hosted the 75th Academy Awards In November 2002, the Academy hired veteran Oscar telecast producer
Gilbert Cates to oversee the telecast for the eleventh time. "With ten shows under his belt, no other living producer even comes close to the depth of his experience," said AMPAS president
Frank Pierson in a press release announcing the selection. "Gil practically invented the awards show as a stylistic genre. We're privileged to have him present a very special event to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Oscars." A few days later, actor and comedian
Steve Martin was chosen to emcee the upcoming telecast. Cates explained his reason to bring back the veteran comedian saying, "A host who's witty, clever, sharp, intelligent, quick on his feet and always on top of the unfolding action. Wait, I've forgotten something. Oh yeah, and outrageously funny." According to the article published in the
Los Angeles Times, Cates approached actor and veteran Oscar host
Billy Crystal for emceeing duties. However, as time passed and Crystal was still undecided regarding the job, Cates offered the hosting role to Martin. In a statement, Martin expressed that he was honored to be selected to emcee the telecast joking, "I'm very pleased to be hosting the Oscars again, because fear and nausea always make me lose weight." In addition, this was the first Oscar ceremony broadcast in
high-definition. The ceremony took place on March 23, 2003, at the
Kodak Theatre in
Hollywood,
Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m.
PST / 8:30 p.m.
EST. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Academy Awards, 59 actors who have received both competitive and honorary awards appeared seated onstage together during a segment called Oscar's Family Album. Each former winner was acknowledged by announcer Neil Ross and Randy Thomas with the films he or she won for. At the end of the segment newly minted winners Adrien Brody, Chris Cooper, Nicole Kidman, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, along with Honorary Oscar recipient Peter O'Toole, joined them. Furthermore, the American-led
invasion of Iraq affected the telecast and its surrounding events. Hours after news that the war had commenced several actors such as
Cate Blanchett,
Jim Carrey, and
Will Smith resigned from their roles as presenters citing safety concerns and respect for military families. Despite pleas from broadcaster
ABC to postpone the proceedings up to a week, AMPAS president Pierson and ceremony producer Cates refused to delay the gala to a different date citing unavailability of the
Kodak Theatre during that time. Pierson also stated that moving the festivities to a different venue would be too expensive for the Academy. However, they also announced that the red carpet festivities would be severely curtailed. The bleacher seats situated along
Hollywood Boulevard would also be dismantled, and ticket holders for those seats would receive
rain checks that were good towards
the following year's event. Periodically during commercial breaks,
ABC News anchor and journalist
Peter Jennings gave news brief updates regarding the events happening overseas.
Box office performance of nominated films At the time of the nominations announcement on February 11, the combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees at the US box office was $486 million, with an average of $97.3 million per film.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $321 million in domestic box office receipts. The film was followed by
Gangs of New York ($70.1 million),
Chicago ($64.5 million),
The Hours ($21.8 million), and finally
The Pianist ($9.1 million). The other top 50 box office hits that earned nominations were
Spider-Man (1st),
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones (3rd),
Minority Report (16th),
8 Mile (22nd), and
The Time Machine (44th). The speech was received with a cacophony of boos, applause, and standing ovations from the audience at the theater. Moments after the speech concluded, in order to lighten the mood, host Martin joked, "The
Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo."
Critical response The show received a positive reception from most media publications. Television critic Robert Bianco of
USA Today commended Martin's hosting performance writing that, "Luckily for viewers, Martin has two other qualities that are essential to a good Academy Awards host: wit and insider status. He used both to his and our advantage, winning the crowd's confidence and then gleefully mocking them all night." He also noted that the political remarks from presenters and speeches "a touch of tension to what is so often a dull evening."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette television columnist
Rob Owen raved that "Martin radiates class and wit, something often lacking in awards show hosts. From jokes about the allegedly scaled-down ceremony to reaction to his return to the Oscar stage, Martin entertained consistently." He also quipped that even the segments honoring Oscar history "seemed tighter and less tedious."
Tom Shales of
The Washington Post gave high marks to Martin commenting, "Helping immeasurably to make it a great show was Steve Martin, who served as host for the second time and triumphed as a welcome sardonic voice amid all the usual piousness and self-adulation." He also commented that despite the toned-down atmosphere, the speeches and tributes provided several heartfelt and memorable moments desperately needed in uncertain times. Some media outlets were more critical of the show. Television critic
Ken Tucker of
Entertainment Weekly bemoaned, "A wonderful, intelligent Oscar host
two years ago, Martin on this night looked as though he'd thrown in the towel backstage and let comedy writer
Bruce Vilanch come up with a batch of gormless ain't-Hollywood-goofy lines to absolve him of responsibility for being hilarious."
Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Johnson lamented, "Martin in his second turn hosting Hollywood's big night was, especially in the early going, slightly off-key, his attempt to keep a jovial face on things understandable but eventually coming to seem a touch disrespectful." He went on to say, "Except for the Moore line, he simply was not able to perform a perhaps impossible task, putting people at ease about attending, or watching, a party as a war raged, visible to anyone who flipped over to
CNN."
David Zurawik of
The Baltimore Sun quipped, "As the rest of the world saw televised images of captives and corpses identified as American soldiers, we watched host Steve Martin and a theater full of celebrities celebrating their self importance. Try as they might last night in the capital of Fantasy Land to create a program that would transport us beyond current events, they never came close." He also complained that many of the evening's comments and jokes seemed tone deaf and disrespectful in light of the war.
Ratings and reception The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 33.04 million people over its length, which was a 21% decrease from the
previous year's ceremony. An estimated 62.55 million total viewers watched all or part of the awards. The show also earned lower
Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 20.58% of households watching over a 40.34 share. In addition, it garnered a lower 1849 demo rating with a 12.55 rating over a 35.37 share among viewers in that demographic. At the time, it earned the lowest viewership for an Academy Award telecast since figures were compiled beginning with the
46th ceremony in 1974 and the lowest ratings for any broadcast since
Nielsen Media Research kept track of such data since the
33rd ceremony in 1961. In July 2003, the ceremony presentation received eight nominations at the
55th Primetime Emmys. Two months later, the ceremony won three of those nominations for Outstanding Art Direction For A Variety Or Music Program (Roy Christopher), Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic, Multi-camera) for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program (Robert Barnhart, Robert A. Dickinson, Andy O'Reilly), and Outstanding Music Direction (Bill Conti). =="In Memoriam"==