A Few Things We Just Had to Know

It was the first Oscarcast in memory that ended on time, but after it was over, some questions kept coming up that couldn’t be answered Sunday night. So Calendar contacted the show’s producer, Gil Cates, Monday morning (at a reasonable hour, of course).

Question: How much did the space shot really cost? Who paid for it?

Answer: We didn’t pay for it. NASA did. It wasn’t that expensive. We sent them a one-page script. They have video cameras in space, and they took a little videotape and sent it back to the communications system in Houston and they sent it via satellite to us. We sent them a rolled-up silk photo of Steve Martin on the last shuttle. The shuttle cost $500,000 for a 60,000-pound payload and our photo of Martin weighed 3 ounces. So maybe it cost $200.

Q: Oddly, with looming strikes by writers and actors on everybody’s mind, there were no jokes at all about the strikes. Was the subject nixed as joke fodder?

A: We did nothing to avoid mentioning the possible strike, and it was only alluded to by Ernest Lehman, who I believe was the first screenwriter to win a lifetime achievement award.

The writing awards came later because we try to shake up the lineup every year.

Q: The camera angle used on Bob Dylan during the performance of his winning song wasn’t exactly flattering.

A: We wanted to be very tight on him, because we wanted the audience at the Shrine to be able to see him. It also allowed the director to integrate the image on the screen with the people in the audience. As a wide shot with a wide shot of audience, it would have been boring.

Q: How much did Steve Martin ad-lib or use material that was written along the way? By him? By others?

A: He had writers, Rita Rudner, John Macks, Bruce Vilanch, Andrew Breckman, but he was the key writer. Then there was a game plan to prepare alternative possibilities among the winners, and there was some improvisation, like the dip for Danny DeVito, who then pulled a piece of celery out of his vest pocket. Pretty scary.

Q: Will Steve Martin be back next year?

A: That I don’t know. I don’t know if you can expect me back next year because the president of the academy chooses the producer, and he picks the person. [President] Robert Rehme is stepping down and there will be a new president of the academy, and he or she will determine the producer and host next year.

Q: Who gave the shortest speech and won the digital TV?

A: We won’t know until the end of the day. Julia [Roberts], of course, did not win the TV set [hers was the longest speech].