Oscar green room honours '40s art director Gibbons
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LOS ANGELES (AP) - When Oscar nominees such as Steven Spielberg, Hugh Jackman and Helen Hunt want to take a break backstage during the Academy Awards show, they'll step back in time.
Their off-camera Oscar hangout, the Architectural Digest Greenroom, was inspired by art director Cedric Gibbons, who won 11 Academy Awards and was nominated another 28 times for his work on classic films including The Wizard Of Oz, Singin' In The Rain and Annie Get Your Gun. He even designed the Oscar statuette.
"He really created, almost singlehandedly, the look of the Hollywood films of the 1930s and '40s," said Madeline Stuart, designer of this year's Oscar green room.
"His body of work is so impressive, and as a designer who prides herself on being able to work in so many different architectural styles, he's my idol because he, in order to create the sets and the environments and the worlds of these different films, had to be conversant in all these different (aesthetic) languages."
