Hersholt award to go to Mayer
Roger Mayer, president of Turner Entertainment Co., will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy Awards on Feb. 27, the movie academy said Thursday.
Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to honor Mayer because of his contributions to the industry as chairman of the board of the Motion Picture and Television Fund and as founding board chairman of the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Meanwhile, the academy also announced that the Oscar telecast is moving back to March in 2006 -- but not because officials are unhappy with the late-February experiment that began last year.
The academy explained that the 2006 awards show will take place on March 5 to avoid going head to head with the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics on Feb. 26.
The academy advanced the telecast by a month last year, to late February, to see if the shorter period between unveiling the nominations and opening the winners’ envelopes would reduce what many observers considered the increasingly unseemly Oscar campaigns. Academy President Frank Pierson said Thursday that the academy was pleased with the results and would return to the late-February date in 2007.
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Lee Margulies
Only good movies
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