Tight security ahead of Oscars
2006-02-28 09:23
Hollywood - Sniffer dogs, bomb squads and poison gas detectors will be deployed to protect Sunday's Oscars from any terror threat, officials said, as they drew a tight security cordon around the venue.
Authorities began a massive security lockdown in Hollywood on Monday, closing off streets and launching sweeps of the area ahead of Tinseltown's biggest night, the 78th annual Academy Awards ceremony.
A section of the famed Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Kodak Theatre, where 3 500 of the most famous stars on earth and movie moguls will gather to see who will win the world's most glamorous movie prizes.
More streets around the venue will be shut in the run-up to the awards which will go ahead under ultra-tight security to ward off any threat of a terrorist attack on one of the greatest symbols of Western culture: Tinseltown.
Well-prepared in the event of trouble
"There's no specific threat against the Oscars, but it's something we're always prepared for," said Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Paul Vernon.
"(But) the potential for someone trying to disrupt the Oscars has always been high," he said as workers and security agents began swarming the area where the world's most famous red carpet will be laid out later this week.
Thousands of police officers, plain-clothes detectives, security guards, dog units, snipers and even a fire department unit specialised in detecting chemical agents in the air will be deployed for the March 5 ceremony, officials said.
"There are a variety of contingencies that we may need concern ourselves with," Vernon said, declining however to reveal exact details of the sensitive plans.
"We have the ability to respond to any situation that might occur," he said of the show that is watched by up to one billion television viewers across the globe.
About 350 members of the public who won a lottery for tickets for bleacher seating and hundreds of journalists will also be on the red carpet when Hollywood's good and great begin arriving for what is seen by many as the greatest fashion show on earth.
Taking no chances
Police sharpshooters have been reported to be in rooftop positions overlooking the red carpet in previous Oscar years, but officials declined to comment on their presence on March 5.
The public and even protesters can gather a few hundred metres away from the carpet in an area closed to traffic ahead of the show, leaving TV viewers' living rooms as the best vantage point for watching the show.
As perhaps the ultimate symbol of pop culture that has become all the more sensitive amid the conflict between the West and extremist Muslim fundamentalist groups, Oscars organisers take no chances with security.
"The security is always very tight and ubiquitous and we are confident that our guests and our winners be safe from any threat," said Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences communications chief John Pavlik.
In addition to closing off streets around the theatre, stores in the adjacent Hollywood and Highland shopping mall and on frequently seedy Hollywood Boulevard will be shut down, sealed off and inspected by the bomb squad a day ahead of the show.
Plenty of construction work
As the week goes on, a key freeway onramp into Hollywood will be shut down and underground trains will by-pass the station near the secure Oscars venue.
The street closures also allow workers to begin building the infrastructure required to host for the red carpet arrivals.
"It's a major construction job for a huge event with a lot of things being built including a very heavy bridge over Hollywood Boulevard, so we need time to do it," Pavlik said.
The red carpet covers half a city block of the street that usually attracts hundreds of tourists flocking to see the Hollywood Walk of Fame or the famed Tinseltown picture palace movie theatres of the 1920s.
But by Saturday the whole area will be closed off to both tourists and the homeless people who frequent the area.
In addition to security, organisers are getting nervous about another threat to the Oscars this year: the weather.
"We are also trying to fight the rain," Pavlik said. "We have to put a contingency plan to cover the red carpet in place if it's going to rain. It's a big job."