Oscar producers urge viewers to tune in early _ and vow no rain for the red carpet

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Oscar producers urge viewers to tune in early

LOS ANGELES — The people behind Sunday’s Oscars show are urging people to tune in early for one of the program’s best sequences.

Bill Mechanic, who is producing the awards ceremony with Adam Shankman, promised “the most dynamic opening, from drama to spectacle to humor, that has ever been staged.”

Shankman said the show will be funny, lively and fun.

“People hate it when I say this,” he said, “but I always say this is the best-dressed reality competition show on TV.”

The two men joined film academy President Tom Sherak on the red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre for a brief news conference Friday about the big show.

Dismissing a gloomy weather forecast, Sherak said definitively that it will not rain at Oscar time. Mechanic quipped that it would “rain humor.” And Shankman said that when you produce the Oscars, there’s no one you can’t call, so “I just called God.”

“Like everything in Hollywood, it’s a negotiation,” he said.

The show will be heavy on humor, thanks to the hosting duo of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, Mechanic said, adding that the Oscar show hasn’t had two hosts since 1928.

Expect “greater emotional content” too, he said: “We want this to touch people.”

The Oscar honchos also announced a new round of presenters: Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, Demi Moore, Zoe Saldana and Pedro Almodovar will appear on the telecast. And they urged viewers to tune in at the top of the program, which begins at 8 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on ABC.

On the Net:

www.oscars.org

(This version CORRECTS Corrects to ‘tune in’ in lede)