Oscar Nomination for Performing Arts Center

Will Oscar part the Orange Curtain? Will the golden boy board the Queen Mary for moviedom’s grandest night of the year? At the moment, it’s neck and neck.

Officials of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, hoping to find a better place to stage their Academy Awards shows, toured the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the Long Beach Convention Center this week.

According to Academy Executive Director Bruce Davis, the search came about because of problems with crowd control at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and insufficient rehearsal time at the Oscars’ other customary venue, the Los Angeles Music Center.

But Davis said he does not “see a leader” between Orange County and Long Beach.

The trip, he said, was strictly a preliminary fact-finding mission. Next year’s ceremony is already booked into the Shrine. And, he noted, the problems at the halls in L.A. may yet be solved.

But, he added, “we were very, very pleased with both facilities. For years, we’ve been telling ourselves that there are only two suitable places for the awards. Now it’s clear that that’s not true. There are at least four places.”

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Orange County Performing Arts Center officials are forever fretting over what they call an overcrowded schedule, but Judith O’Dea Morr, the vice president for programming, said she would “certainly explore” the possibility of snaring a ceremony seen by 1 billion television viewers.

However, Davis said, distance is the center’s big disadvantage. “We’d have to think about rescheduling the show for a Sunday evening” and even then, most attendees would have “about an hour’s schlep from L.A.’s Westside.”

Long Beach is about 30 minutes closer, and the Convention Center is ideal for the post-awards Governor’s Ball, Davis said. The Convention Center’s general manager, David Gorden, said he’d do somersaults to get the gig. But, Davis said, the stage at the adjacent Terrace Theatre, where the ceremony would take place, is “rather small.”

In any case, Davis said no decision--including a decision whether to move at all--is expected from the Academy’s board until late summer. He said he is more optimistic about solving the problems at the Music Center now that funding has picked up for the long-delayed Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Music Center is home to the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra, which, Davis said, won’t cut short its rehearsals for the Oscars but would move into the new hall.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see us back there,” Davis said.