War or no war, the Oscars show will go on, organisers vowed on Monday as they brought together the class of 2002 for the nominees lunch and delivered the traditional and often ignored warning about keeping acceptance speeches short and sweet. The nominees crammed the stage for the traditional ‘‘class picture’’ with director Martin Scorsese scrunched next to Salma Hayek. Nicolas Cage, wearing loud print shirt and blue jeans, took a spot on the far left and later Jack Nicholson could be seen huddling in deep conversation with Nicole Kidman. The photo was followed by a handing out of nomination certificates in A to Z order. ‘‘How did you like the spelling bee,’’ asked Renee Zellweger, a nominee for best actress for her work in Chicago, a musical based on murder, mayhem and the great American desire for 15 full minutes of fame. Marty Richards, the septuagenarian producer of the film who spent more than two decades trying to get the hit musical to the screen, seemed among the most overjoyed people in the room. ‘‘This nomination proves that old guys can work,’’ he said, adding, ‘‘I feel like I have been working on this since my Bar Mitzvah. I started working with Bob Fosse a year after the show opened in 1975 and we were in pre-production for six years when he died and I had to put the project in the drawer.’’ The Oscar show’s producer, Gil Cates, told nominees that the show will go on whether or not there is a war with Iraq. But he cautioned, ‘‘If we go to war, the telecast will reflect that reality both in those parts of the show that we can control and those parts that we can’t control — your acceptance speeches.’’ ‘‘The show will go on and our purpose remains the same as it has for 75 years — to celebrate our art form and honour its most accomplished practioneers.’’ (Reuters)
