New Yorkers pitch for Oscars to banish images of terror

An energetic campaign is under way to move all or part of next year's Academy Awards show to New York.

A powerful panel of New Yorkers – including Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor, George Pataki, the state Governor, Harvey Weinstein of Miramax films, and Jonathan Tisch, the politically connected owner of Loews hotels – has been persistently lobbying the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the past few weeks. Now their efforts have been made public, and the thinking on both coasts is that New Yorkers will probably get at least part of what they want.

Taking the Oscars out of Hollywood is a bit like asking the Queen to move from Buckingham Palace: it goes against all received wisdom, perhaps shocks the conscience. But these are extraordinary times.

The rationale is to give the Big Apple a post-11 September boost and replace all those haunting images with some unabashed opulence and movie-star glamour.

The request could hardly come in a more symbolic year: 2003 marks the 75th anniversary of the first Oscars ceremony. The Academy, which like all of Hollywood is a sucker for anniversaries, has already been thinking about it for months.

According to Frank Pierson, the Academy president, moving the Oscars lock, stock and barrel to Madison Square Garden or Radio City Music Hall is out of the question. And tradition is not the only concern: it could double or triple the cost of producing the event, not least because the Academy committed itself last year to staying in the new Kodak theatre, in the heart of Hollywood, for 20 years.

"Economically, and because of our contractual obligations, and because this is Hollywood, we have no intention of moving this show to New York," Mr Pierson said.

Everything else, however, seems open to negotiation. "New York will be a huge presence in next year's show," Mr Pierson admitted. "The movie business wouldn't be the movie business without New York."

At minimum, next year's ceremony is likely to feature video-relayed segments from New York, in the tradition of previous years when, for example, astronauts waved hello from the space shuttle or Bob Dylan accepted his 2001 best song award from the road in Australia. The New York lobbyists are going to push for more than that, however: they want ball gowns and red carpets and television cameras to create a bi-coastal event.

One attraction is the buzz factor, which could benefit New York and the Oscars. Ratings for the broadcasts have slumped in recent years: the gimmick of moving to the Big Apple might be what it takes to lure back the audience.