EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood's newest ‘star’ is about to make her debut
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures hopes to be tribute to the movie industry
There may not be any red carpet, paparazzi or little golden statuettes when Hollywood’s latest ‘star’ debuts next week.
Finally, after a long and fraught history, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures – located in the heart of the Los Angeles tourist district — is set to open Sept. 30.
The new silver-shaded orb is meant to evoke the headquarters of Starfleet Command from the original Star Trek shows and movies – judging by the sign “Roddenberry Drive” on the fence facing Fairfax Avenue.
It does indeed strike one as if an alien spaceship has just landed next to the historic Streamline Moderne Saban Building and attached itself with elevated sky-walks.
The new museum has well-known neighbors, too. Across the street on the south side of Wilshire Boulevard, is the garish but famous Petersen Automotive Museum. Adjacent on the east is the Broad Contemporary Art Museum.
However, it would appear that the public relations folks at oscars.org are not doing a great job of getting the word out about the new facility and its pending opening.
Of the dozen or so out-of-town visitors I questioned on Wednesday afternoon at the Petersen, not a single one had heard about what was going on across the street. Neither, it seemed, had the front office staff.
I had previously reached out to two media contacts at oscars.org requesting interviews with senior officials at the museum. My request was ignored for over 72 hours.
I did what any intrepid reporter would do in such a circumstance – I went to the scene of the crime.
About lunchtime on Wednesday, I was frantically but fruitlessly waving my press pass at the “beefy” security guard, who was not only blocking my entrance but obscuring any chance I had of getting a photograph without an eight-foot fence in it.
While the guard was apparently conferring with superiors on his radio, up rolled in his wheelchair the most surprising man.
I was not eavesdropping, but I couldn't help overhear Dr. Derrick Morris ask the guard to let him in to “make a reservation.” I spun around, grabbed my camera and took the shot you see below.
Morris was as unsuccessful as I in gaining admission. But my reportorial antennae were flashing bright red.
Immediately, I engaged Morris and asked him for his story. First, I fumbled around taking several snaps of him in his wheelchair and, wrapping up the photo shoot, dropped my phone!
Unbeknownst to me, it had slipped slightly out of its plastic case and I could not activate the start button. I was frantic. Morris motioned with his hand. I gave him the phone and in a jiffy he had it fixed. We were gonna be friends for life!
“My name is Dr. Derrick Norbert Morris, doctor of philosophy,” he told me. “Some celebrities are supposed to be here at the end of the month, and I want to make a reservation.”
I explained he had to do it online and he said, “OK.”
He had mixed feelings about the gleaming silver structure behind us. “[The Saban] is an old building, the historic building and (the silver orb) that's brand new and it's modern,” he said.
A bit hyperbolically, he added: “But I mean, just to look at it, it's kind of a shock because one is 50 years old and the other is five days old.”
Morris said his favorite movies are the James Bond series, particularly Sean Connery in the role.
We had been talking barely five minutes when the beefy security guard approached and shooed us away. He was not acting legally; we were on public property. I acquiesced.
For what it's worth, the press release announcing the opening includes the following:
“The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be the world’s premier institution devoted to the art and science of movies and moviemaking. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, the 300,000 square-foot museum campus at Wilshire and Fairfax features a major renovation and expansion to the 1939 May Company Building. Renamed the Saban Building … this Streamline Moderne landmark in the heart of Los Angeles’s Miracle Mile neighborhood is adjoined by a soaring new glass-and-concrete spherical addition to the north, featuring a terrace with sweeping views of the Hollywood Hills.”
They might be able to write fluffy prose with nary a comma in sight, but unless the oscars.org PR department gets its act together quickly, they may be sorely lacking for customers in October. Maybe they can blame the pandemic.
EDITOR’S NOTE: After this article was prepared for publication, the reporter received a polite email from the PR department declining the request for the interviews but inviting him to a press conference on Sept. 21. Too late, too bad!
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What an interesting encounter! Just the silver orb alone would make me want to find out was happening behind the fence. So what’s the secret? Those running the museum are certainly aware of the need for publicity to get people interested in the project. Shooing them away is not the way to do it. Someone needs to go back to PR 101 because I am sure that every moviemaker who will be featured in that museum knew the importance of “Previews of Coming Attractions.”
The blogger sent out emails promising DARK SNARKY story, but it was MILD! When politics are involved, snarke-sharkey stories abound!