APPLES AND ORANGES: Fresh from their annual...

APPLES AND ORANGES: Fresh from their annual Grammy skirmish, Los Angeles and New York are fighting it out to host the MTV Video Music Awards. New York’s Radio City Music Hall hosted the first MTV awards show in 1984 and ‘85, and it was broadcast from both cities the next year. But L.A. has been its sole home since. Now, though, sources report that New York has made an aggressive bid to host this year’s show, which will be held in early September.

Many industry execs were unhappy about various aspects of last year’s show at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, including inadequate post-show party facilities. The New York faction is hoping to take advantage of that to lure the show, perhaps to Madison Square Garden.

“New York is doing its Grammy bit on the folks at MTV,” the source says, referring to the Big Apple’s ambitious campaign to lure the Grammy show away from L.A. in 1991 and 1992.

Valerie Field, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s arts and entertainment coordinator, had not heard that there was a possibility the city could lose the MTV show. But she said that it won’t let go without a fight.

“The Mayor considers all these shows very important to keep here,” she says. “They help sell L.A. as a good place for tourism and to solidify our image as the entertainment capital of the world.”