Cry Me Two Rivers
Oscar pre-show will salute the troops. Joan and Melissa Rivers will lure celebrities across the street for a new kind of chatfest''Live From the Red Carpet''? Not quite. With the wartime Oscars eschewing the traditional red carpet arrivals area, Joan and Melissa Rivers' E! preshow finds itself homeless. Though the network will air the pair's commentary for the two hours preceding the Oscars ceremony, an E! spokesperson tells EW.com that the Roosevelt Hotel, right across Hollywood Boulevard from the Kodak Theatre, is the likely backup location.
So what are they going to do for those 120 minutes? In a partnership with the American Forces Network, which broadcasts to nearly a million servicepeople overseas, the Rivers gals will lure celebs across the street by giving them a chance to send their best wishes via satellite to America's troops in Iraq.
Mom and Melissa did attempt to get inside the big show, applying to report from inside the Kodak Theatre, a move that appears to have been squelched by the Academy. Jeffrey Banks, who is handling press credentials for the Oscars, insists that ''nobody is allowed in the theater except our guests.''
