安全人员打开车门，车里摆放着10个纸质箱子，编号为3453的小金人和它的51个伙伴安坐其中。与小金人们同行的是它们的保姆史蒂夫梅斯纳。史蒂夫和安全人员把纸箱放到两辆手推车上，在武装警卫的押送下，送往剧场后台货运电梯。
史蒂夫引领人们走过空荡荡的走廊，来到柯达剧场后部的办公室。两名警卫留在办公室门口看守。史蒂夫带上他标志性的白色手套，开始为这批珍贵的货物拆 包：50个泡沫包装盒，每个里面有一小金人。第3453号小金人排在第一个。史蒂夫仔仔细细地检查它的外观，发现有些胶水粘在它身上。他从装着扳手、笔形 手电筒等东西的工具箱中抽出一块天鹅绒布，小心翼翼地擦拭小金人。接着，史蒂夫挨个打开其他泡沫包装盒，把小金人一一放到桌子上。
“我通常会把它们全部拿出来，挂上小示意牌，因为在后台时你看不清编号。”史蒂夫说。
史蒂夫梅斯纳，47岁，电影学 院主席助理及执行主任，也是唯一一个处理小金人事务的人。在周日举行奥斯卡颁奖礼时，他将站在后台，记录每个小金人的编号和被授予者姓名。典礼过后，他要 把这些信息输入到奥斯卡奖杯数据库中。不过今天他的任务是保证每个小金人做好登台准备。他在一个张白色标签纸上写上“3453”，然后拴上绳子挂到小金人 脖子上，好像一个项链。史蒂夫当是第五年当小金人的保姆，他说有时夜晚会惊醒，因为梦到小金人们上台时脖子上还挂着项链呢。
“我不免会有这样或那样的幻觉，担心哪里会出岔子。”史蒂夫提到2002年小金人被偷事件时说。那批小金人最终被找回，从那以后就由武装警卫押送了。
现在小金人们已经安全抵达柯达剧场，史蒂夫就安心多了。“他们在这里会得到很好的保护。”他说：“他们是雕像，别想到处乱跑。”
周日，3453号和它的小金人兄弟门将奔赴新家。
Oscar is in the house: Trophies come to the Kodak
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A group of security workers stand at attention as two black SUVs, each driven by armed guards, pull up to the artists' entrance to the Kodak Theatre. Inside are the Academy Awards' most famous guests.
Men in black suits open the car doors. There sit 10 cardboard boxes carrying the show's critical stars: Oscar No. 3453 and 51 of his fellow Oscar statuettes. Steve Miessner, the Keeper of the Oscars, rides along with them.
He and the security guards load the boxes onto two dollies, and each is sent up a backstage freight elevator accompanied by an armed guard.
Miessner leads them down a winding hallway and into an office in the bowels of the Kodak. Two guards stand at the door as he dons his trademark white gloves and begins unpacking the precious cargo: 50 foam containers, each with one Oscar inside.
No. 3453 is among the first he unpacks. Miessner examines it and notices a bit of packaging glue stuck to the statue. He pulls a blue velvet cloth from his toolbox, which also includes tiny wrenches and a pen light, and gently polishes.
One by one, Miessner opens the foam containers and places the golden men on a desk.
"I usually set them all out and put little medallions on them, because backstage you can't see the serial numbers," he says.
Miessner, 47, officially works as an assistant to the film academy president and executive director. But he's also the only academy person who handles the Oscar trophies.
He's responsible for tracking all 52 statuettes reserved for Sunday's ceremony. He'll stand backstage as the awards are presented, noting the serial number of each Oscar and its recipient. After the show, he'll log the information into the academy's Statuettes Database.
But today he's making sure each trophy is accounted for and camera ready. He writes "3453" on a white paper tag and ties it with string around the Oscar's neck, like a little pendant. Miessner, who has served as Keeper of the Oscars for five years, says some nights he wakes in a panic, dreaming that an Oscar sent onstage during the show was still wearing it's numbered necklace.
"In the back of my mind I start to have all these fantasies about what could be going wrong," he says, noting that an entire shipment of Oscars was stolen — and eventually recovered — in 2002. (Hence all the armed guards.)
Just knowing the Oscars are safely at the Kodak brings Miessner some relief.
"They're here. I know they're protected," he says. "They're stationary. They're not going anywhere."
Until Sunday, when No. 3453 and his brothers will be sent off to their new homes.
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