THE BUZZ.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

KEEPING OSCAR PRECIOUS: Perhaps the best way to ensure that Oscar remains the most coveted Hollywood award is to make sure not too many of the little gold men are given out.

The board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday rejected the latest appeal from a consortium of stunt organizations for an Oscar recognizing the perilous work of those who fall, crash or set themselves ablaze for movies. ``At a time when the academy is trying to find ways to reduce the number of statuettes given out ... the board is simply not prepared to institute any new annual awards categories,'' academy president Frank Pierson said.

The board also voted to clamp down on the number of recognized winners of the best picture honor. Up to now, the academy allowed the studio or production company to determine which three producers would claim a best picture trophy when there were four or more producers, and the academy mediated any disputes. Now the academy will decide who gets a best picture Oscar, applying standards set by the Producers Guild of America to weed out anyone who took the title and the paycheck without actually doing the work. Same goes for songwriters. The academy now expects to give only two original song statuettes in most cases, with an occasional exception if there is a third ``equal contributor.''

There currently are 25 competitive Academy Awards categories for which Oscars are presented, and up to four special honorary Oscars may be awarded per year. The last new category, best animated feature, was added in 2000. The Academy also gives out awards for technical merit but hands out plaques instead of statuettes.

E! DROPS HOWARD: E! Entertainment Television said Wednesday it will stop airing new episodes of ``The Howard Stern Show.'' The last episode will be seen July 8.

The televised version of Stern's radio show has been a staple on E! since 1994, shown weeknights at 11 and 11:30 p.m. and then again in the middle of the night.

But Stern won't immediately disappear. E! said it would be airing reruns of the show - more than 2,000 were filmed over the years - for the foreseeable future.

Stern's popular radio program will move to Sirius Satellite Radio in January. His manager, Don Buchwald, did not immediately return a call for comment on E! Entertainment's decision.

TINK RESPONDS TO MEDIA INTRUSION: It's being reported that Paris Hilton's dog bit a ``Today'' show producer's hand Tuesday morning just before her mom, Kathy Hilton, was about to promote her new show, ``I Want to Be a Hilton.'' Mom Hilton, according to the New York Post, brought the Chihuahua Tinkerbell to the show's New York City studio without Paris. Just before the interview with Katie Couric, Kathy was reportedly sitting in the green room when an unidentified producer came in and put her hand in Tink's Louis Vuitton carrying case and the dog didn't like having its space invaded. There was no confirmation from NBC, which declined to comment.

THE ULTIMATE `GUY' MOVIE: Seth MacFarlane is preparing his long-awaited direct-to-DVD ``Family Guy'' movie for a Sept. 27 release by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. ``It's been an enormous undertaking to juggle this with doing 35 new episodes of the show, but we think it turned out great,'' MacFarlane said of the film, his first full- length feature. The 83-minute, unrated ``Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story'' ($29.98) is based on the resurrected animated series MacFarlane created for Fox Television in the late 1990s.

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Photo:

(1) TINKERBELL

Evan Agostini/Getty Images

(2) no caption (Oscar)

(3) no caption (Stewie Griffin)