The envelope please: Now where did that statue go?

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- And the Oscar goes to ... hmmm, where'd that statue go? <br><br>In a comedy of errors worthy of a screenplay nomination, the 55 statuettes bound for the Academy Awards

Friday, March 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- And the Oscar goes to ... hmmm, where'd that statue go?

In a comedy of errors worthy of a screenplay nomination, the 55 statuettes bound for the Academy Awards show are missing and presumed stolen -- the latest embarrassing development in an Oscar buildup that could prove more captivating than the ceremony itself.

Academy officials said Friday the show will go on March 26 and enough statues will be on hand. At a lighthearted news conference, Academy executive director Bruce Davis said the Oscars have simply fallen victim to a "strange year."

"We think everybody should watch the entire Oscar show to see if we have enough on hand to get through the end of the show," Davis wisecracked. He joked that the Academy might hand out a "really nicely engraved I.O.U."

Actually, the Academy has about 20 Oscars in storage, and manufacturer R.S. Owens Co. of Chicago is busy making replacements. Oscar officials expect to have those delivered early next week.

The statues were reported missing March 10 from a Roadway Express loading dock in Bell, Calif.

That's the same community where 4,000 Oscar ballots were misplaced at a post office earlier this month. The ballots were eventually found, but by that time, the Academy had printed new ballots and extended the voting deadline by two days, to next Thursday.

As things turned curiouser and curiouser with the stolen statues, Academy officials joked about the added drama. Academy spokesman John Pavlik said he expects Oscar host Billy Crystal will have a field day over the missing statues and ballots.

"We've told Billy Crystal not to go anywhere near Bell, Calif., in the next couple of weeks," Davis said. "It seems to be a Bermuda Triangle for Oscar things."

The Roadway Express trucking company, which shipped the statuesfrom Chicago, had no comment. Roadway has put up a $50,000 reward to help recover the statues, Davis said.

Los Angeles and Bell police, along with FBI art-theft experts, are investigating, Davis said.

The 55 statues represented enough Oscars to give to all of the winners on Academy Award night. But the exact number of statues needed isn't known until the big night because some nominations go to more than one person.

For example, two people might win for collaborating on a screenplay.

The statues were packed in 10 boxes, all encased in shrink-wrap on a pallet. At 8.5 pounds each, the 55 gold-plated statues would have weighed about 470 pounds, meaning whoever stole them would have needed a forklift and a truck, Davis said.

The manufacturing cost of the statues was about $18,000, though Davis said they have far greater intrinsic value. He said it would be difficult for anyone to fence a stolen Oscar, but "we don't like having 55 Oscars floating out in collector circles."

The statues were not engraved, since the Academy does not know the winners until the envelopes are opened awards night.

The boxes were unmarked and Davis said he suspects whoever took them did not know the cartons contained Oscar.

Roadway apparently did not have the statues under guard, Davis said. The new statues will be shipped with tight security by plane and will remain under guard until Oscar night, he said.

Scott Siegel, who heads R.S. Owens, said the company will have to work overtime to make new statues in time. "We're doing a month's worth in a week," Siegel said.

Besides the missing ballots and statues, the Academy has dealt with reports that The Wall Street Journal was polling Oscar voters to get a jump on the winners and a Web site that claimed to have a short list of potential nominees the day before the nominations were announced last month. The Web site's claim turned out to be false.

All the odd publicity may boost ratings for the Oscar telecast, which slipped 18 percent last year. It was the second-lowest rated Oscar telecast since 1991.

"Think of the fun Billy Crystal can have with this," said Thomas O'Neil, who is writing a book about movie awards. "Will he be joking about Houdini vanishing acts?"

Davis joked that if the ratings do go up, the Academy might "possibly contrive to have a shipment stolen next year."

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On the Net: Academy's official site: http://www.oscars.org
R.S. Owens site: http://www.rsowens.com