AMPASWhy is Oscar night on a Sunday? It is a nightmare for us Oscar lovers here in Europe to stay up late before a workday. Why not Saturday?
—Yalos
Because way more people watch TV on Sundays than Saturdays. Besides, if the Oscars went too long, they'd have to compete with Saturday Night Live. They weren't always on Sundays, though. "For many years, the Oscars were on a Monday," Academy spokeswoman Leslie Unger tells me. The switch to Sunday was made in 1999.
So what about 9 of the top 10 most watched Oscar broadcasts taking place on a Monday? Unger explains, "The traffic planning and other necessary logistics are somewhat easier to execute on a Sunday." OK!
What is it about Kristen Stewart that makes me want to punch her?
—Kamelita, via Twitter
That she's getting a reported $12 million to film New Moon?
If you've already answered this in the past, please point me to it. If not, here goes: Who knows who won an Oscar before Oscar night? I mean, someone has to print the information on the cards. Is that one person only? Does the Academy president know? I have always wondered this.
—Stephanie, Lake Forest, Calif.
Per Unger, "There are only two people who know who the winners are before the envelopes are open. They are the lead balloting partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm that counts the ballots. Currently, the lead partners are Rick Rosas and Brad Oltmanns. No one else, and absolutely no one at the Academy, knows in advance."
How can actors smoke on set (as in Mad Men, for instance) without breaking any smoking-in-the-workplace rules?
—Fossettes, via Twitter
Per a recent column of mine, the cigarettes are fake.
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