SODA OF THE STARS

Last year, as the Academy Award nominees arrived at the Shrine Auditorium, they were greeted with the sound of champagne corks popping. This year, thanks to the academy, the nominees will find their limo coolers filled with non-alcoholic Coca-Cola products. “We thought it would be a nice gesture,” said an academy spokesman. “We originally thought about wine and so forth, but we thought better of it.” For Atlanta’s Coca-Cola Co., which is one of the commercial sponsors of the awards telecast, supplying 800 limousines with its product was an opportunity to hype Diet Coke as the preferred drink of the stars.