A lot can go wrong on Oscar night.
Sandra Bullock appears during rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2018. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Even if all the right envelopes end up in the right hands, there are still lots of moving parts — literally. Stage elements move all around, screens lower from the ceiling, and microphones pop up from the floor.
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A lot can go wrong on Oscar night.
Even if all the right envelopes end up in the right hands, there are still lots of moving parts — literally. Stage elements move all around, screens lower from the ceiling, and microphones pop up from the floor.
The Oscar winner, casually glam in a cropped pink sweater and high-waisted trousers, was among a parade of stars who came through the Dolby Theatre to run through their lines and practice walking on the Oscar stage before Sunday's big show.
"Now everyone will hope for that to happen," Bullock said, laughing over her microphone-dress worry. "Just chiffon going up."
Director Glenn Weiss and writer Carole Leifer greeted Bullock, but she declined to hug or shake hands with them, saying she was sick and "concerned about the phlegm factor."
Moreno's daughter, Fernanda Gordon, who tagged along to see her mother rehearse, revealed that Moreno will wear the same dress to Sunday's show that she did when she won her Oscar in 1962 for "West Side Story."
"Oh, this is nice!" said Moreno, chic in a poncho with a giant gold medallion around her neck.
"I had to do that at least once," she said, turning to director Weiss. "Should I say it like that? 'Oh no!' and then throw it on the floor?"
Actress Eva Marie Saint, who won an Oscar in 1955 for "On the Waterfront," was also playful during rehearsals. When the stage manager showed her the new envelope design, she said, "I'm going to keep it."
That pop-up mike immediately caused Sandra Bullock to panic during rehearsals Saturday afternoon, as she imagined it catching her gown and "suddenly the dress is just rising up."
Sandra Bullock appears during rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2018. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
The Oscar winner, casually glam in a cropped pink sweater and high-waisted trousers, was among a parade of stars who came through the Dolby Theatre to run through their lines and practice walking on the Oscar stage before Sunday's big show.
Emma Stone appears during rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2018. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
"Now everyone will hope for that to happen," Bullock said, laughing over her microphone-dress worry. "Just chiffon going up."
Eiza Gonzalez takes a photo with her placeholder during rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2018. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Director Glenn Weiss and writer Carole Leifer greeted Bullock, but she declined to hug or shake hands with them, saying she was sick and "concerned about the phlegm factor."
Bullock wasn't the only star in a playful mood at the dressed-down version of the Academy Awards. Oscar, Emmy, Tony and Grammy award-winner Rita Moreno clearly enjoyed her return to the Oscar stage. The audience of rehearsal actors and show workers gave the 86-year-old entertainer a standing ovation.
Eiza Gonzalez and Ansel Elgort appear during rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2018. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Moreno's daughter, Fernanda Gordon, who tagged along to see her mother rehearse, revealed that Moreno will wear the same dress to Sunday's show that she did when she won her Oscar in 1962 for "West Side Story."
Moreno was understandably concerned about the winner's envelope after last year's best picture mix-up. A stage manager showed her a redesigned envelope for this year, with the category boldly printed on both sides with an easy, magnetic closure.
Ashley Judd, left, and Annabella Sciorra appears during rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2018. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
"Oh, this is nice!" said Moreno, chic in a poncho with a giant gold medallion around her neck.
She had fun with the prop envelope on stage, saying "Oh, no!" and looking dejected as she opened it.
Ashley Judd appears during rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2018. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
"I had to do that at least once," she said, turning to director Weiss. "Should I say it like that? 'Oh no!' and then throw it on the floor?"
"No," Weiss said.
Jane Fonda, left, and Helen Mirren appears during rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2018. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Actress Eva Marie Saint, who won an Oscar in 1955 for "On the Waterfront," was also playful during rehearsals. When the stage manager showed her the new envelope design, she said, "I'm going to keep it."
Film academy president John Bailey, who snapped an iPhone photo of the 93-year-old actress, told her, "If you screw up the envelope, you get to come back next year!"
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, who had the wrong envelope for the best-picture winner last year, are reportedly returning to present on Sunday.
Matthew McConaughey appears during rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2018. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Saint was given a detailed explanation of Sunday's proceedings before she ran through her lines. When she mispronounced a word, she quipped, "I haven't been to school lately."
When it was time to open the prop envelope, Saint said, "The Oscar belongs to: You'll never know!" And she tucked the card beneath her arm.
The stage manager explained that she should read the winner in order to practice handing over the Oscar statuette and the stage walk-off.
"It's all going to be fine," she told him. "I'll be fine; I don't know about you."
She also insisted that if the winner in the category she's presenting isn't there to claim the Oscar, she will take the statuette home.
Other stars rehearsing Saturday included Matthew McConaughey, whose wife sat in the audience's front row and cheered when he took the stage, along with Emma Stone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Blunt, Viola Davis, Ansel Elgort (who wore a sweatshirt with a plush face on it, including dimensional teeth and tongue), Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra and Mahershala Ali.
Oscar winners Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren laughed through their rehearsal together. Fonda called from the stage to production designer Derek McLane, who won a Tony Award for his production design on "33 Variations," in which Fonda starred.
"What a fantastic set," she said. "It looks like the Orgasmatron in 'Barbarella,' only way prettier."
The actresses discussed camera and teleprompter positioning with the director and discussed their heel heights with each other before practicing their lines, which elicited laughs from the audience of show workers.
"Thank you guys for laughing," Mirren said. "It's much appreciated."
