Academy Awards to start carrying ads for movies

Academy Awards to start carrying ads for movies

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s biggest annual advertisement for itself — the Academy Awards broadcast — now can carry commercials for movies themselves.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board voted to allow commercials for movies to air on the Oscar telecast for the first time starting with the Feb. 22 ceremony on ABC, academy spokeswoman Leslie Unger said.

The vote last week lifts a ban on movie advertising that had been in place since the Oscars hit the airwaves in the early 1950s.

“This is an opportunity for there to be more entertainment content about movies in a show that’s celebrating movies,” Unger said.

The new rules will allow one spot per movie distributor during the Oscar show, and they must not have aired elsewhere previously. Commercials can promote only movies opening no earlier than the end of April, two months after the Oscars.

Studios also will not be allowed to use the terms Academy Awards or Oscars in them, and the commercials can promote only one movie, not a slate of films.

The ad ban had been in place for appearance’s sake, so viewers would not get the impression that studios paying for commercial time had any direct role in picking Oscar winners.

Jimmy Kimmel to host American Music Awards

NEW YORK — Jimmy Kimmel is coming back to provide more laughs for the American Music Awards.

The comedian and talk-show host is slated to host the annual event on Nov. 23 live from Los Angeles on ABC. Pink and the Jonas Brothers are among those scheduled to perform.

Kimmel has hosted the American Music Awards four previous times.

The American Music Awards are voted on by fans through online voting.

Today’s birthdays

Comedian-activist Dick Gregory is 76. Singer Sam Moore of Sam and Dave is 73. News correspondent Chris Wallace is 61. Actress-singer Susan Anton is 58. Actor Carlos Bernard (”24”) is 46. Jazz musician Chris Botti is 46. Actor Hugh Jackman (“The X-Men”) is 40. Fiddler Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks is 39. Actor Kirk Cameron is 38.