Valley native scripts Oscars

Tina Cannizzaro DeBone makes it her business — her show business — to know that "Crash" began with a nightmare and Heath Ledger could unseat Adrien Brody as the youngest Best Actor winner in Oscar history.

Cannizzaro DeBone, a 35-year-old Dutchess County native, is a script coordinator for Sunday's Academy Awards.

"I love the research of this job," said Cannizzaro DeBone. "I love finding out facts."
The aspiring television show creator and producer pens the "winner walkups" for the telecast from a production truck in the parking lot of the Kodak Theatre.

She offered an example of a winner walkup: "This is Julia Roberts' first Academy Award and her third nomination. She was nominated in this category in 1990 for 'Pretty Woman' and in 1989 for her supporting role in 'Steel Magnolias.' "

Cannizzaro DeBone has worked on just about every awards show out there, including the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Emmys, Daytime Emmys and the American Music Awards.

She pursued acting before realizing her true calling was writing and producing.

"I wanted to play Susan Lucci's daughter, Bianca, on 'All My Children,' so I was going to New York City for acting classes," she said. "And then I decided to go back to college to learn how to do things behind the scenes. And I've been working behind the camera ever since."
Cannizzaro DeBone moves from show to show. Her work with the Oscars began three weeks ago.
"In freelance work you make deals," she said. "You can make a day rate or a weekly rate. Each show is different and with your experience, you can get more."

She makes at least $1,200 a week on the Academy Awards, but did not want to divulge how much more because of the competition.

"This is absolutely what Tina was meant to do," said Julieanne MacDonald, a lifelong friend and Hopewell Junction resident. "She's extremely energetic; she's very friendly and sweet; and yet when she's working on a job, she can absolutely get done what she needs to get done."
MacDonald accompanied Cannizzaro DeBone, then 26, in her Ford Tempo for a cross-country trip to Burbank, Calif., in 1996. They arrived on New Year's Eve at 9 p.m., West Coast time.
"She had found an apartment and had just one job lined up," MacDonald said. "And she made a success out of it."

icoastal valley girl, was back in New York for Christmas to work on Dick Clark's "New Year's Rockin' Eve."

"That's a pretty amazing show," she said.

Politics come in handy

Besides television and movies, the John Jay High School and Dutchess Community College graduate has always had an interest in politics.

She ran for the East Fishkill Town Board in 1995 and is the daughter of former East Fishkill Supervisor Dominick Cannizzaro, who owns Hopewell Auto Parts, and Valerie Cannizzaro, who lives in Edgewater, Fla.

Cannizzaro DeBone's political background came in handy during her job as the script supervisor for "Democracy Live 2000" at the Democratic National Convention.
She added the DeBone to her name Oct. 8, when she married Center Box Office owner Tom DeBone. Their wedding program was modeled after a Playbill.

The newlyweds met online and hope to turn their love story into a television show.
Cannizzaro DeBone, a marathoner, is also working on a movie-of-the-week pitch based on the life of fitness guru Tina Castaldi and on a behind-the-scenes show pitch for SOAPnet."After all these years, I want to return to why I started in the business," Cannizzaro DeBone said.