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Oscars Push Back Nominations Announcement amid California Wildfires

Finished mounted Oscar Statuettes are seen at the Polich Tallix foundry in Walden, New York, US, January 25, 2018. Picture taken January 25, 2018. (Reuters)
Finished mounted Oscar Statuettes are seen at the Polich Tallix foundry in Walden, New York, US, January 25, 2018. Picture taken January 25, 2018. (Reuters)
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Oscars Push Back Nominations Announcement amid California Wildfires

Finished mounted Oscar Statuettes are seen at the Polich Tallix foundry in Walden, New York, US, January 25, 2018. Picture taken January 25, 2018. (Reuters)
Finished mounted Oscar Statuettes are seen at the Polich Tallix foundry in Walden, New York, US, January 25, 2018. Picture taken January 25, 2018. (Reuters)

The Oscar nominations are being pushed back almost a week from their original date amid the ongoing California wildfires. Nominations will now be announced on Jan. 23, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday.

“We are all devastated by the impact of the fires and the profound losses experienced by so many in our community,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang said in a joint statement. “The Academy has always been a unifying force within the film industry, and we are committed to standing together in the face of hardship.”

With fires still active in the Los Angeles area, the film academy also extended the nominations voting period for its members through Friday. Originally, nominations were to be announced that morning.

The organization that puts on the Oscars has also made the decision to cancel its annual nominees luncheon, an untelevised event best known for the “class photos” it produces annually. The Scientific and Technical Awards, previously set for Feb. 18, will be rescheduled later.

The 97th Oscars will still happen on March 2, at the Dolby Theatre, with a live television broadcast on ABC beginning at 7 p.m. ET and a live stream on Hulu.

Oscar nominations were postponed in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ceremony itself was also delayed, which had happened several times before: The ceremony was pushed back a week because of disastrous flooding in Los Angeles in 1938.

In 1968, it was delayed two days following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And in 1981, it was put off for 24 hours after President Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington D.C.

The 1981 decision was made four hours before the broadcast was scheduled to begin.

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Raspy-voiced Hit Machine Rod Stewart Turns 80

Singer Rod Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s. Kirsty Wigglesworth / POOL/AFP/File
Singer Rod Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s. Kirsty Wigglesworth / POOL/AFP/File
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Raspy-voiced Hit Machine Rod Stewart Turns 80

Singer Rod Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s. Kirsty Wigglesworth / POOL/AFP/File
Singer Rod Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s. Kirsty Wigglesworth / POOL/AFP/File

Singer Rod Stewart, who helped British rock conquer the world with a string of megahits, turns 80 on Friday -- with no plans to slow down.
Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s with hits like "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and "Young Turks", notching up more than 250 million record sales worldwide.
He also made headlines for a prolific love life that included relationships with a string of models and actresses including Britt Ekland.
Despite his landmark birthday, Stewart says he has no plans to retire.
"I love what I do, and I do what I love. I'm fit, have a full head of hair and can run 100 meters (330 feet) in 18 seconds at the jolly old age of 79," he wrote last year.
The star will play the legends slot at the famed Glastonbury music festival this summer.
Although his forthcoming European and North American tour dates will be his last large-scale project, he has said he plans to concentrate on more intimate venues in the future.
He will headline a new residency in Las Vegas from March to June.
A tour is also slated for 2026 for Swing Fever, the album he released last year with pianist and ex-Squeeze band member Jools Holland.
As he has approached his ninth decade, Stewart has also made headlines for quirkier reasons such as his passion for model railways and his battle with potholes that have prevented him from driving his Ferrari near his home in eastern England.
The singer, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2016, has been married three times and has fathered eight children. His third wife is model and television personality Penny Lancaster.
From London to global star
Stewart's story began in north London on 10 January 1945, when Roderick Stewart was born into a middle-class family.
After a "fantastically happy childhood", he developed a love of music when his father bought him a guitar in 1959, and he formed a skiffle band with school friends a year later.
He joined the band Dimensions in 1963 as a harmonica player, exploring his love of folk, blues and soul music while learning from other artists such as Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger in London's blossoming rhythm and blues scene.
Stewart's career took off in 1967 when he joined the renowned guitarist Jeff Beck's eponymous new band, which also included future Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, allowing him to develop his raw and soulful vocal style and stagecraft while exposing him to a US audience.
He and Wood took up the offer to join mod pioneers Small Faces following the departure of their singer Steve Marriott in 1969 -- the band soon changing its name to The Faces -- shortly before Stewart released his debut solo album.
It was his 1971 third solo release, "Every Picture Tells a Story", that confirmed him as one of the world's most successful artists, reaching number one in Britain, Australia and the United States, where it went platinum.
The album helped define Stewart's rock/folk sound, featuring heartfelt lyrics and heavy use of unusual instruments such as the mandolin, particularly prominent on the album's standout hit "Maggie May".
"I just love stories with a beginning, middle and end," he once said.
'I had the last laugh'
Focusing on his solo career after 1975, Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" released in 1978 was not to everyone's taste.
"Once the most compassionate presence in music, he has become a bilious self-parody -– and sells more records than ever," Rolling Stone magazine said in 1980.
Never one to be cowed by the critics, Stewart defended this phase, telling an interviewer that audiences "absolutely love it, so I had the last laugh".
Richard Houghton, author of the book "Tell Everyone -- A People's History of the Faces" said that Stewart had "possibly the most distinctive voice in rock music".
The singer had successfully combined writing classic songs of his own such as "Maggie May" or "You Wear It Well" with taking other people's songs -- from Bob Dylan to Tom Waits -- and making them his own .
More recently, there had been four albums of the "classic songs of the 1930s from his Great American Songbook catalogue".
Houghton said audiences could expect to see plenty more of Stewart.
"He's like any entertainer. He loves the spotlight. He's not going to sit at home watching the television when somewhere around the world there's a crowd wanting to hear him sing 'Mandolin Wind' or 'First Cut Is The Deepest' one more time.
"Rod will keep singing until the day he drops," he added.