Everybody’s got it wrong on the moving-up-the-Oscar-telecast story, I’ve just been told. The confusion stems from Nikki Finke‘s just-posted story (i.e., last night) about the proposed idea of moving the Oscar telecast back to January. But the proposal — hello? — applies to the 84th Oscar Awards , which will air in early 2012. The locked-in date for the 2010 Oscar telecast (i.e., the 83rd award ceremony) is 2.27.11 — period. Announced, consecrated, set in stone.

I was persuaded that Finke’s story is wrong — i.e., was wrongly interpreted — by L.A. Times columnist Pete Hammond, who just called me ten minutes ago. Backdating the telecast to late January 2011, he says, “would throw an already established and announced schedule — including foreign-language eligibility and everything else — would throw everything into utter chaos. The house of cards would totally crumble. If this was real it would look like the Academy has lost their minds. The Academy is too conservative to do things on a whim like this, especially with ABC television tied in to this. This change, if adopted, has to apply to 2012, not 2011.”