Calendar Goes to The Oscars : Oscar Facts

Worldwide television audience: 1.5 billion.

Fans expected outside the Shrine Auditorium: 2,500-3,000.

Total participants, guests and fans: 10,000 (police estimate).

L.A. police personnel assigned to the event: 100 (including 20 to 30 motor officers).

State Department of Transportation traffic officers assigned to event: about 75.

State Department of Transportation engineers establishing traffic routes: 15 to 20 (last year’s number of engineers: 0).

Radius of traffic control: 1 1/2 miles (last year’s radius: 1/2 mile).

Portable street signs: 100 to 150.

Traffic cones: 1,000 to 1,500.

Limousines expected: 800-plus, according to motion picture academy; 800-950, according to private limousine firms; 1,000, according to L.A. Police Department; 500-800, according to Department of Transportation (and 800-plus other automobiles).

Price of a stretch limousine for the evening: $50 per hour with a 10-hour minimum. (Davel limousine company, Beverly Hills).

Price of hiring a stretch limo at the last minute: $75 per hour.

Red carpet being laid at the Shrine: 1,058 square yards.

Drapery used to cover the backs of the bleachers in front of the Shrine: 1,020 square yards.

Number of 100-by-30-foot drapes used in show: 33.

Size of special curtain for opening number: 30 by 210 feet.

Number of beads and sparkling stones hand-sewn onto curtain used in opening number: 50,000.

Tassels used on curtain: 75 feet of 3-foot-high tassels.

Celebrities whom Army Archerd expects to interview as they enter the auditorium: “as many as 100.”

Celebrity escorts provided by motion picture academy: 50.

Number of celebrities expected to clear armed bodyguards with L.A. Police Department (based on earlier years): 2 to 4.

Television news mobile units expected: 8.

Members of the press expected: 700.

Number of nations represented by reporters: 30.

Press photographers covering the awards: 175.

Phones in press tent: 250.

Typewriters provided by motion picture academy: 20.

Dressing rooms: 15 inside building, 12 mobile.

Number of seat fillers: 80 to 120. (To ensure that no empty seats will be seen on camera during the awards show, seat fillers are brought in to replace guests who leave.)

Portable sanitary facilities: 2 trailers with 8 restrooms.

Food expected to be consumed backstage and in press tent (based on earlier events): 50,000 cups of coffee; 20,000 pounds of produce; 750 sandwiches; 20 30-pound turkeys; 10 pounds of salt.

Cases of Dom Perignon champagne for show participants in “Club Oscar”: 6.

Number of waiters in the Green Room at the Shrine (“Club Oscar”): 3, plus 1 maitre d’.

Stocked coolers provided by Coca-Cola for presenters, nominees and special guests arriving in limousines: 800.

Number of ABC monitors at the Shrine: 100.

Number of ABC engineers assigned to Oscar show: 81 (4 technical directors; 5 video control engineers; 10 audio engineers; 2 graphics engineers; 14 utility people; 3 communications engineers; 8 videotape engineers; 17 equipment maintenance engineers; 17 camera operators; 1 lighting director).

Number of cameras ABC will use for the show: 17.

Tuxedos being provided by ABC wardrobe department for crew working the show: 320.

Feet of TV cable being used by ABC: 80,000.

Number of KABC engineers assigned to local pre-Oscar coverage: 13.

Price for 30 seconds of network commercial time: $375,000.

Price for 30 seconds of local commercial time: about $70,000.

Number of minutes of commercials planned: 21 network, 8 local.

Number of ABC promos: 6 or 7 (with emphasis on the return of “Moonlighting” and the network’s Wednesday-night lineup).

Makeup people backstage: 11.

Sets: 15.

Craftspeople involved in constructing the sets: 100-plus.

Man-hours to build sets: 6,000-plus.

Sheets of gold leaf used on sets: 10,000.

Number of square feet of Formica flooring used in sets: 10,000.

Stagehands: 106.

Volunteer runners working at the production office: 20.

Number of cars loaned for use by runners by Chevrolet: 20.

Number of hotel rooms booked by ABC for production personnel at the University Hilton prior to the Academy Awards: 60.

Number of phone calls fielded daily by Allan Carr’s production office during the past two weeks: 500.

Costume jewelry pieces provided for performers, presenters and nominees: 800 (400 earrings, 100 necklaces, 300 bracelets).

Rhinestones used in costume jewelry: 20,000.

Value of costume jewelry: $250,000-plus. (30 individual pieces, consisting of cubic zirconia in real gold settings, are valued at $13,000 to $15,000. There will also be a few 25- to 30-karat faux diamond rings--provided via show producer Allan Carr--on some of the celebrity women who will be on camera.)

Flowers to be used at the awards and MPAA Board of Governor’s Ball:

6 million.

Bottles of Halston cologne to be given as favors to guests at the ball: 1,600.

Gift truffles: 9,600.

Cases of Moet & Chandon champagne expected to be popped at the ball: 25.

Expected to be eaten at the ball: 20,000 baby vegetables; 1,800 pounds of salmon fillets flown in from Canada; 1,800 pounds of breasts from “free range” chicken; 2,000 potato baskets.

Servers hired for the ball: 250. (These waiters--many of whom are aspiring performers--will emerge en masse from the kitchen and sweep across the ballroom to serve in what the caterer calls a “Busby Berkeley” effect.)

Nominees expected to travel the longest distance: Willem Dafoe and Edward James Olmos, both of whom are shooting “Triumph of the Spirit” in Poland.