Acad gives Kazan security for Awards

GOOD MORNING and GOOD LUCK Oscar nominees: Following Thursday's demonstration and the anticipated protests Saturday and Sunday, the Academy is supplying security to accompany Elia Kazan both at rehearsal and at the Oscars themselves. A Thalberg Award winner, Norman Jewison, was to have been introduced by Denzel Washington, who had to bow out because of the death of his mother in law. Nicolas Cage will now step in. ... "Life Is Beautiful" will be dubbed in English. But only for U.S. television, video and airlines -- not for theatrical. I learned about it while talking to Horst Buchholz in one of his homes, this one in Berlin -- which is also his birthplace. Horst, who plays the eerily villainous Dr. Lessing in "Life Is Beautiful," said he's been asked to do the English version. Miramax confirms they will do it. However, Horst doesn't know why it has to be dubbed since everyone understands the picture perfectly in its Italian version (with subtitles). And it has also been such a tremendous success in that (Italian) version. This was the first film in which he'd spoken in Italian. He claims it was Benigni who insisted and convinced him to do it -- despite the fact that Horst thought the role so hateful -- and in Italian, yet! "I have only done pictures in English or French," Buchholz reminded, "and I told Benigni my Italian is only 'restaurant Italian.' But he said, 'You will speak beautiful Italian.'" The now 65-year-old Buchholz admitted he hated to put on the Nazi uniform. "I despised every minute of it. I finally saved myself by acting like a man who didn't know what was going on around him." Horst was a child (in Germany) during the war years and said his father was in the German army and a POW in France. "My father was a soldier -- no more than that. When he came home, I was 13 and already in the theater." Horst also made a film in Auschwitz, playing a gypsy Holocaust victim in "The Violins Stopped Playing." "It was a holocaust for me to play it there!" he admits. He says, "It's refreshing to see that young people in Germany want to see ('Life Is Beautiful'). I believe that by seeing it they learn more about (the Holocaust) in a most tender way" ... Among those who will be watching the Oscars on TV is Mother Dolores, who was beautiful actress Dolores Hart when working in Hollywood before leaving 36 years ago to join the Benedictine Order at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn. She sounded her always cheery self on the phone and said she still belongs to the Academy -- and receives and views the Oscar nominee tapes, but allows, "It is not fair to vote" -- so she doesn't.

WANNA EAT A GOLD OSCAR? That's one of the lavish desserts Wolfgang Puck's prepping for those attending the Board of Governors Ball in the giant tent at the Music Center. He guarantees that the gold on his chocolate Oscars is definitely edible. And if you want to save your Oscar -- you can eat the chocolate camera that's also on the table. Over at Puck's ObaChine eatery in BevHills, the foreign language film nominees will be partying in Brntwd Magazine's first Oscar viewing-and-post-awards party. And Puck's Malibu Granita eatery will also hold a party with festivities including balloting, etc. His Chicago Spago will also be holding an Oscar party in conjunction with the Chi Film Festival. But the "mother" Spago in BevHills will just be tending to regular patron dining ... While Oscargoers will celebrate in earnest later, they'll get a chance to start early as American Movie Classics and Romance Classics are providing 300 bottles of champagne in the limos from Music Express, Dave-El, BLS and CLS en route to the Music Center ... Do they put you into the Guinness Book of Records for most appearances on Oscar shows? Now topping the list will be Jack Valenti, who makes his 21st appearance, Sunday. And what about me? My 41st year on the red carpet ... Down at the Ritz-Carlton in Rancho Mirage, Ted Grouya, 89, was honored Thursday -- he has been performing during afternoon tea since the hotel opened 11 years ago. Grouya, discovered by Duke Ellington, has written hundreds of songs. Perhaps the most memorable is "Flamingo" (written in 1941 with Ed Anderson), which has sold over 50 million platters -- best-remembered perhaps is the one by Herb Jeffries. Also shown at the celebration was a docu by Ted G. Jr. celebrating his father's life.

GOOD NEWS FOR THEATER FANS: Bruce Davison, who hasn't appeared on the L.A. stage since 1990 (in H.R. Gurney's "The Cocktail Hour" at the Doolittle), will star with Donald Sutherland, who has never appeared on the L.A. stage, in the American premiere of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's two-character drama "Enigma Variations," directed by Daniel Roussel at the Mark Taper Forum May 5 ... Meredith MacRae, who underwent brain tumor surgery Jan. 28, is perfectly OK -- and sounded it as she lunched with her mom Sheila and daughter Allison. "I'm so lucky," she admits, "(the tumor surgery) didn't affect anything, mental, motor, vision." She will be well enough to attend the May 3-8 Montreal Intl. Women's Forum. She's ex-president and remains very active ... Lou Gossett Jr. will portray Vernon Jordan, President Clinton's pal, in "Strange Justice," the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas story. First Gossett appears in Showtime's "Love Songs" trilogy airing April 25, also directing one of the segs. He's also developing several Showtime pix under his Logo banner. One, "The Exodusters," by John Wilder, is about the migration of slaves to Oklahoma. And he's readying a follow-up to his first "Inspectors," again co-starring with Jonathan Silverman. He's doubly celebrating the arrival of a grandson and granddaughter, respectively, to each of his sons.