Oscar Web Site Offers Unedited Views

Feb. 27, 2004 -- In this week's Cybershake, we go online with the official Web site for the 76th Annual Academy Awards show. Plus, we note how one toy company is lifitng the veil on a new set of high-tech toys for boys and girls.

Going Online for the Golden Guy

It's Hollywood's most glamorous moment: the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars. And while millions will watch the the 76th annual Academy Awards on the ABC television network on Sunday, for hard-core entertainment geeks, the real action is already happening online.

"We take great pride in how much content is available," says Keith Tralins, executive producer of Oscar.com, the official Web site run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the ABC network.

The biggest attraction, says Tralins, is the online predictions sections.

Visitors can register for the official Oscar pool to forecast which actors will walk away with a coveted golden statuette. The player with the most accurate prediction may walk away with a brand-new home entertainment center. Visitors can also create their own pool, in which up to 50 of their closest friends and family members.

The site also contains information that hasn't been seen elsewhere, such as the awards given for scientific and technical excellence. Those Oscars were given at a non-televised event on Feb. 14.

And of course, on Sunday evening, Tralins says the site will host a lot of "behind-the-scenes" photos and extras that won't be available anywhere else.

"We'll have extensive coverage," says Tralins. "We'll have pictures [of celebrities] moments — almost real-time — after the arrivals take place."

The digital photos of the red-carpet arrivals of actors and actresses will be supplemented with fashion news — a perennial favorite among Hollywood star gazers, says Tralins.

"You can log on and see who wore what , who designed what they were wearing… There's always one [outfit] that's scandalous," says Tralins jokingly.

What's more, Tralins says the site will post the acceptance speeches and complete "thank yous" of all the winners.

"[Winners] only have 45 seconds [on stage] on Sunday. We provide a service that [winners] can give us as long a list [of thank yous] as they like and we will post them," says Tralins. And, he adds, "We don't censor the speeches."

But before you log on hoping to find some dishy dirt or parts that might be edited out of the event thanks during the five-second televised delay, Tralins says of the prepared speeches he's already gotten: "They tend to stick with the thank yous and don't tend to spout off against government."

Still, "We do our best to bring full coverage," says Tralins. And he hopes that visitors to the Web site will find it to be a "one-stop, full- service station for everything Oscar."

— Bill Diehl, ABCNEWS

A New Kind of 'Action' Figure

Remember all those cool gadgets Batman always seemed to use against the bad guys? Now, even the latest iteration of Batman toys for youngsters have gone high-tech.

At the recent American International Toy Fair trade show in New York, Mattel Inc. unveiled an action figure of the Caped Crusader that uses an innovation called VEIL, or "Video Encoded Invisible Light."

Created by Veil Interactive Technologies, the technology alters the light levels of images produced on a television set. The changes are unnoticeable to the human eye, but can be picked up by electronic photo sensors in the Batman toys.

The hidden VEIL light patterns will be embedded in The Batman, a new animated series that will carried by the Kids' WB! and Cartoon Network cable channels this fall.

"Whenever the kid sees Batman appear on the TV show, invisibly the character will come to life, missiles will fire, he has a red light on his chest that will light up and he'll talk," says Jeff Walker, a Mattel spokesman.

Walker says the technology, also used in a Batmobile and a Batwave "communicator," will help bridge the gap between passive and interactive entertainment for kids.

"Not only are you watching your favorite show but [now] your toys can interact with the show at the same time," says Walker.

The technology may appear in other Mattel toys. The company uses a less sophisticated version for a toy cat called "Serafina." The mechanical cat will react — sing, wag its tail, or make 80 other different responses — to a specially packaged DVD or videotape of The Princess and the Pauper which stars Mattel's Barbie doll.

— Larry Jacobs, ABCNEWS

Cybershake is produced for ABCNEWS Radio by Andrea J. Smith.