Academy Awards officials have decided the Oscars will go on - but without the traditional red carpet.

Oscar producer Gil Cates says he wants to make Sunday's ceremony more sombre.

Some celebrities have said they would feel uncomfortable posing for photographs in the face of a possible war with Iraq.

Many will now arrive by a back entrance and stands for fans in front of the Kodak Theatre will be taken away.

But it is unclear how many Hollywood stars will attend if military action goes ahead even though over 3,500 have cleared their schedules.

According to ITV News, Daniel Day Lewis who is up for the best actor Oscar for Gangs Of New York (2001), has said it would "seem obscene if we're seen bouncing up the red carpet grinning when people are dying."

And Nicole Kidman, nominated for the best actress Oscar for her role in Hours, The (2002), has said she would be in two minds about attending in the event of war.

The Oscar ceremony has never been cancelled in its 75 year history but has three times been postponed - by the 1938 Los Angeles floods, the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, and the 1981 shooting of President Ronald Reagan.

Source: Press Release