(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-24 09:34

An unassuming Alan Arkin started Saturday's star parade. Wearing jeans and a black fleece jacket, he skipped to the microphone at center stage. He read from the teleprompter, then said, "And the Oscar goes to me!"

Harrison Ford was next. Carrying a coffee cup, he walked to the edge of the stage to see where he'd be sitting Sunday. A placard with his name and photo sat next to one bearing Calista Flockhart's.

"Aw, she's sitting right next to me," Ford said with mock annoyance about sitting beside his longtime girlfriend.

"We can fix that," stage manager Dency Nelson joked back.

A few academy officials brought their kids and grandkids to the theater Saturday, and just before 11 am, it became clear why: Miley Cyrus was coming in to rehearse. Accompanied by her look-alike mom, the gregarious teen star greeted her young fans and everyone else she came across with a megawatt grin.

After running through her lines, Cyrus was coached by her mom and publicist. Both urged her to slow down and to smile.

Longtime show writer Bruce Vilanch arrived just as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was expected to take the stage.

"Is this 'The Rock?"' a friend joked, pointing to Vilanch.

"I'm the roll," the rotund writer replied.

GIRL POWER

Don't expect to see Allison Janney, who plays the dog-obsessed stepmother in Best Picture nominee "Juno," at Sunday's ceremony. During a Friday night cocktail party hosted by Women in Film and Perrier-Jouet at a Bel Air mansion, the "West Wing" actress revealed she plans to watch the show at a viewing party and celebrate any "Juno" wins at a Fox Searchlight afterparty.

Oscar telecast director Louis Orvitz (L), telecast producer Gil Cates (C) and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Sid Ganis face photographers during a news conference before the 80th annual Academy Awards in Hollywood Feb. 22, 2008. The Oscars will be presented Feb. 24, 2008. [Xinhua]

"I'd rather not go unless I'm nominated," she told the AP. "I've been to enough award shows to know it's not a lot of fun. It's actually stressful. I'd rather be somewhere where I can just chill and not worry."

However, fellow Women in Film cocktail partygoers Nancy Oliver and Tamara Jenkins definitely intend to endure the festivities at the Kodak Theatre. That's because the two female screenwriters are nominated, respectively, for their "Lars and the Real Girl" and "The Savages" scripts.

"I think it'll be like a big theme park ride," said Oliver, who's never attended the Oscars.

This year's 43 female Oscar nominees were toasted at the exclusive event. Potential winners mingling at the soiree were easy to spot in the party's cluster of black cocktail dresses and suits: all nominees donned white corsages. Dana Delaney, Judith Light and Sharon Lawrence were among some of the famous faces in the crowd.

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