Mother Nature should have known better than to try to dampen Hollywood’s biggest event of the year.
Although the heavens opened up and rain poured down on Los Angeles almost all day today, anyone watching the Academy Awards at home would have had no idea.
Yards and yards of tenting kept all of the red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre high and dry except for one brief edge near a tricky turn. Powerful lights gave the illusion that the sun was shining even though most of the time it wasn’t.
‘‘It’s great to be here and not get rained on,’’ said Oscar nominee George Clooney, who spent nearly an hour on the red carpet schmoozing with fans and talking with reporters before the show.
Oscar producer Gil Cates said the tenting kept the humidity down, helping actresses who had spent hours on their hair look the same as they did when they walked out of the salon. He might have gotten an argument on that point, however, from Steve Carell.
‘‘It’s really sort of like a greenhouse in here,’’ Carell said upon arriving on the red carpet. ‘‘It’s like hydroponics.’’
After hours of heavy rain, the sun finally did break through, just a few minutes before the Oscar pre-show began.
It was the perfect Hollywood ending to a thoroughly Hollywood day.
AP
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