© AMPAS
The fifty Oscar statuettes to be presented at the 2008 Academy Awards ceremony next February 24 — the one above is not one of them — will be on display at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' "Meet the Oscars" exhibition beginning Friday, February 1. The exhibition will be located on the fourth level of the Hollywood & Highland Center — in Hollywood, where else? — through Saturday, February 23. Admission is free.
Visitors will be given the chance of holding an actual Oscar statuette while pretending they are Tom Cruise or Cameron Diaz (neither of whom has ever won an Academy Award). The exhibition will also feature interactive Oscar trivia kiosks, the Honorary Award that will be presented to production designer Robert Boyle, and samples of Boyle's work.
In addition, the exhibit will display the miniature Oscar given to Judy Garland for her "outstanding performance as a screen juvenile" in 1939, the year she appeared in The Wizard of Oz (and in Babes in Arms), and two statuettes presented at the first Academy Awards ceremony, held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in May 1929, to director Frank Borzage and screenwriter Benjamin Glazer for their work on 7th Heaven.
As per the Academy's press release, "the Oscar statuette weighs 8 ½ pounds and stands 13 ½ inches tall. Manufactured by R.S. Owens & Company in Chicago, it is made of britannia, a metal alloy, and is plated in copper, nickel, silver and 24-karat gold."
"Meet the Oscars" will be open Sundays through Thursdays from noon to 7 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 8 p.m. On Saturday, February 23, the exhibition will close at 5 p.m.
Additionally, a "Meet the Oscars, New York" exhibition will open on February 14 at the Times Square Studios.
They should inivte the public to the Oscar luncheon they have every year.
They should have a Meet the Oscar Winners program. We could then talk to people like Susan Sarandon or Charlize Theron.