Hollywood, Mar 22: The Oscars will go ahead this weekend, despite fears that Hollywood's big night may be derailed by war as US-led forces unleash a ferocious new phase in the war in Iraq, organisers have said.
But officials stressed they would be closely scrutinising the unfolding onslaught to determine if last-minute changes would be needed to tomorrow's already toned-down ceremony -- including a possible delay.
"We're in a time of crisis and uncertainty, and the question arises: will the show go on? and the answer is yes," Frank Pierson, President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said yesterday.

"As you saw the last two nights, the situation (in Iraq) is so unpredictable that we want, like the President himself, to keep our options open and to be flexible," he said.
"I'm not going to speculate under what conditions we might or might not postpone. We will be watching what's happening hour by hour."



The decision to keep cinema's highest honours on track for now, although they have been dramatically scaled back to reflect the mood of war, came amid rampant speculation that it may be delayed or even cancelled.



The Oscars have been postponed just three times in their 75-year history by up to one week -- by floods in 1938, when civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 and when ex-President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.


Bureau Report