Sideshow
By SHARON FINK
Published March 3, 2005
TIME TO START OBSESSING ABOUT NEXT YEAR'S OSCARS: One Academy Awards special interest group is already grumbling about the date of the 2006 event.
The Oscars will move back to March after two years in late February because, in their ongoing quest to be the most special of all special awards given out on the planet, they don't want to conflict with the Winter Olympics, which run Feb. 11-26 in Turin, Italy.
So next year's date is March 5. Starting to implode at the thought are many fashion designers, Women's Wear Daily reports, because that is the final day of runway shows in Paris for debuts of their fall and winter clothes. And having to put the final touches on their collections while also dealing with indecisive stars and their imperious stylists half a world away for the biggest show biz event of the year is among their worst nightmares.
IF THAT'S ALL HE HAS TO COMPLAIN ABOUT . . .: If the academy decides to continue giving out statues in the audience, it needs better seat fillers, one academy member says.
Seat fillers are people the academy brings in to fill seats left empty when audience members leave for a smoke, a drink, a bathroom break or to send cell phone pictures of famous rowmates to their friends.
But there was conspicuous emptiness in the first rows behind the orchestra seats when some prizes were handed out Sunday.
"The seat fillers seemed to do a better job in previous years," Bill Mechanic, a member of the academy's board of governors, told the New York Times.
THERE'S GOT TO BE A MORNING AFTER: Not winning the best supporting actor Oscar for Closer hasn't changed Clive Owen's view of his chance to be the next James Bond. Owen tells Access Hollywood that despite being constantly named as a front-runner, the Bond people have never approached him about it. But he has a Bondlike role in his next project: He'll play the world-saving macho minister originated by Gene Hackman in a remake of The Poseidon Adventure.
AND WHAT'S NEXT FOR CLINT EASTWOOD? He's dedicating his voice, likeness and creative impulses to turning his Dirty Harry character into a series of video games. Eastwood is doing this for two reasons, he said in a Hollywood Reporter story: "to satisfy the many requests over the years to continue the Dirty Harry legacy" and to introduce the "make my day" character to new generations "on a medium they appreciate."
Sharon Fink can be reached at 727 893-8525 or fink@sptimes.com