Coverage of the 71st Annual Academy Award® Winners
©A.M.P.A.S.®
Sunday, March 21, 1999
The big day is finally here. We've spent the last few hours
in the arrivals line at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion taking
photos.
We're now in the TV/Online Interview room. From here we'll be watching the telecast on monitors. As the winners accept their trophies, they'll slowly make their way back here to answer questions.
We'll be presenting a list of the winners on page three of this report. The winners will be in bold.
The show started off with Whoopi Goldberg dressed as Elizabeth, a nod to the fact that two of the night's films, Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth, take place in that era. She introduced Academy president Robert Rehme, who in turn introduced a segment of favourite film moments chosen by members of the Academy.
While we're watching this segment, let me tell you the red carpet was completely nuts near the end, as everyone seemed to arrive in the last half hour. It was quite funny hearing a PA blaring: "Mr. Nolte the doors are closing, please enter the theater."
Whoopi made a crack that the Oscars are the biggest party in Hollywood. Next to the Democrats that is. She then did a rap to get the whole Monica Lewinsky thing out of her system.
She also wondered if anyone would be making a scene-by-scene remake of There's Something About Mary.
Whoopi's stand up intro was fast and furious. At one point she quipped that everyone was missing Billy Crystal by this point.
The first award was handed out by Kim Basinger, winner of last year's Best Suporting Actress. She handed out the Best Supporting Actor Award to James Coburn for Affliction.
He made a nice speech and said he was happy he could finally bring his wife to the awards.
Gwyneth Paltrow came up to hand out the award for Best Art Direction. It was good that they chose her as Shakespeare in Love won the Oscar.
Patrick Stewart came out to introduce clips for both Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love.
Mike Myers introduced the nominees for Best Makeup. The winner was Elizabeth.
Christina Ricci introduced the evening's first musical number, When You Believe, performed by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.
James Coburn has just stepped into the press room. He was very gracious and completely thrilled to get the award.
Whoopi then started the next segment in a color/black and white dress as she discussed the costume design of Pleasantville. After making a sexual reference about Leave it to Beaver, she quipped that she would never host again.
Brendan Fraser then handed out the trophy for Best Live Action Short to Election Night.
A Bug's Life stars Flik and Heimlich introduced the nominees for Best Animated Short. The winner was Bunny.
The next presenter was Whoopi's friend and last year's Best Supporting Actor, Robin Williams. He handed the Best Supporting Actress award to Dame Judi Dench, for her role in Shakespeare in Love.
Dame Judi said that nominees live in a strange world for a few weeks and it's a shame that only one person can win.
As the show came back from commercial Whoopi poked fun at Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell who were on their feet coming back from the washroom. After asking Roberto Benigni if he got her jokes, she introduced Chris Rock.
Rock made a pointed joke about Elia Kazan being a rat. The audience didn't react too well to that and Chris asked what they expected from him. He then gave the award for Best Sound Effects editing to Saving Private Ryan.
Beautiful Liv Tyler had a chance to introduce her dad's band Aerosmith for their performance of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from Armageddon.
Academy Award® Angelica Houston then handed out the Oscar® for Best Sound to Saving Private Ryan.
Nominee Tom Hanks introduced celebrated astronaut Senator John Glenn. Glenn made a presentation about films power to inspire and the historical characters that have been portrayed.
Dame Judi joined us in the press room during the presentation. She said she honestly did not believe that she had a chance to win. She said that the best part of acting was trying to deliver the author's words to the audience in the best way possible. She said that director John Madden is an actor's director and she loved working with him.
Whoopi then came out in a dress from Beloved, another one of the costume design nominees. She introduced Sophia Loren who presented a clip from Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful. She then handed out the Oscar® for Best Foreign Language Film to Life Is Beautiful. Benigni went nuts, climbing on the backs of people's seats, running around and jumping. He said he was full of joy and wanted to kiss everyone in the audience. The audience seemed genuinely moved by Roberto's speech.
Andie MacDowell and Andy Garcia handed out the award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score to Stephen Warbeck of Shakespeare in Love.
Geena Davis then introduced a dance segment based on the five nominated dramatic scores. She then handed out the Best Dramatic Score award to Life is Beautiful's Nicola Piovani.
John Travolta then introduced a cinematic tribute to Frank Sinatra.
Whoopi then returned to the stage in male Shakespearean garb to show the costume design for Elizabeth. She then introduced Anne Heche, who had hosted last month's Academy Awards® for Scientific and Technical Achievement. After a little mic trouble, she discussed these special awards for the ideas and techniques that make filmmaking possible. Jim Carrey then came out to hand out the Film Editing award. He cracked that that was all he was there to do, as of course he was not nominated for his role in The Truman Show. The award went to Saving Private Ryan.
Renee Zellweger then introduced the next musical number "A Soft Place to Fall" from The Horse Whisperer.
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