Getting Pumped for a Hollywood Field Day

Pick an Oscar story--any Oscar story--and chances are there will be a crush of feverish TV coverage. Whether it’s “Julia Roberts as reigning queen of Hollywood” or “Hong Kong cinema as American infatuation,” the spectacle that is Hollywood’s Super Bowl will be dissected on the small screen from every imaginable angle.

What’s a 22-minute entertainment TV show to do to stand out from the rabid pack?

The answer is one part planning, one part serendipity for “Access Hollywood,” which grapples with the question every year as producers search for something more than just how celebrities looked, sounded and celebrated. Added pressure comes from toiling in the shadow of 20-year-old “Entertainment Tonight,” the national ratings champ in syndicated entertainment magazines.

That’s why “Access” one year arranged a surprise Oscar party with Billy Bob Thornton’s friends in his hometown in Arkansas. A video was awaiting the writer-actor-director after he won his Academy Award for “Sling Blade.” Thornton, who didn’t know the party was taking place, watched the tape--and “Access” taped him watching the tape--of his friends cheering when his name was called.

A similar stunt is planned for one of this year’s best supporting actor nominees, whom “Access” producers think is a shoo-in. (That is, unless he’s beaten by a sentimental favorite nominated four previous times.) Of course, it is a pragmatic business and if the “shoo-in” doesn’t win, a prearranged surprise cell-phone chat will be taped, but it will end up on the cutting-room floor.

Even targeting the supporting actors is a function of the realities of the celebrity game. “We try to get in on the ground floor,” said senior segment producer David Wong. “Everybody already knows all they’re going to know about Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks. But [our audience is] interested in people like Michael Clarke Duncan [nominated last year for best supporting actor for “The Green Mile”] and Benicio Del Toro [nominated this year for his supporting role in “Traffic”].”

“The bigger the star, the tougher it is to get access to them,” added Clay Smith, supervising producer for “Access.” “We’re probably not going to be able to spend Oscar day with Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson or Russell Crowe.”

For the latter celeb, flanked by FBI agents these days because of a kidnapping threat, “Access” will cover, well, coverage--what the Aussie press plans for its buff and gruff native son.

But then there is the serendipity quotient, with the “Access” crew always looking to capture “a moment.” At the Golden Globes earlier this year that “moment” turned out to be the accidental encounter of a very pregnant Jane Leeves of “Frasier” and a very pregnant Camryn Manheim of “The Practice,” who both reached out for a mutual tummy rub that “Access” caught on tape.

“You prep as much as you can, and then it’s a sporting event,” said Rob Silverstein, the show’s executive producer. “You never know where the ball is going to go.”

Smith, the show’s resident Oscarphile, and Wong start working Oscar ideas in the fall, trying to identify likely contenders. And they stoke their relationships with talent and handlers accordingly.

Though the ideas have been seeded for months, the logistics have been planned in a few weeks’ worth of meetings that lack only tiny toy soldiers and antique maps as props. Earlier this week Wong, who has coordinated Oscar coverage for the last several years, rattled off details to note-scribbling staffers: The Governors Ball is out; only pool footage backstage; security’s tighter than ever.

There was no mention of the competition, except when Wong told the crew planning to shoot a Sting rehearsal at the Shrine that “ET” had already been there. Drop Sting? No, just look for another angle. Now “Access” will pair the Sting shoot with a Randy Newman run-through to make it a broader “Oscar music” story.

On Oscar night, co-hosts Pat O’Brien and Nancy O’Dell, Tony Potts, Shaun Robinson and”fashionista” Steven Cojocaru will be on hand, sorting through “the chaos that ensues around events like this,” said Gary Considine, executive producer of NBC Studios, who oversees “Access.”

During one planning session, Considine brought up a pet peeve about cliches and hyperbole: “Let’s not say, ‘This is the hottest place to be,’ or ‘Only we can bring you this,’ ” Considine said. “If somebody thinks they have an ‘only we’ moment, call in and we’ll discuss.”

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* “Access Hollywood” airs weeknights at 7:30 on KNBC, with a weekend wrap-up show Sundays at 6 p.m.

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* Tony Potts, above, and “Access Hollywood” look for ways to stand out. F10

* An Oscar pool that doesn’t require seeing any of the nominated films. F14

* The memorable ways of saying thank you for an Academy Award. F12

* For Oscar coverage, red-carpet video and photos, go to https://www.latimes.com/oscars.