The lights went out Saturday afternoon on one of the most famous blocks in Hollywood.
With little more than 24 hours to go before the Oscars showtime, a power outage threatened preparations for Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast. Shortly after 1 p.m., a source on-site at the Ovation Hollywood complex reported that power was out on the entire block between Highland and Orange Avenues, a stretch of Hollywood that is about to be the most heavily trafficked block in town.
Crew and awards insiders were stuck in elevators, and local shop owners were forced to close up for the day, per eyewitness accounts. The news comes after a few days of heavy rainstorms across Los Angeles that are expected to clear up before the awards show begins Sunday.
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According to another source on-site, the outage was devastating from an event production standpoint. Per the insider, power was out at the Loews Hollywood Hotel on Highland Avenue for upwards of three hours. The Academy’s credential team — a group stationed inside the Loews and responsible for credentialing hundreds of media professionals, publicists and crew — was been disrupted as the server is down. “Chaos,” the person said, adding, “Everything is at a standstill.”
It is understood that rehearsals inside the Dolby Theatre were ongoing and outage inside was only temporary, lasting seconds before it went back on. It’s unclear if the Dolby’s electricity was able to operate using a separate generator. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for comment.
Per an update close to 3:30 p.m., two sources reported that the power had been restored on the block. The Academy notified press that shortly after 3 p.m. that the credentialing process was being extended by several hours, until 7 p.m., “due to today’s unexpected power outage.”
Film’s biggest night of the year is set to take place at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday at 5 p.m. PT., where Elvis, All Quiet on the Western Front, Triangle of Sadness, Top Gun: Maverick, The Fabelmans, The Banshees of Inisherin, Women Talking, Avatar: The Way of Water, Tár and Everything Everywhere All at Once will compete for the top prize. Jimmy Kimmel returns as the night’s host for the third year.