"Thank you," Fonda said. "See you tomorrow. Bye!"
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — An Army reservist and friend of the gunman behind Maine’s deadliest mass shooting testified Thursday about his friend's mental decline, describing publicly for the first time the warning he issued a month before the tragedy unfolded.
Sean Hodgson texted leaders of his reserve unit six weeks before the shooting that left 18 people dead and 13 wounded, telling them to change the passcode to the gate at their Army Reserve training facility and arm themselves if Robert Card showed up.
Hodgson told a panel investigating the mass shooting on Thursday that he issued the warning to superiors after Card’s delusional and violent behavior spiraled and ended with Card punching him in the face.
“I said ‘Just so you know, I love you. I’ll always be there for you. I won’t give up on you.’ He had that blank stare on his face. It was a dead stare and he drove away,” Hodgson recounted as his friend left him at a gas station.
The attacks happened six months ago on Oct. 25 when Card opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, two locations where he held a delusional belief that people were talking about him behind his back. Two days later, the 40-year-old Reservist was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Hodgson told superiors on Sept. 15: “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”
But it wasn't just Hodgson who was worried about Card. Several other reservists witnessed his deterioration during training last summer. That led to a two-week hospitalization in July for Card, months after relatives warned police he had grown paranoid and that they were concerned about his access to guns.
The failure of authorities to remove Card’s weapons in the weeks before the shooting has become the subject of a monthslong investigation in the state, which also has passed new gun safety laws since the tragedy.
In an interim report released last month, an independent commission launched by Gov. Janet Mills concluded that the Sagadahoc County sheriff’s office had probable cause under Maine’s “yellow flag” law to take Card into custody and seize his guns. It also criticized police for not following up with Hodgson about his warning text. A final report is expected this summer.
On Thursday, Hodgson said he warned of a mass shooting because Card threatened multiple members of the unit with violence and that his threats and delusions were escalating. And he had access to guns.
“The way he was behaving was very threatening. It was escalating. The totality of the circumstances, the events leading to that moment, I was pretty convinced he was going to cause harm,” he said.
Another reservist, Daryl Reed, testified he witnessed Card’s mental and physical decline firsthand, seeing a “normal guy” who successfully traded stocks and loved hunting and the outdoors become increasingly paranoid and believing others were calling him a pedophile.
Card also acquired a thermal scope with a laser range finder that he said cost $10,000, and he demonstrated how it could be used to detect animals, including at night, Reed said.
He added fellow reservists started to become concerned Card could become a danger to colleagues. They were surprised, several testified, when Card was released from a psychiatric hospital after only two weeks.
In an exclusive series of interviews in January, Hodgson told The Associated Press he met Card in the Army Reserve in 2006 and that they became close friends after both divorced their spouses around the same time. They lived together for about a month in 2022, and when Card was hospitalized in New York in July, Hodgson drove him back to Maine.
Growing increasingly worried about his friend’s mental health, Hodgson warned authorities after Card started “flipping out” after a night of gambling, pounding the steering wheel and nearly crashing multiple times. After ignoring his pleas to pull over, Card punched him in the face, Hodgson said.
“It took me a lot to report somebody I love,” he said. “But when the hair starts standing up on the back of your neck, you have to listen.”
Some officials downplayed Hodgson’s warning, suggesting he might have been drunk because of the late hour of his text. Army Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer, the commanding officer of the reserve unit, described him as “not the most credible of our soldiers” and said his message should be taken “with a grain of salt.”
Hodgson said he struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol addiction but said he wasn’t drinking that night and was awake because he works nights and was waiting for his boss to call. “I grieve every day for the many lives that are lost for no reason and those that are still affected today,” he told the AP earlier this month.
Cara Cookson, director of victim services for the Maine Office of the Attorney General, also testified Thursday and described through tears the daunting task of responding to the enormity of the tragedy with a “patchwork of resources.”
On Thursday evening, the Maine Resiliency Center, which provides support to people affected by the killings, held a six-month commemoration event that drew several hundred people to a park in Lewiston.
The names of the 18 people who died were read aloud at the start of the ceremony, and there were 18 empty chairs, each with a candle and a blue heart, honoring the victims.
The governor also acknowledged the anniversary. “Our hearts are still healing, and the road to healing is long, but we will continue to walk it together,” Mills said in a statement.
Ed Yurek, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, gives testimony, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Sean Hodgson, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, gives testimony, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Sean Hodgson, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, gives testimony, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Sean Hodgson, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, shows where he was punched by Robert Card while giving testimony, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Daniel Wathen listens to testimony, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Dr. Anthony Ng questions a witness, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Toby Dilworth questions a witness, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Dr. Debra Baeder questions a witness, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Ellen Gorman questions a witness, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Sean Hodgson, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, wipes tears while recalling the moment he heard about the mass shooting, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Daryl Reed, a member of the U.S. Army Reserves, is sworn in before giving testimony Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
FILE - This photo released by the Lewiston, Maine, Police Department shows Robert Card, who was responsible for the mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, on Oct. 25, 2023. Sean Hodgson, a fellow U.S. Army reservist who sounded the clearest warning ahead of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting, is expected to answer questions Thursday, April 25, 2024, from the commission investigating the tragedy. (Lewiston Police Department via AP, File)
Sean Hodgson waits to be called to give testimony, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Augusta, Maine, during a hearing of the independent commission investigating the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. Hodgson had alerted an Army supervisor in September that his friend, Robert Card, was capable to doing a mass shooting. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
