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CNN Live Today
Security Top Concern at Academy Awards
Aired March 22, 2002 - 10:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: When the stars hit the red carpet at Sunday night's Oscar ceremonies, the cameras will flash and the million dollar smiles will beam, and in the shadows of that spot light, another mission will focus with deadly seriousness. It is the job of providing security, a challenge that has grown even more intense in these days after September 11.
CNN's Daryn Kagan is on Oscar duty all week long, and she is going to join us with a closer look.
Daryn, are you seeing a lot of security around you?
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of security. We are going to get to that in just a moment, Carol. First, a really fun, exciting thing, want to show you this, they are literally rolling the red carpet out as we speak. They are rolling it -- go ahead. He was waiting to be on television. They are rolling out the red carpet. This is, for folks familiar with Los Angeles, this red carpet, it is going down the middle of Hollywood Boulevard, where -- I'm completely standing in the middle of what is an incredibly busy street.
This is just one block of about 15 blocks that are going to be closed around this area of the new Kodak Theater. For those of you familiar with Los Angeles, it's between Orange and Highland. This street, of course, closed because this is right where the red carpet is, but most of it is because of security, and our Charles Feldman has more on that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, your host...
CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Oscars will be very different this year. September 11 really did change almost everything, and the Academy Awards proved no exception. Security will be unprecedented, as officials express a mixture of concern and confidence.
BERNARD PARKS, CHIEF, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: When we think about Los Angeles, it is what we call a target-rich area. There are a number of facilities, locations, infrastructure, that would give high marks to a terrorist to attempt to destroy or to damage.
FELDMAN: Some Oscar officials are more blunt about their own fears.
JOHN PAVLIC, ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES: We have been paranoid about security for a long time, so we have been doing a lot more security than most of the awards shows have in the past.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hollywood's biggest night of the year, the Academy Award ceremonies at the Pantages Theater.
FELDMAN: Way in the past -- oh, say some 40 years ago, a handful of cops was more than enough security for the Academy Awards.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Returning to Hollywood after ten years absence, Ingrid Bergman attracts an extra measure of attention among the dazzling roster of luminaries on hand.
FELDMAN: Flash ahead to 2002. Police sources tell CNN several hundred LAPD cops will be assigned to the Oscars, buttressed by a handful of FBI agents, and an assortment of private security guards hired by the rich, famous, and insecure.
Zeke Unger's World Executive Protection Group will escort some notables, whom they refuse to name, to the Oscars.
ZEKE UNGER, WORLD EXECUTIVE PROTECTION GROUP: We're looking more for a -- an occurrence of a major level. Therefore, we are doing more advanced work.
FELDMAN: Some of the drivers for nervous celebrities will actually be specially trained body guards, prepared to use deadly force, and to whisk their clients away in the event the unthinkable happens.
(on camera): So let's say this was Oscar night, and I was a celebrity, and there was an actual threat. This is what is likely to happen.
That's pretty fast, actually.
Now, John, this is -- this is what would probably happen if there were a threat to a celebrity, is that right?
JOHN CHILDERS, PROTECTION SPECIALIST: This is exactly what should happen, yes.
FELDMAN: And, while obviously you don't want to hurt them getting them into the car, your main concern, I'm sure, is that they don't get killed.
CHILDERS: Right. The minor injuries that may occur from this type of removal are minimal compared to the threat that we are removing them from.
FELDMAN (voice-over): Police sources tell CNN the new home of the Academy Awards is far more difficult to protect than previous locations, such as the Shrine Auditorium, which was more isolated. Subway service -- yes, L.A. does have a subway system -- will be suspended at the station that is directly beneath the theater. Police will scour the nearby Hollywood Hills, looking for terrorists armed with Stinger missiles or other devices capable of reaching the Academy Award site. The airspace over the theater, will be closed, but no military fighter jet patrols are planned.
And for the first time in Oscar's history, the fans outside the theater are being preselected and prescreened. Only about 450 will be permitted, less than 10 percent the number who apply.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, ACTRESS: All you kids out there who are dreaming of being here some day...
FELDMAN: But, as is often the case, the best security may be the vigilance of those attending the event.
WILL SMITH, ACTOR: Security people can't do it by themselves. You need all of the people to pay attention, and I think that's what we will be dealing with in this situation.
FELDMAN: Police sources stress they don't know of any specific threat against the Oscars, although they are ever mindful of an earlier threat, deemed credible, against at least one major Hollywood studio in the event the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan.
Charles Feldman, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Couple of points picking up on Charles' piece there. Logistically where this theater is, as we mention, this is the first year it is going to be at the Kodak Theater here in the heart of Hollywood, this selection was made long before September 11, and people tell us now they probably couldn't have picked a worse place in terms of some place that is right in the middle of a city and up against the Hollywood Hills.
And then, Carol, one more thing, Charles mentioned the bleachers, which, of course, are empty. He mentioned that people who wanted to be in the bleachers had to be willing to undergo a background check. But also, that means we are missing something this year. We are not seeing the folks camped out on the sidewalk like we have in years past, just waiting for a chance to be in the bleachers. No camping. They are just going to have to wait their turn, and go through that background check -- back to you.
LIN: No camping, no surprises, no spontaneity, but I guess you feel kind of safe out there.
KAGAN: The surprises this year will have to be in who wins the awards, because everything is just so wide open this year, of all the categories. So, it will be about who takes home Oscar, and those are the good kind of surprises. We don't want the bad kind, of course.
LIN: Yes, the fun surprises. Well, we are looking forward to your coverage, Daryn, you and Leon. Good to see you. Thanks so much.
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