LOS ANGELES — The day after the Oscars last year, the show’s producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron received a call from John Travolta apologizing for fumbling the name of singer Idina Menzel. Travolta’s mispronunciation — Adele Dazeem — had become a trending topic on Twitter, been shared endlessly on YouTube and Vine and helped enliven the most viewed Academy Awards telecast in more than a decade.
“John said, ‘Oh, God, I hope I didn’t ruin your show,’ ” Zadan recalled, in a recent interview from a backstage office at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, where he and Meron are preparing for Sunday’s Academy Awards. “We said, ‘You made our show. The social media went berserk, and the show became historic because of you.’ ”
This year Zadan and Meron are producing their third Oscar telecast, bringing aboard new host Neil Patrick Harris and hoping for more of the kind of chatter-generating, Adele Dazeem-like moments no team of writers could script.
Zadan and Meron will need some kismet to help draw and keep an audience this year, since their list of nominated films is light on mainstream hits, with “American Sniper” the only one of the eight best picture nominees to generate more than $100 million at the dwomestic box office.
“The challenge this year is to honor the films that were nominated, which weren’t the most commercial, blockbuster-type films, and balance that with a good show,” Meron said.
To entice a broad audience who may not have seen art house nominees like “Whiplash” or “Boyhood,” the duo will rely on a formula that has worked well for them in the past — inviting a glittery and demographically diverse group of presenters and artists.
This year’s list of planned performers includes Lady Gaga, Jennifer Hudson, Jack Black and Anna Kendrick, plus those delivering the Oscar-nominated original songs.
Presenters will include Oprah Winfrey, Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Chris Pratt, Kevin Hart, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Eddie Murphy, Cate Blanchett and, yes, Travolta.
“If you’re tuning in because you care to see who wins what, that’s great,” Zadan said. “But … we’ve attracted a whole new audience who have tuned in to see the entertainment.”
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