OSCAR WATCH

Governors Ball Plans: The academy has an ambitious plan to snag celebrities for its Board of Governors Ball before they slip off to more intimate parties after the show: This year the ball will take place inside a 34,000-square-foot, six-story-high, white vinyl tent set between the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Mark Taper Forum. By erecting the tent--which will enclose the trees, statue and water fountain on the Music Center courtyard--the Academy expects to have the same luck attracting movie stars as it has in the past two years, when the ball took place next door to the Shrine Auditorium--where the show was televised--rather than across town at some place such as the Beverly Hills Hotel. “We wanted to do the same thing (this year),” said ball chairman Charlie Powell. “This way people can go to the ball and still attend Swifty Lazar’s or one of the other parties around town.” The tent is in the finishing stages, after a year of planning and construction, according to Tom Shapiro, whose Academy Tent & Canvas Co. is building the facility.