NO JANUARY OSCARS NEXT YEAR, SAYS OSCAR PRODUCER

If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does indeed move its Oscar presentations to January, it won’t happen in 2011, co-producer Don Mischer has told the Los Angeles Times. The possible switch was reported by Deadline Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke on Wednesday. Finke reported that the academy’s board of governors discussed moving up the 2011 awards to January, which would give it a jump on the competing Golden Globes, BAFTA, and SAG awards. She quoted an unnamed studio head as saying that the move “will make the Oscars the definitive awards show again.” But Mischer told the Times that the first time he heard about such a move was when he read about it in Finke’s article. “When I read that in Nikki Finke’s column I was completely surprised,” he said. “I do know that it would not be happening for the show we’re doing [in 2011]. If you want to make that kind of change you have to plan for that a year and a half in advance. I understand why the academy might want to consider it. But it’s not going to change anything this year.”