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In the thick of it, journalists are in a cutthroat competition for the world's most desirable stars as publicists ruthlessly mete out access to them and censor questions. The nominees stand picturesquely between the two sides, naked except for millions of dollars' worth of couture and jewelry, smiling as their hair gently uncoils in the heat.

And meanwhile, on social media, everyone's a critic.

The trick to a red carpet interview is to find a question interesting enough to elicit a decent response, yet considered safe by the celebrities' handlers, who could teach a lesson in enforcing conformity to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican.

This system favors convivial personalities like Tim Gunn and Ryan Seacrest, who reliably probe only about shoes and earrings. They also come with a film crew whose boom mike attracts celebrities like the lure of a deep-sea anglerfish.

Print journalists have to be a little sneakier.

"The one way a reporter could get out of the media stockade was to go to the bathroom," said George Rush, a former columnist for The New York Daily News who finagled a rare interview with Paul Newman at the Oscars in 1994.

"So I tailed Newman to the men's room and we did the interview at the urinals," Mr. Rush said. "He rolled with it, but on the way out I was quickly apprehended by a publicist" who demanded to know how the reporter had escaped the media pen.

Jeffrey Slonim, a special correspondent for Allure magazine, collared Meryl Streep and Prince Albert of Monaco on the red carpet last year.

"The truly great stars can deliver a solid-gold quote at a moment's notice," Mr. Slonim said. He recalled asking Jack Nicholson at one film premiere: What is the most difficult thing about being well known? Without missing a beat, Mr. Nicholson shot back, "Getting out of a hotel room at 4 a.m."

"Roseanne Barr once passed me without stopping and I called out, 'How do you get ready for summer?' " Mr. Slonim said. "Fire the staff," she replied.

Not all interactions are so cordial.

"The things that you want to know on the red carpet are the things that make headlines," said Jo Piazza, a former gossip columnist and the author of "Celebrity, Inc." about the economics of fame. "Their relationships, their pregnancies, whether or not they're going to be starring in a new movie franchise. I've had publicists rip my recorder out of my hands when I've asked questions that are too personal."

Ms. Piazza developed a strategy of flattering an actor until she sensed that the handler had lost attention.

"You say how much you appreciate their work in whatever film it is, and then you blindside them with the question that you want to ask," she said. "It catches the celebrity and the publicist off-guard and you can get a halfway decent answer."

For their part, publicists are primed to move a client along with the merest tap on a Balenciaga-clad elbow.

"If a reporter's conversation starts to veer off into ex-boyfriends, divorces, rivalries or eating habits, you should suddenly remember your client is 30 minutes late," said Jesse Parker Stowell, director of public relations at Full Picture, an agency that represents red carpet regulars, including Heidi Klum. "But be prepared to be booed. When your client walks off the red carpet and not every one of the 48 photographers gets the shot they want, they have no issue voicing their displeasure."

Shawn Sachs, a partner in the public relations firm Sunshine Sachs, said, "The red carpet is chaos." Sunday night at the Dolby Theater he will be shepherding clients including Ben Affleck, whose film "Argo" is nominated for best picture.

Social media, Mr. Sachs said, has given publicists a bit more control.

"Social media is wonderful because you don't have to go through someone else to connect with fans," he said. "Often the publicist is there with their iPhone taking a picture of a client on the carpet for Facebook and Instagram. It's more personal, it's immediate, it's in real time and it's interactive."

Still, some P.R. folks can be too quick on the trigger. Last month at the Golden Globes, the publicist for DKNY, using the Twitter handle @dkny, responded in real time to an interview between Taylor Swift and Mr. Seacrest in which the singer failed to say that she was wearing the label.

"OMG seriously?! HATE!!!" came the Twitter message. Whether the remark was aimed at Ms. Swift or Mr. Seacrest was unclear, but it was promptly deleted.

Still, Twitter has become an inescapable presence on the red carpet.

"Celebrities understand the power of a sound bite even more now that you only have 140 characters to make an impression," said Gregory Littley, director of strategy at Iced Media, a digital marketing firm in SoHo. "They know that our attention span is literally 12 seconds."

Mr. Littley noted that the actress Zooey Deschanel "Instragamed her nails at the Golden Globes, before even getting out of her limousine."

"That was maybe the most shared image from the Golden Globes," he said. "It made all these red carpet editors step up and realize they need to be posting news in real time."

"Because of my Instagram feed and especially with the explosion of Vine," he said, referring to the six-second video service started by Twitter, "not only am I seeing content but I'm seeing moving images."

The result is a blizzard of social media content. And it all endures about as long as a snowflake on a hot California sidewalk.

"The problem with the Oscars is that the red carpet precedes a very important event," said Rob Shuter, an entertainment columnist for The Huffington Post. "So, all the work you've just done in two hours on the red carpet is sort of dead in 10 minutes because the real news is the awards show."

He contrasted the chatter of pre-ceremony interviews with the moment, in 2000, when the newly named best actress Hilary Swank forgot to thank her (subsequently ex-) husband Chad Lowe from the podium. "Who cares what she said on the red carpet, when she just accepted her award and forgot to thank her husband?"