LOS ANGELES - They've held more Oscars than Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson combined, but they never give a speech or take the golden guy home.
They aren't nominees, they're trophy presenters. The statuesque beauties who accompany Oscar and his winners on and off stage are actually models for hire.
These trophy handlers enjoy a privileged perspective on the Academy Awards, watching from a backstage seat when they aren't facing the star-studded crowd. The show's global exposure, plus its audience full of Hollywood heavyweights, make working as a trophy girl the modeling gig of a lifetime.
"It's one of the coolest jobs I ever had," said Danielle Yu, 22, who presented Oscars at last year's Academy Awards. "It was such a surreal experience."
Seeing Nicholson and Nicole Kidman up close was a pinch-me moment for Yu, a fashion-design student who brought her books to rehearsals and studied during down time.
Carol Scott, vice president of CESD talent agency, has been helping find Oscar's trophy models for decades.
She usually gets a request for models' photos from Academy Awards director Lou Horvitz about six weeks before the show. Horvitz finds his models from the dozens of pictures she sends.
One year, he even found a wife.
"I said, very jokingly, I'll send you one you'll marry," Scott said, recalling a telephone conversation with the veteran director 12 years ago.
Scott sent Steffanee Leaming, whom Horvitz hired and later married.
"They always send a Christmas card every year," Scott said with a smile.
Trophy models typically change from show to show, but some are repeat presenters. Renee Gentry carried Oscars at five Academy Awards ceremonies in the late 1990s.
"It's been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life," she said. "I've met everyone I ever wanted to meet."
Gentry went on to present trophies at the Emmys, Golden Globes, People's Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, BET Awards and NAACP Image Awards. She now works as a stand-in during rehearsals for the Academy Awards.
"The Oscars led to it all," she said.
The Oscars also led to more work for model Marisa Petroro, an aspiring actress who handed out trophies at last year's ceremony. The brunette beauty is now a regular on the NBC game show "Deal or No Deal" and has a role in the new movie "Reno 911!: Miami."
"I'm an actor to begin with, so my dream was always to be on that stage receiving an award," she said. "I hope it was foreshadowing."
Presenting trophies is easy work for models accustomed to walking the runway, Petroro said. And the perks are pretty good. Besides sporting custom-made clothes and sharing the stage with superstars, some models have gotten to wear million-dollar (borrowed) diamonds on the show and others have been invited to the Governors Ball, the academy's swanky dinner that follows the awards.
But Sandra Plazinic, who presented Oscars at the 2003 ceremony, recalled a different experience.
"It's not as glamorous as it may seem," said the 28-year-old. "It was fun and it was a job but it certainly didn't do much for your career. And it's a (union) job so it's not paid that well."
Plazinic said she earned about $350 a day.
Most modeling jobs pay more, Petroro said, but to her, it hardly mattered.
"I would have done it for free because the experience was just priceless," she said.
This year's trophy models -- Eric Weldon, Katarina Vargas and the one-named Liselotte -- are already excited about their Feb. 25 assignment.
"I'm still kind of in shell shock," said Vargas, 22.
Vargas and Liselotte are represented by L.A. Models, another agency that has provided Oscar presenters over the years. The Academy Awards experience spreads past the model, to the agency and beyond, said runway division director Crista Klayman.
"It incorporates much more than (the model) and her family and friends," she said. "It validates the clients that they have good taste, and it makes us look good like we're the cool agency because every girl in the city would love to do it."
Maybe every guy, too -- though Weldon will be the first male trophy presenter since 2001.
"I'm very stoked," said the 30-year-old, an aspiring actor and freelance storyboard artist. "The best is that my father is a huge Oscars fan."
Liselotte plans to share the Oscar excitement with her family in her native Sweden, and Vargas with her family in Texas.
"My mom still talks about it to this day," said Yu, who said working at the Academy Awards last year was a transformative experience.
"It inspired me to further myself in my career," she said. "It seemed like Hollywood was an untouchable place, like a dream world that wasn't really real. But now I realize that they're all just people doing their thing. We're all the same, so if you just apply yourself, you could totally be in that position. You just have to believe you can be there."
