NEW HANDS ON DECK FOR OSCARS

In the apparent hope of bringing a new perspective to the production of the annual Oscar awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected veteran producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer to oversee next year’s telecast. Neither has ever worked on the ceremony, although Mischer has produced the Primetime Emmy Awards ten times. (He is producing this year’s Emmy telecast due to air on August 29.) Cohen, who won an Oscar for American Beauty in 1999 and whose other credits include Big Fish, The Forgotten and Milk, said in a statement, “I fell in love with the Oscars as an 8-year-old kid, the night my grandmothers let me stay up to watch for the first time. … It is a dream come true for me to now be producing the show with the phenomenal Don Mischer, whom I’ve had an incredible time working with in the past. … We hope to create a show that celebrates what people around the world love about the Academy Awards year after year – the excitement, glamour and tradition of Oscar Night itself.”