Rug burns

When asked his thoughts on Hollywood’s award season, publicist Stan Rosenfield does not hesitate.

“You look at the date of the Academy Awards, then you circle in black ink the following day, Monday, with a note saying: Get very, very drunk.”

Rosenfield should know, considering he represents a heavy roster of Oscar-winning clients, such as Robert De Niro, George Clooney and Helen Mirren.

But people like Rosenfield, with their direct ties to “talent,” are hardly the only ones sent into a tailspin -- one that will require quite a bit of sousing to recover from -- during this time of year, which for the film industry is every bit as important, and stressful, as the run-up to the presidential election. Indeed, the Oscars is a multi-tentacled beast whose effects are felt by a wide array of individuals and industries, including fashion and broadcasting, not to mention all the more obvious suspects, such as talent agencies, studios and PR companies.

This year is perhaps even more stressful because a number of films that have potential Oscar cachet haven’t been released yet, such as “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” starring Brad Pitt; “Doubt,” starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman; Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon”; and Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road.” This will mean much last-minute scurrying in terms of setting up screenings for tastemakers and otherwise generating the proverbial “buzz” -- one of the most important missions when it comes to the Oscar race.

Already, however, the Oscars have caused rattling. In October, when Paramount decided to push the release date of “The Soloist” to March, thereby disqualifying it for award consideration, a number of parties were, to put it gently, miffed -- including DreamWorks, which produced the film, and CAA, which represents most of the film’s talent, including Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx.

Upsetting an agency is not a good thing to do this time of year, considering the muscle that agencies put into getting the word out about films. Although agents don’t actually vote on the Oscars, their hefty Rolodexes are full of people who do, and they can be put to good use. Hosting screenings for clients who are academy members and conducting general outreach are among the ways agents work hard to “hit our own people,” as one explained. They also lobby the studios to spend more money on advertising their “people,” providing more exposure and generating heat.

“The agents get very breathless, way more than the studios,” said one Oscar consultant. “They have more at stake than anybody -- their client -- whether it’s a cinematographer or a movie star.”

Indeed, keeping clients happy is a big part of the Oscar game. Forget getting them nominated -- getting them into the super-exclusive Vanity Fair party, held after the Oscar ceremony, is just as big of a headache and potentially just as big of a crisis if a ticket is not procured.

“I’ve known PR companies to lose clients because they were not able to get them on the Vanity Fair list,” said Rosenfield, who described the ordeal of wrangling party tickets to Oscar-related fetes, such as the Night Before party and Elton John’s annual bash, as “a colossal time-sucking thing.”

People outside the film industry also feel the heat. Fashion designers and stylists are under the gun to please red carpet traipsers, some of whom don’t decide until days before an award show whose gown they’ll be wearing.

And though the Oscars are still a few months away, members of the entertainment media are attending film screenings on a daily basis just to get up to speed.

“I’m running around seeing screenings like crazy,” said Bonnie Tiegel, senior producer for “Entertainment Tonight” and “The Insider.” “I try to get to as many as I can, so I can ask intelligent questions and understand why the person is nominated.”

The day that Oscar nominations are announced is particularly grueling for Tiegel and her colleagues, who set up camera crews all over town (as well as in New York and London) in preparation for “reaction” interviews with the nominees. Having no insider knowledge as to who’ll be nominated, they have to flood the zone and more or less prepare to interview everyone -- “so we’re not blindsided,” Tiegel explained.

Things are particularly stressful now, Tiegel says, but the pressure never really starts or stops. “You’re preparing all year long, quite honestly.”

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