Hoi polloi Hollywood

In the jungle of awards season, The People's Choice lurks by itself in a lonely yet unmissable glade.

The show earns hoots of condescension from the "plugged-in." It is derided by many for its wacky categories, (eg. The Crest Whitestrips Fans Favorite Smile Award), populist honorees ("Passion of the Christ" and "Farenheit 9/11" took top honors last year) and Byzantine voting procedures (nominees and winners are selected through some mystical process which combines the editors of Entertainment Weekly, a "pop culture fans" focus group and tamper-ready online voting).

But for better or worse, The People's Choice is the people's show, complete with an audience of screaming fans.

I arrive at the Shrine Auditorium on this January night eager to experience the phenomenon, to see what happens when my fellow scribes charge into a pre-packaged industry spectacle (the show is produced by Procter and Gamble Productions, after all) and to watch as Hollywood comes face-to-jowl with its public.



At 4 p.m., the Shrine Auditorium's runway — a few hundred yards of red carpet flanked by bleachers and camera positions — looks oddly serene in the dusky light

Publicists stroll down the carpet, a TV reporter in a clingy blue-gray gown plops on the curb reading a magazine. Across the street, three protestors wave signs urging Hollywood to repent, "Heathens beware. Your guilt is real! You are going to go to HELL FIRE."

Up in one of the two bleachers, about 200 mostly young people idly wait for the parade. I chat with a few members of the youth group from St. James Church of Fresno, which was given 50 tickets to the event. I ask them who they are most excited to see.

"Angelina Jolie" one volunteers and the rest quickly agree. "She's the best."

"Where's E!?" asks another.



"Are you guys ready to meet some stars!?!" The announcer yells to the now pumped-up crowd. "Then please help me welcome, from 'Commander-In-Chief'" Anthony Azuzi."

"AZI-zi," groans a reporter next to me in the print reporters holding pen.