All About Awards Show Season

The Academy Awards are upon us and like every year, we’re excited. But we’re not just anticipating the Academy Awards themselves (as in who nabs the Oscar statuette), we’re anticipating the show itself, the stars, the speeches, the entire spectacle of the evening. And, given the current Writer’s Strike, this year holds a special interest.  Who’s going to attend? Who’s going to boycott? And how is host Jon Stewart gonna fare if he’s without a writing team?

All of this Oscar buzz and controversy got us thinking about some especially interesting behind-the-scenes stories that have peppered the ceremony with a little extra spice throughout the history of the ceremony. With that we came up with fifteen items of Oscar lore that are of particular fascination.  And please, if anyone has the definitive answer as to how Oscar got his name, please tell us. We’re dying to know.

What’s in a Name?

It turns out that there are three different legends about how our golden boy picked up his world-famous nickname.

One popular theory has Academy librarian and future executive director, Margaret Herrick examining the statuette around 1931 and announcing that "he looks a lot like my Uncle Oscar!" (Her uncle was reportedly a Texas wheat farmer named Oscar Pierce.)

In another version, entertainment columnist Sidney Skolsky claimed to be the first to coin the "Oscar" nickname, as part of his awards write-up in the New York Daily News on March 16, 1934. Skolsky was looking for a name to humanize what he called the Academy’s "high and mighty" ceremony. He used "Oscar" as a tribute to a lowbrow music hall routine where comedians ask the orchestra pit leader, "Will you have a cigar, Oscar?" And every time the conductor tried to accept the cigar, the comedians backed away. (You kinda had to be there.)

Screen legend, Bette Davis.
© Getty Images

The next legend involves saucy superstar Bette Davis. When picking up her first Academy Award in 1936, she supposedly exclaimed that the figurine looked a lot like her ex-husband, bandleader Harmon "Oscar" Nelson - especially the Oscar’s posterior.

My favorite story? The Bette Davis one, by a landslide.

And speaking of Ms. Davis…

We have to include another of our favorite Oscar stories, involving two of our all-time favorite enemies…er actresses, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Given their famed competition with one another, Joan was naturally incensed when her What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? co-star Davis nabbed a Best actress nomination over her. But Ms. Crawford wasn’t one to sulk or play nice, and the actress instead schemed.  Writing each of the other nominees, Joan offered her services to accept on their behalf should one of them be unable to attend the ceremony. That is crafty. Lucky for Joan, Anne Bancroft then wins for The Miracle Worker but couldn’t attend. Joan swept on-stage, basked in the limelight and handled the Oscar Ms. Davis had just lost, all while Bette sat in her seat, no doubt steaming.

Heroic Trio

Only three women have been nominated for Best Direction. Italian provocateur Lina Wertmuller was the first in 1977 for Seven Beauties. New Zealand-born Jane Campion came second in 1993 for The Piano starring Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin. Sofia Coppola was the third nominee for 2003’s Lost in Translation starring Bill Murray. Though Coppola did pick up a golden boy for her Lost screenplay, we still wait and wonder - which woman will make Oscar history and finally win one for directing? Jill Sprecher? Catherine Hardwicke? Nicole Holofcener? Jodie Foster? Let us know your own candidates.

The Host with the Most?

Bob Hope has hosted the Oscars telecast more than any other entertainer - though the real hosting legends may be the one-timers like Chris Rock and the now infamous David Letterman appearance. Who can forget Letterman’s bizarre refrain: "Uma? Oprah!... Oprah? Uma!"

It’s a Family Affair

Legendary director John Huston has the distinction of bringing home Oscar victories to his family by directing his father (Walter Huston, Best Supporting Actor winner for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) and his daughter (Angelica Huston, Best Supporting Actress winner in his eccentric mob comedy, Prizzi’s Honor).

What’s a Guy Gotta Do to Win an Oscar in This Town? Film a re-make.

So Martin Scorsese is one of the most innovative and legendary filmmakers in the world - responsible for classics like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas - and yet, he didn’t get his well deserved Oscar until 2007 for his terrific gangster picture The Departed (a remake of  the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs). But at least he finally got an Oscar. Among the many talents who join the ranks of the never-won are Alfred Hithcock, Steve McQueen, Robert Mitchum and Johnny Depp.

