Do not remove the crown. Use a pencil, toothpick or something similar to gently pull the blooms from under the leaves.

If you remove the leave about which you were writing, you would distort your plant.

AVs in the stores do have leaves in the center; you just can see them. ;-)

Linda

Just like the blooms struggling, the newer leaves near the crown will also sometimes struggle to come up amongst the older leaves. In this case, you can gently pull the new leaves from under the older leaves using a small tool like Linda described. If this isn't done while the leaves are fairly young, they may grow misshapen and distort the plant as well.

Honey Bear -

in my experience the tight crown and difficulty for new leaves to emerge means too much light.

If you get your plant away from the high light and cover it with a dome for 2-3 days - it will perform untangling on its own.

People who show AVs - move and rearrange the leaves so the rosette grows absolutely symmetrical. So it can be done - very very carefully.

I.

Yes, that's right, Irina. That is what I and members of my club do when we are preparing for show. We use leaf supports and slowly and gently "train" the leaves so there are no empty spaces. I also not only turn my plants a quarter turn every few days, but rotate them to different parts of the light stand they are growing on so they will grow symmetrically.

Honey_Bear -

I can manipulate grown up leaves.. more or less - but the center of the crown - I know there is a good chance I will break something. I am not blessed with the precision of my movements - means I am turn chairs upside down when I walk and my keyboard is saturated with splashed coffee.
So - there are varieties that grow symmetrically provided they have enough space not to touch anything - Ness Crinkle Blue, Picasso, Tiger, The King, Yukako, all Jolly plants etc. - I usually select these guys for the show. I grow and enjoy other varieties - but I am not good and patient enough to train them the way you do.

Irina