Oscar’s best tidbits here
HOLLYWOOD. Oscar time. Statuettes and shmattas. Boobs and butts. From Bergman and Bogart, Grable and Gable, Lamarr and Lamour, we’re on to Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o and Barkhad Abdi.
Samuel L. Jackson became a ’95 Oscar legend. Visibly swore when he didn’t win. 1984. Shirley MacLaine ditched congratulating fellow nominees and said: “I deserve this.” Academy Award nights create emotional dysentery. “Titanic” director James Cameron, 1998, hollering, “I’m king of the world!”
Welcomes get overstayed. 1983. “Gandhi’s”
Richard Attenborough. His account of Mahatma’s life ran longer than the film. Secondlongest speech? Greer Garson’s sevenminute ramble began with: “I’m practically unprepared.” First longest? Greer. Years earlier forher Best Actress win for “Mrs. Miniver.”
Plus there’s gibberish. Jonathan Demme’s 40 uhs and ums for “Silence of the Lambs.” “In the Heat of the Night’s” Rod Steiger thanked his maharishi. 1979. Honorary Award. Laurence Olivier burbled about “the great firmament of your nation’s generosities.”
Political gestures. 1973. That Native American Brando sent to collect for “The Godfather.” 1978.
Best Supporting Vanessa Redgrave drew gasps by announcing she “wasn’t intimidated by a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums.” And best wacko? In 1999, “Life Is Beautiful’s” Roberto Benigni, who went bonkers babbling “I want to lie down in the firmament making love to everybody.”
And greatest effort to look greatest? Renée Zellweger cleansed her face with Japanese citrus fruit Yuzu followed by Brazilian tangerine oil followed by Indian lotus oil followed by her skin buffed and vacuumed with a diamondequipped device followed by pads attached to electric charges to give her face a pink glow.