BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - In a real Hollywood whodunit, 10 mailbags
containing 4,000 Oscar ballots have turned up missing. The Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences realized Saturday at the science and
technology awards ceremony that roughly 75% of this year's ballots had not
reached members. "We mailed the ballots, 4,000 of them, to Academy
members last Wednesday and Price Waterhouse Coopers took the 10
mailbags to the Beverly Hills Post Office and left them there as would
anybody," Academy spokesman John Pavlik said. If the ballots aren't found,
the numbers on them will be invalidated and new ones will be printed and
mailed tonight, according to Academy publicist Stephanie Helper. The
deadline for returning ballots is March 21. The Oscars are March 26.
Ballots have been lost by the post office before. In 1982, nominating ballots
were mistakenly stuck into a bin marked for nonpriority bulk mail. They
were found in time.