Oscar makes appearance in Grand Central

Travelers using Grand Central Terminal's 42nd street entrance will have a shot at clutching an actual Oscar statuette being displayed in Vanderbilt Hall until Sunday.

"This morning, a girl showed up at 5:30 in a full maroon gown, just to get her picture taken" with a statuette, said Mark Dalhausser, an event partner.

The exhibition, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to raise excitement about Sunday's ceremony, is now in its sixth year in Manhattan.

"This is the first time I've ever seen this," said Zack Franzece, 51, of Rockville Centre, who stopped by Wednesday to see what all the commotion was about. "It's pretty neat, especially out here. You might expect to see this kind of stuff in California."

According to Dalhausser, the exhibition is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and draws 1,500 people daily. They stop by to get their picture taken while standing behind a podium cradling a real Oscar statuette. Until Saturday, people can examine the statuettes that will be awarded to the best actor and best actress Sunday in Hollywood.

Also, spectators can see the statuettes in their six stages of manufacture and look at Michael Douglas' Oscar for "Wall Street," which the actor loaned to the academy for the week. Each statuette has hundreds of dollars' worth of precious metals but, when a name is engraved, it becomes "priceless," Dalhausser said.

At the display's ribbon cutting, Melissa Leo, who won best supporting actress in 2011 for her role in "The Fighter," told the crowd how magical it was to hold an Oscar.

This is the exhibition's second year at Grand Central Terminal, which Patrick Harrison, the academy's East Coast director, called "an iconic New York historical building for an iconic Oscar statuette -- it's majestic, a perfect fit and setting."

The Oscar display is being held this year only in Manhattan, which was good news for Tim and Sabrina Greise, both 31, visiting from Germany for their honeymoon. Standing in line to touch the statuette, the excited pair said that they stayed up until 3 a.m. in Germany to watch the Academy Awards. This year, they will watch the show at a more reasonable hour and root for Jean Dujardin to win best actor for "The Artist."