Oscar Invokes 45-Second Rule
March 14 -- The producer of this year's Academy Awards ceremony is making Oscar winners an offer he hopes they won't refuse: a 45-second limit on their acceptance speeches.
Gil Cates, a veteran producer of the hours-long live telecast, advised Oscar nominees of the gag order Monday at the annual nominee lunch.
If winners can't thank mom, dad, God, and their agent in under a minute, however, they have an alternative. The Academy is offering to post exhaustive lists of "thank yous" on the official Oscars site.
"You can hand us a list of all the people you want to thank. It will then be run on the [www.oscars.com] Web site under the winner's picture."
If Tom Hanks wins his third Best Actor Oscar this year, he says he can't promise to stick to a prepared script.
The two-time Oscar winner, whose acceptance speech for Forrest Gump marked a new standard for off-topic rambling, told Mr. Showbiz Monday, "I don't think it's possible to stick to a prepared speech. I always try to have five things to say and I always screw up one of them and forget another one completely. It's not something you can control — [it's] like jumping out of an airplane."
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