The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Stuff You Can Win Inside 'The Mouse Castle Lounge'

Concept art for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
© Renzo Piano Building Workshop

It's been a busy week for me in Baltimore, attending meetings, eating expensive dinners and drinking cocktails paid for by other people. And yet, I still managed to record one more episode of The Mouse Castle Lounge before leaving town.

In today's installment, the Walt Disney Company has thrown its full support behind the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, a new 300,000-square foot facility dedicated to movie history. The museum won't open until early 2017, but the renovation of Los Angeles' historic May Company building has already started and fund raising is well underway. Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger heads up the museum's $300 million capital campaign along with co-chairs Annette Bening and Tom Hanks.

Bob Iger speaks at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures' inaugural celebration
Photo by Matt Petit/© A.M.P.A.S.

Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosted an inaugural celebration for the museum attended by an impressive list of Hollywood hot shots: John Lasseter, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jason Schwartzman, George Takei, Laura Dern, John Landis, Rachel McAdams and Alexander Payne, just to name a few. Warren Beatty (Mr. Annette Bening) was there also and posed for this great shot in front of his Dick Tracy hat and trench coat:

Warren Beatty with his Dick Tracy duds
Photo by Todd Wawrychuk/© A.M.P.A.S.

For more information about the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and how you can support it, visit http://www.oscars.org/academymuseum.

Don't forget, you can still win one of historian J.B. Kaufman's wonderful books about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Fairest One of All or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Art and Creation of Walt Disney's Classic Animated Film, simply by listening to either today's podcast or this podcast and following the instructions to enter. It's easy to do and entries must be in by 5:00 p.m. Pacific time on Friday, April 19. Good luck!

There's more inside today's Mouse Castle Lounge including an update on Disneyland's problems with Cal OSHA and a preview of Disneynature's most recent home video release, Wings of Life. Enjoy!

The Mouse Castle Lounge can also be heard on iTunes and Stitcher.

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