Peter O'Toole, who's on his eighth best actor nomination (with no wins so far) for "Venus," said at the Miramax party that since his first nomination for 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia," he is sure of one thing about Oscar hoopla: "It has increased. It was always very big. Always. In terms of popularity, in terms of the world, it's a symbol. The world knows the Oscar as well as they know the Union Jack or the Stars & Stripes. It's one of the images of our times."

Match that iconic status with a booming multimedia industry of Oscar prognosticators, gossips and fan advocates, and this year's show should be big — especially when you consider that this is the most competitive race in recent memory for the biggest award, best picture. All five nominated films — Martin Scorsese's crime film "The Departed," Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' dysfunctional family comedy "Little Miss Sunshine," Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's global drama "Babel," Clint Eastwood's Japanese-language World War II story "Letters from Iwo Jima" and Stephen Frears' comedy of manners "The Queen" — are all thought to have a shot at winning (with the first three considered the strongest candidates).

Yet anecdotal evidence and a general reading of the Oscar temperature give no indication the show will break the downward viewership trend of the past couple of years. ABC isn't necessarily worried; the network sold out all of its ads two weeks ago at an average of $1.7 million per 30-second spot, up from $1.65 million last year and $1.5 million in 2005. Consistently the year's most popular entertainment program (although January's "American Idol" premiere drew 37.3 million viewers, close to last year's Oscar numbers), the Academy Awards attract the kind of educated, affluent audience that advertisers love.

Whether this audience is actually excited about the show's content may be another story.

"I don't know what the movies are," Carol Holian, a tourist from San Diego, admitted as she took in the sights near the Kodak Theatre while workers scurried back and forth wearing their laminated Oscar credentials. "I know what some of them are, but it's more the stars and the people watching."

"I watch the stuff on E! about the clothes," added her 15-year-old niece, Katie Holian.

Inside the Kodak's mall complex, Patrick Van Beusekom, a 38-year-old documentary filmmaker from San Francisco, said this year he won't be predicting winners at an Oscar party because "I know the movies that are up for Oscars, but I haven't seen any of them. Well, I saw 'The Queen' on an airplane."

"I feel like the older I get, the less I'm interested in it," agreed Van Beusekom's filmmaking partner, Jonny Burhop, 26, although he still views the Oscars as "the one legitimate awards show of the year."