Three 6 Mafia arrives at the
78th Academy Awards.
© Getty Images

Players Club

Two rap artists have won an Oscar for best song: Eminem for his hit "Lose Yourself" from Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile and Three 6 Mafia for "It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp" from Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow. I’m pretty certain that Three 6 Mafia have the added distinction of being the only musical act to win for a song espousing the trials and tribulations of pimp life. Though Curtis Mayfield’s "Superfly" should have won all those years back - but you know as the song says, it’s hard out there for a pimp (or at least a song about a pimp).

When It Rains It Pours

George Clooney must have jumped up in down in his pajamas (we like to picture it anyway) when he made Oscar history by receiving not only his very first Academy recognition, but three nominations all at once. Clooney garnered two nominations for directing and co-writing Good Night, and Good Luck and a third for Best Supporting Actor in Syriana (for which he won his gold). It’s good to King.

The Oscar-winning ogre, Shrek.
© Getty Images

Sometimes It Is Easy Being Green

The lovable Shrek was the first film to win Best Animated Feature when the category was created in 2002. Still, 1991’s Beauty and the Beast has a more elevated honor of being the only animated feature to be nominated in the Best Picture category, along with other live-action features.

Kate the Great Part 1:

Katharine Hepburn has the most Academy Awards of any actress. Four total wins out of twelve (count ‘em - twelve) nominations. And her Oscar-winning work spanned the decades, as she won Best Actress for Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967), Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981).

Five time Oscar nominee, Kate Winslet.
© Getty Images

Kate the Great Part 2:

Kate Winslet has been nominated so many times, it gets confusing. For instance: her Titanic character Rose was recognized twice by the Academy’s 1977 nominations, once for Winslet playing her and the other for Gloria Stuart’s take on old Rose. Got that? Now it gets even more confusing. In 2001 Kate played another character, English novelist Iris Murdoch, in the movie Iris for which both she and Dame Judi Dench (played the author as an older woman) were nominated. Lordy! On top of that, she’s the youngest actress to receive five Oscar nominations before the age of 30 (last year she was nominated for Little Children). So, she’s got time to catch up with that other great named Kate (see above).

X Marks the Spot

John Schlesinger’s gritty urban classic Midnight Cowboy starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight was the only X- Rated adults-only film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.  Though the picture would only garner an R- rating today, the picture’s uncompromising rawness freaked out the ratings board of 1969. So unless Jenna Jameson stars alongside Hilary Swank in an NC-17 film directed by Clint Eastwood, I seriously doubt an X- rated feature will ever get nominated again. But never say never.  

Maybe Your Manicurist Doesn’t Need to Be Acknowledged from the Stage

We endure several rambling thank-you-laden acceptance speeches every year, but the longest speech ever delivered at the Oscars was by Greer Garson when she won Best Actress for Mrs. Miniver (1943). Ms. Garson began promisingly enough, saying "I'm practically unprepared" – but unfortunately, she then proceeded to talk for seven very long minutes! Garson never won an Oscar again.

Naked Ambition

In terms of Oscar stunts, no one has topped this one. But then no one’s ever topped the witty retort that followed. In 1973, Oscar presenter David Niven was quickly interrupted by a naked man who ran across the stage. (Yes, this was in the seventies.) But the classy Niven took it in stride, one-upping the streaker with a classic comeback line: "Just think: the only laugh that man will probably ever get is for stripping off and showing his shortcomings." Niven deserved an Oscar for that quick quip alone.

Oscar nominee, Samuel L. Jackson.
© Getty Images

I’m Tired of Losing This Mother@%!in’ Award on this Mother@%!in’ Telecast

Samuel L. Jackson may have been a favorite choice for Best Supporting Actor for his memorable turn in Pulp Fiction in 1995. But when the envelope was opened, and the hosts read Martin Landau’s name (another favorite) instead, Sam was caught on camera muttering the "S" word. Hey, he gets bonus points for his honesty. And truly, where is this man’s Oscar?

Charlie Gets His Due

And he deserved it…After a self-imposed exile to Europe, Charlie Chaplin returned to Hollywood to receive his Honorary Academy Award in 1971. The icon and famed Little Tramp walked out on stage to thunderous applause, constituting the longest standing ovation in Academy Awards history. Overwhelmed and moved, Chaplin thanked the audience with: "This is an emotional moment for me and words seem so futile, so feeble..." Oscar magic.