover big parties, like the Governors Ball and the Vanity Fair bash.

This week, research teams dig up information on the various Oscar nominees and presenters for Seacrest, who is given a card on every celebrity who might approach his platform.

"His first question is thought out, but the rest is often pretty spontaneous," said Kolb. "Ryan is a tremendous draw for celebrities. We don't have to do any bending over backward to get them to stop because he's not a reporter they've never met before from an outlet they've never heard of."

E! representatives will reach out to celebrity publicists in advance in the hopes of locking them into the schedule. But on the red carpet, where hundreds of people are chaotically rubbing elbows, those plans often fly out the window.

"Honestly, if it rains, the limo is gonna be late, or there might be a dress malfunction," said Snegaroff. "You can never count on them, but I get it. They want to look good."

The vote count starts on Wednesday in a windowless room at an undisclosed location. That's where eight PricewaterhouseCoopers employees will begin tabulating the Oscar ballots of 6,028 academy members, which were due Tuesday evening.

对于大多数奥斯卡观众来说，红毯不过是象征着空洞的虚荣——充斥着价格昂贵到令人咋舌的服饰、过于兴奋的评论者和虚伪的谦逊的几个小时。

但对于乔·路易斯来说，并不只是这么简单。他的工作是确保红地毯在即将到来的周日能够安全地供人们行走。在过去的七年中，路易斯已经和美国电影艺术与科学学院（AMPAS）签订合同雇佣了上百名供应商来为这一盛会做准备，负责监督从电力、灯光到观众看台、便携厕所等所有工作。九月份，他的公司开始为奥斯卡颁奖礼做准备工作。

大约在颁奖礼开始前两周，路易斯从他位于曼哈顿海滩的家搬到了洛斯好莱坞酒店以便工作。然而住得如此之近并不能给他更充足的睡眠时间。

“我昨晚只睡了1小时零10分钟，”周二的早上，路易斯轻笑着说。“但我喜欢这样的工作强度，我们实际上就是建造了一座小型城市出来。”

真正的红地毯——从明星们走出他们位于好莱坞大道和高地大街拐角处的豪车开始，直到走完所有楼梯到达杜比剧院的入口——足足有600英尺长，并且直到周五晚上才可以开始铺设。

在那之前，路易斯会反复查看天气预报——为了防止下雨（今年很有可能会出现），整块区域已经用帐篷遮盖了起来。到颁奖礼当天，在289家允许进入的媒体到达之前，他还会确认下红地毯是否已经被真空吸尘器打扫干净。

当然，路易斯并不是唯一一个忙于为本周这个全球最引人注目的红毯做准备的人。《泰晤士报》也采访了其他为奥斯卡而忙碌的人，看看人们为了这次盛典还准备了些什么。

在E！——对于卡戴珊一家人和琼·里弗斯来说就像家一样的网络——没有什么比奥斯卡颁奖礼更盛大的日子了。

“奥斯卡对我们来说就像超级碗比赛”，E！娱乐公司的老板Kolb说，本周末他将派出20台摄像机、350名工作人员前往奥斯卡颁奖礼。这些数量众多的制片人、造型师、摄影师都是为了能够在周日成功直播颁奖礼。

“事实上，去年奥斯卡一结束我们就开始准备今年的奥斯卡了，”E！娱乐公司此次奥斯卡项目负责人Snegaroff说。

尽管主要事件是瑞安·西克雷斯特采访红毯上的名流，但E！公司的还是会派出一些人士负责评论明星们的着装、采访一些奥斯卡中一些重大聚会比如颁奖礼晚宴以及舞会。

本周，研究团队已经为瑞安·西克雷斯特挖掘到了关于这届奥斯卡提名者及演讲者的各种信息，西克雷斯特手中会有一张卡片，卡片上写有每一位可能会走过他身旁的名流们的各种信息。

“他的第一个问题是仔细想好的，剩下的绝大多数都是即兴提出来的”，Kolb说，“瑞安对名人们来说就是一个很大的吸引力。我们不需要费尽心思地努力让明星们停住脚步，因为瑞安并不是来自那种名不见经传的媒体的无名记者。”

E！娱乐公司的代表会提前联系那些明星以便将他们列入计划之中。但是在几百人摩肩接踵的红毯上，这样的计划经常会落空。

“如果下雨，明星们的豪车就会到得稍迟一些，或者他们的服饰可能就会出现问题。你不能指望他们，但我知道，他们都想看起来漂漂亮亮的。”

计票工作会在位于秘密地点的一间无窗的屋子里进行。普华永道事务所的6名工作人员将会在这里将6028名学会成员周二进行的投票结果进行统计，制成表格。