The Oscar Crunch

ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY STEPHEN KRONINGER

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Oscar season isn't just an awards show; it's the soirees that help provide glamour and lilt. And for planners, that can mean erecting the Cheops pyramid nearly overnight. "When you're building a party in a tent in the middle of a parking lot, quite a bit has to happen," says Cyd Wilson, an IN STYLE contributing editor who does the magazine's Golden Globes and Oscar bashes as well as PEOPLE's Screen Actors Guild Awards party. "We started a month earlier to compensate," she says. Yet last Monday she and her staff, still bleary from the Globes gala, were already in crisis mode for the Oscar and SAG parties. Can they get their work done? "We haven't lived through it yet," Wilson says. "Ask me after it's over."

Weinstein suspects the time leash is even tighter than it seems. "Whatever commercials and ads you're going to run for nominated films, you'd better do it quickly," he warns. "I think people are going to vote faster this year, upon receiving their ballots [which the Academy mails out Wednesday]. I figure, about a week later, this thing is over."

Well, at least the folks at ABC are happy. Or are they? With all the indie nominations, some big stars and big movies were orphaned. "There's fear at the Academy about ratings," says an industry consultant. "Johnny Depp and Renee Zellweger are the biggest stars. It's really going to be about the presenters."

A race that's over before it used to begin ... A ratings ploy that could backfire ... On Oscar night, Hollywood may produce its own disaster movie.