Hollywood, Mar 18: Organisers of the Academy Awards dismissed speculation in Hollywood that this year's Oscars ceremony could be delayed due to imminent war with Iraq.
"The Academy Awards are scheduled to proceed Sunday (March) the 23rd," said Gil Cates, producer of the awards show, yesterday.
But he added that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was closely following developments.
Organisers have repeatedly vowed that the show must go on next Sunday, but rumours and some news reports have spoken of possible plans for a postponement if the United States is at war with Iraq.
Cinema's highest honours have been delayed just three times before in history -- never because of war.



A one-week delay was forced by floods in Los Angeles in 1938, while the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. forced a two-day delay in 1968.



A one-day postponement to the ceremony was caused in 1981 by a bid to kill President Ronald Reagan.



Cates said last week the glittering show, which is seen by up to a billion television viewers around the world, would go ahead with or without war, but added that any conflict would be reflected in its format.


Bureau Report