The Academy Awards tends to be overproduced and politically tinged; where else would liberal darlings Barbra Streisand and Jane Fonda appear on the same stage?
Both are presenters this year.
Still, the event is an economic powerhouse, earning $130 million for Los Angeles and $89 million for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But there are hidden costs for things peculiar to Tinseltown. Among the many expenses for the single night, this according to the Hollywood Reporter:
$1.5 million for copyright and trademark protection, $1 million for the stage set, $250,000 for security personnel; $240,000 for event staff; $45,000 for fifty 24-karat gold-plated Oscar statuettes; $25,000 for the red carpet; $20,000 for gourmet chocolates and $10,000 on the winners’ hand-addressed, gold-embossed envelopes.
