CNN morning news anchor Daryn Kagan, ’85, has become a fixture at the Academy Awards. She has interviewed winners during and after the shows since 1999, and last year she conducted live interviews with stars as they arrived at the Kodak Theatre. She’ll be there again on March 23 for the 75th annual Oscar ceremony. Stanford asked her for an inside scoop about life on the red carpet.
The dress and the diamonds are loaners. “CNN allows us to borrow from the top designers, but we can’t advertise them.” Kagan wore a Calvin Klein dress and $225,000 of Fred Leighton jewelry for a similar assignment at the Golden Globes in January.
Don’t bring food. The first time Kagan worked at the Oscar ceremony, she phoned her parents from backstage to share the excitement and her mother noticed that she was eating as she talked. “My mom says, ‘Please tell me you’re not at the Academy Awards with a sandwich stuffed in your purse,’” Kagan recalls, laughing. “Nobody told me, but they do feed you.”
Listen and talk at the same time. While Kagan chats up actors or directors, she is simultaneously listening to a spotter announce in her earpiece who’s coming down the rug and imagining what she’ll say next. “It’s all about multi-tasking. The hardest part is having an intelligent question ready for whoever walks up at that moment. But that’s what I love about live TV. Either you get it right or you don’t; there’s no second chance.”
Stake your turf. In the midst of a media gauntlet, Kagan and her five-person team are crowded into a 2-foot by 4-foot area where they must literally fight for position. “Our producer has this laminated CNN sign attached to a tongue depressor, very high tech, and he waves it to get people’s attention. Being CNN doesn’t hurt. Last year, Ian McKellen [nominated for his performance in Lord of the Rings] would only talk to us and the BBC.”
How about some love for the sound editing nominee? “It’s like the worst high school popularity contest” for both reporters and the nominees. “It’s all about where you are on the food chain. The publicists are working hard to get you to interview the people in the lesser known categories and the media are all scrambling to get the top-name people.” Last year, Kagan recalls, Reese Witherspoon (who briefly attended Stanford in 1995-96) and Ryan Phillippe agreed to stay with her while CNN aired commercials, then got the brushoff when Robert Redford walked up. “Redford was getting a lifetime achievement award, so I had to get him. Here Reese and Ryan have been patiently waiting and I go, ‘Okay, thanks, we don’t need you now.’ They were really mad.”
Keep the camera above the waist, please. Looking glamorous is part of the fun, “but as the night wears on, you sort of decompose.” By the end of the evening, Kagan has abandoned her heels and is conducting interviews in sneakers.
Take along some fatigues, just in case. The Oscar gig is a nice departure from her regular duties, but Kagan has no interest in switching from news to entertainment. “I wouldn’t want to report from war zones all the time and I wouldn’t want to do awards shows all the time.” In fact, the war zone may be next on her itinerary. According to Kagan, CNN may send her to Kuwait.
