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By STEVE PERSALL, Times film critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 3, 2000
Now that Academy Award nominees have been announced, the next important question to be answered isn't who will win.
The question is: Where will you watch the 72nd annual Oscar awards?
A few people around Tampa Bay may have tickets to the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium on March 26. Lucky folks.
The rest of us will be glued to television screens at 8 p.m. to see how Billy Crystal spoofs the nominees and what Jennifer Lopez will be barely wearing. Oh, yes, and to learn who takes home the prized statuettes.
A night this special deserves a special telecast. Two gala events are planned on both sides on Tampa Bay that might be your ticket.
The St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Film Commission and Junior League of Clearwater/Dunedin will sponsor "A Night with the Stars." The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at Wizard Studios, 14483 62nd St. N, in Clearwater.
Tax-deductible tickets are $50, with proceeds benefiting the Junior League community fund and the film commission's educational grant and scholarship program.
Guests can nosh on hors d'oeuvres, bid on Hollywood memorabilia in a silent auction, or listen to the music of James Morgan. An addition this year is "Hollywood Backlot," a tour of the studios, with actors re-creating famous movie scenes along the way. Dinner follows the tour, with a large-screen telecast of the Academy Awards show afterward.
For reservations and information, call Ernestine Bean at (727) 787-6760.
Tampa Theatre will be the site of "Oscar Night America," one of 36 events across the country sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Festivities begin at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $25. Proceeds will benefit Ronald McDonald House of Tampa Bay and Tampa Theatre's restoration project.
Guests can get a hint of Oscar night glamour by taking a limousine ride around the block and being dropped off at Tampa Theatre's entrance. A red carpet and crowd of autograph seekers will await. Inside, hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar will be provided. The Oscar telecast will be beamed onto the historic theater's screen.
A few lucky guests will win official Oscar programs, just like the ones handed out to stars in L.A. A few will receive the official 72nd Academy Awards poster designed by Arnold Schwartzmann.
For reservations and information, call Tampa Theatre at (813) 274-8286 or Ronald McDonald House at (813) 258-6430.
WHAT'S NEW -- MGM didn't share 3 Strikes with critics in advance of Wednesday's debut. That is strike one, considering the dismal record of most unpreviewed films.
3 Strikes is an R-rated comedy about a two-time felon (Brian Hooks) who is released from prison and falsely accused of involvement with a car theft ring. That would be his third strike in the legal system, meaning a mandatory 25-year-to-life sentence.
The ex-con embarks on what MGM publicists call: "an uproarious comic adventure to clear his name and avoid his third strike at all cost!"
The exclamation point is MGM's, and such hyperbole is strike two.
Strike three is the fact that 3 Strikes comes from the co-writer of Friday, rap artist D.J. Pooh. Mr. Pooh also makes his debut as a film director, hopefully not with the point-and-shoot creative limitations of some predecessors.
The cast includes names familiar to def ears: N'Bushe Wright (Blade, Dead Presidents), David Alan Grier (Boomerang, TV's In Living Color), rap singer E40 and stand-up comic George Wallace.
Look for the soundtrack CD to hang around the charts longer than the movie stays around theaters.