MOVIESUp for Oscars: Today’s the day we...

MOVIES

Up for Oscars: Today’s the day we learn who made the cut in the annual race for the Academy Awards. Starting shortly after 5:30 a.m.--timed to coincide with East Coast-based morning talk shows--the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills will reveal its annual Oscar nominations. More than 600 journalists are expected for the announcements by academy president Arthur Hiller and actress Angela Bassett, a best actress nominee last year for her portrayal of Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” In addition to live TV feeds to numerous channels, nominations for the first time will be listed on America Online (keyword: ABC Prime Time, double click on the Oscar icon) and on the Internet: https://www.oscars.org/ampas/ . The awards will be presented March 27 at the Shrine Auditorium.

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No Respect: Proving that there’s more to movie-making than honors and glory, the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation announced its 15th annual Razzie nominations for worst achievements Monday. Among the “dis-honorees” were two Bruce Willis features, “Color of Night” (nine nominations) and “North” (six nominations). Willis made the worst actor category for each film. A half-dozen nods went to Steven Seagal’s “On Deadly Ground,” and five each went to Sylvester Stallone’s “The Specialist” and Kevin Costner’s “Wyatt Earp.” John Wilson, a movie-advertising copywriter who masterminds the Razzies, said winners will be selected by more than 375 people from 31 states and six foreign countries and will be announced during “spectacularly spiffy ceremonies” at the El Rey Theatre on March 26, a day before the Oscars. Winners are unlikely to claim their trophies, a golfball-size raspberry atop a film reel that is painted gold. It’s worth $1.97, Wilson said.

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Academy Expands: For the first time in 42 years, the motion picture academy has added a new branch of governors--visual effects. That means that about 130 visual effects specialists, who have been members-at-large, will be able to name three of their group to the academy’s Board of Governors, increasing the board to 39 members following July elections. The visual effects branch will join a dozen other units that represent filmmakers ranging from actors and directors to film editors and executives.

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‘Pinocchio’ Gets Real: Talk about visual effects: Savoy Pictures and Kushner-Locke Co. announced Monday they will make a live-action version of the classic adventure “Pinocchio,” and the puppet who wants to become a real boy will be brought to life with the help of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, creators of the Muppets. A “big name” actor is being sought to play the title role and director Steve Barron (“Coneheads,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) will pull strings behind the cameras.

STAGE

La Jolla Lineup: Michael Greif, the new artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse, will direct Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” there in late July--the first La Jolla production he’ll stage since he took the job. It will be followed in the season by Heather MacDonald’s “An Almost Holy Picture,” a one-man depiction of a former minister. The Playhouse also has booked Eric Bogosian’s “Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead,” previously seen at the Mark Taper Forum.

ART

Toulouse-Lautrec Work on Block: “In Bed: The Embrace,” an 1892 painting of lesbian lovers by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, will go on the block May 9 at Sotheby’s New York. The work has been consigned by Maurice Rheims, a Parisian auctioneer, author and art-world personality. The auction house expects the oil-on-cardboard painting to command about $4.9 million, just above the $4.8 million paid at auction last November for another Toulouse-Lautrec work, but far less than the $12.98-million record price paid in 1990, during the art-market boom, for his “Girl in Fur, Mademoiselle Jeanne Fontaine.”

QUICK TAKES

Elton John and Billy Joel’s March 22 stop at San Diego’s 51,000-seat Jack Murphy Stadium sold out in two hours Saturday, the fastest concert sell-out ever at the facility, a representative of Bill Silva Presents reports. . . . Filmmaker Bobby Mardis was given a $25,000 grant by Showtime in New York to help produce an original film to be seen on the cable network next February. The presentation was part of a Showtime effort to showcase the work of promising black filmmakers. Actor-writer-director Mardis made the short film “Why Colors?,” a spoof designed to deter children from gang violence. It featured rappers Ice-T and Flavor Flav and was shown on the network. . . . Alec Baldwin is sending out a Valentine’s Day message but it’s not the usual hearts and bunny rabbit cartoons. The actor, who is married to actress Kim Basinger, says the best Valentine’s Day gift “is the gift of life--yours, your loved ones’ and the animals’.” So he’s recorded a series of radio advertisements encouraging listeners to eschew meat for Valentine’s Day. “What do Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna, Tony La Russa and Gandhi all have in common with my wife, Kim, and me?” Baldwin asks. “We all learned to kick the meat habit, and you can too.”