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Armoured limos for Oscars
Friday 21 March 2003, 4:05 PM
Oscar will don his tightest security cloak ever this year to thwart potential terror strikes, with war prompting worried stars to opt for armoured limousines and private jets on Hollywood's biggest night.
Police sources said security for Sunday's planned Oscars ceremony will be the tightest and most far-reaching in the Academy Awards' 75-year history, as the United States pushes ahead with its invasion of Iraq.
Flashy evening dresses and ostentatious jewels will give way to sharpshooters, undercover cops and bomb sniffer dogs, if indeed cinema's highest awards are handed out as organisers hope, in albeit in war-muted style.
"We will have plain clothes officers in among the crowd, we'll have aerial surveillance, and a lot of other measures," Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said. "We are pulling out all the stops for this show."
While officials are not aware of any specific threat against the Oscars, they are taking no chances.
Among the security measures will be a no-fly zone over Hollywood during the show, the welding shut of manhole covers and the deployment of a National Guard unit trained to detect signs of biological and chemical attacks.
In addition, specially trained police and staff from the Centres for Disease control will be out in force taking air samples to ensure that no toxins have been released into the air.
An unprecedented -- and secret -- number of police will be backed up by some 1,000 private security guards, highway patrol officers, national guardsmen and sheriffs' deputies.
"This is aimed at addressing concerns arising from unfolding world events and to make sure that celebrities and other guests will be in the safest place in the world on Sunday," said Sergeant John Pasquariello of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Oscar organisers have vowed that Sunday's show will go on, noting that the Academy Awards have never been cancelled and have only been delayed three times in their history, never because of war.
But the show's fate hung in the balance Thursday as the ground war got underway in Iraq and organisers stood poised to make a final decision as to whether the event would go ahead as planned.
Earlier they rolled up the traditional red carpet where arriving celebrities traditionally meet the press amid stars' concerns that it would be unseemly or frivolous to sashay up the red carpet while America is at war.
Yet as officials promised unprecedented security to the Oscars' 3,500 guests, some celebrities are still worried about their safety.
"We have been flooded by requests for armoured limousines to take some very famous people to the Oscars," said Rich Cooley, vice president of global operations for SecureCar Worldwide which specialises in celebrity transport.
Cooley, a former Hollywood bodyguard, offers Mercedes and BMW limousines with 450 kilograms (1,000 pounds) of extra armour plating and bullet proof glass to ward off a close-range machine-gun assault or a grenade blast.
©2003 AFP
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http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/21/1047749930478.html
