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Though still plagued by (an ever-diminishing) uncertainty about whether they'll be executing their full Hollywood's Biggest Night™ vision or putting on their picket-line-crippled Reading Some Names N' Watching Montages Writers Strike Contingency Spectacular in two Sundays, the Academy has no choice but to make all the customary stops on this year's pothole-riddled Road to Oscar. Having just whet the awards-obsessed public's appetite by revealing the closely guarded kobe-slider secrets of Wolfgang Puck's Governors Ball menu, it was time yesterday to give the media a sneak peak at this year's exceedingly ambitious, Roy Christopher-designed $400 million Kodak Theatre set.

As you can see above, the stage is dominated by five clear cylinders, each containing a Gil Cates-controlled, 20-foot-tall OscarBot, which the event's legendary producer will deploy into the audience to carry the winners in the major categories from their seats to the podium. Unfortunately, the run-through meant to demonstrate this amazing innovation to the press did not go smoothly; in a tragic turn, an Academy staffer standing in for Best Supporting Actress nominee Cate Blanchett was killed instantly when her assigned Bot was sent the Swing Sword command instead of the intended Pick Up Gently operation by a frazzled Cates, who later sheepishly admitted he'd "been too damn busy worrying about this strike situation" to properly learn the automaton's complex controls. To his credit, the remorseful button-masher did promise that the victim would get a slide acknowledging her noble sacrifice in the show's In Memoriam segment.

[Photo: WireImage]