A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : LIKE THEY CARE : <i> (OK, Think WayneSpeak Here) </i> MTV to the Oscars: Well, Ex-squeeze Us!

And the Oscar goes to . . . “The Last Boy Scout”?

On a cold day in Dante-land. But boffo blockbusters that got no respect last spring stand a better chance of lining up statuettes in June, thanks to MTV, which has arrived with its own MTV Movie Awards telecast, filling in the populist youth niche ignored by those snooty folks at the motion picture academy and highfalutin’ critics’ blocs.

The “first annual” edition of the two-hour show--scheduled to be taped this weekend and airing on MTV Wednesday at 8 p.m.--includes such categories as Most Desirable Male and Female (surely Keanu Reeves’ and Kim Basinger’s best shot at a trophy this season) . . . Best Kiss (with Robert De Niro’s and Juliette Lewis’ “Cape Fear” thumb-sucking competing against Macaulay Culkin’s and Anna Chlumsky’s “My Girl” peck) . . . and Best Action Sequence (at last--”The Hard Way” is recognized).

Dennis Miller hosts; Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rebecca De Mornay, Jason Priestley and Demi Moore will present awards; En Vogue, Ugly Kid Joe and Vince Neil provide musical interludes.

“Because this is ‘viewers’ choice,’ the categories themselves are really from the fans’ point of view,” says executive producer Doug Herzog, MTV’s senior VP of programming. “What do people really debate when they’re driving home on Friday and Saturday nights? Are they talking about the cinematography or editing? No, they’re talking about the best line, the best stunt, is Mel Gibson sexier than Tom Cruise. . . .”

About 60,000 fans voted through ballots in Blockbuster stores and a 900 line. Balancing out the hunk factor with prestige will be a special first-time filmmakers’ award handed to John Singleton.

Not coincidentally, MTV gets an estimated 10%-12% of its advertising nowadays from the major film studios, who also get their share of free plugs with movie-related shows like “The Big Picture” and the number of videos that include footage from new films.

“We’re not necessarily the place to (advertise) the next Meryl Streep drama,” says Herzog. “But if you’re talking about something that appeals to an audience between 12-34, this is a great place to market your film. We have an active moviegoing audience that can make or break a movie the first week at the box office, and that clearly isn’t lost on the studios. ‘Wayne’s World’ is in some ways the ultimate movie for the MTV audience. But it can be everything from horror films to Jean-Claude Van Damme to ‘Boyz N the Hood.’ ”

Ad execs seem to agree. Says Christopher Dixon, an analyst at Paine Webber in New York: “Clearly as we move through the summer, and as media departments of motion picture studios become more and more targeted, they’re recognizing that one way of reaching those audiences is going to be through taking spot buys on MTV. That’s a no-brainer.

“What it really comes down to is ‘Wayne’s World,’ ” Dixon adds. “That did it.

“The biggest problem in Hollywood continues to be not so much the rise in production costs as the rise in P&A; (prints and advertising) costs. And as each of the studios is very aggressively trying to bring those costs in line, and not necessarily succeeding, one way to do that is to be much more targeted in your advertising. In the sense that the MTV Movie Awards acts as a promotional bed for the industry, clearly that works as a way to entice movie advertisers to a venue like MTV.”

It remains to be seen whether the MTV Movie Awards will ever take place on the scale of the MTV Video Music Awards, which each August provides the music industry with its biggest party as well as fans a chance to pay to see a major event at the Universal Amphitheatre. The Movie Awards will be taped at a Disney Studios soundstage before a mixed industry/fan audience of 1,000, though Herzog foresees taking the event bigger a la its sister show.

“This being year one, we spent a lot of time talking about where we should do this, because one of our great apprehensions about moving into this was, will anybody really show up? Meaning the industry and the artists. And our lineup will assure you that that turned out to be a non-issue. We’re doing it on a soundstage this year, but hopefully we’ll move it into a larger venue next year.”

Naturally, stuffiness promises not to be among the show’s sins. “We want the awards to have a certain amount of credibility, but on the other hand, it’s not the Pulitzer Prize,” says Herzog. “Not unlike the Video Music Awards, it’s definitely guaranteed not to have any boring, tuxedo-clad, moribund people. . . . “

In other words, Mr. Blackwell, get ready for a truly promising fashion event.