ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260089
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEMO: NOTE: Different version ran in New River Valley edition.
``Braveheart,'' the epic about a 13th-century Scottish patriot, won five Oscars Monday night, including best picture and best director for its star Mel Gibson.
Like Gibson, Emma Thompson also won an Oscar in another area of her craft, adapting the Jane Austen novel ``Sense and Sensibility'' for the screen.
Susan Sarandon, who played a nun trying to redeem a condemned killer in ``Dead Man Walking,'' took best actress honors, and Nicolas Cage was named best actor for his role as a suicidal alcoholic in ``Leaving Las Vegas.''
Gibson, a plaid vest flashing from between the lapels of his tuxedo, thanked writer Randall Wallace and producer Alan Ladd Jr. for bringing the script of the early Scottish epic to a ``fiscal imbecile.''
``Like most directors, what I really want to do is act,'' said Gibson. He granted his own wish, casting himself as the wild-haired warrior who drove the English from Scotland.
``Braveheart'' was Gibson's second outing as a director, the first being ``The Man Without a Face'' in 1993. He follows a line of actors-turned-directors who have won Oscars: Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Woody Allen, Kevin Costner.
Thompson, who won the best actress award for ``Howard's End'' in 1992, collected her second Oscar.
The English actress told of visiting author Austen's grave at Winchester Cathedral ``to pay my respects and tell her about the grosses.'' She concluded by dedicating her award to Ang Lee, who directed the film but was overlooked for an Oscar nomination though the film was up for best picture.
The supporting actor award went to Kevin Spacey, the verbal con man in ``The Usual Suspects.'' Mira Sorvino, who played a hooker in ``Mighty Aphrodite,'' won as supporting actress.
Spacey thanked his mother for driving him to acting classes when he was 16: ``I told you it would pay off, and here's the pudding.''
Sorvino thanked her father as the veteran actor openly sobbed in the audience. ``When you give me this award you honor my father, Paul Sorvino, who taught me everything I know about acting,'' she said. The elder Sorvino, a character actor, has appeared in TV's ``Law & Order'' and the movie ``Goodfellas,'' among others.
This year's biggest controversy surfaced immediately. Host Whoopi Goldberg used her opening monologue to defuse the Rev. Jesse Jackson's call to protest the show because there was only one black out of 166 nominees.
Goldberg, who like the show's producer Quincy Jones is black, ridiculed Jackson's call for participants to wear multicolored ribbons. She reeled off a list of imaginary ribbons, including the traditional red ribbon for AIDS awareness, a ``milky white ribbon for mad cow disease,'' and a ``fake fur ribbon for animal rights.''
Her message for Jackson: ``You don't ask a black woman to buy an expensive dress and then cover it with ribbons.''
Jackson led about 75 marchers outside the Hollywood offices of KABC-TV across town from the award ceremonies. He called for similar demonstrations at other ABC stations across the country as the network broadcast the award show.
The academy passed over black filmmaker Dianne Houston's ``Tuesday Morning Ride'' in the live action short film category, choosing ``Lieberman in Love,'' from Jana Sue Memel and actress Christine Lahti of television's ``Chicago Hope.''
In other awards, ``Braveheart'' was honored for makeup, sound effects and cinematography. ``Restoration'' won for costume and art direction, and ``Apollo 13'' for film editing and sound. ``Babe'' took the visual effects Oscar.
``Antonia's Line,'' the story of a Dutch woman and her multigenerational family, scored honors as the best foreign language picture.
That award was claimed by director Marleen Gorris, who declared, ``Some people have called `Antonia's Line' a fairy tale. Perhaps it is. And that is should win an Oscar is a fairy tale come true for all of us involved in its making.''
Two films about the Holocaust won in their respective categories of documentary short and documentary feature - ``One Survivor Remembers'' and ``Anne Frank Remembered.''
Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz won two - for best original musical or comedy score for ``Pocahontas'' and the movie's top song, ``Colors of the Wind.'' The original score statuette went to ``The Postman.''
The awards were considered to be among the closest in a decade, with many critics picking completely different winners. The nomination votes were so divergent that the directors of two leading candidates for best picture, Ron Howard of ``Apollo 13'' and Ang Lee of ``Sense and Sensibility,'' weren't nominated for directing.
Kirk Douglas got a standing ovation as he stepped up to accept an honorary Oscar - announced earlier - for ``50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community.''
Douglas, who has never won an Oscar for acting, struggled with diction hampered by the effects of a recent stroke as he thanked his wife and four sons.
``I see my four sons. They are proud of the old man,'' Douglas said.
Two other Hollywood stalwarts also received special Oscars that were announced earlier but presented Monday night.
John Lasseter, director and co-writer of the computer-animated ``Toy Story,'' received a special achievement Oscar. Lasseter won an Oscar in 1988 for his short film ``Tin Toy,'' which showcased the same animation techniques.
Animator Chuck Jones, who drew Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote and Daffy Duck, also got an honorary Oscar. Jones, whose work appears in more than 300 films, won a short film Academy Award for 1965's ``The Dot and the Line.''
The Oscars were voted on by 5,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations are made by specific branches (actors nominate actors, cinematographers nominate cinematographers) while winners in almost all categories are decided by the entire Academy. To vote in the documentary, foreign-language and short film categories, members must have seen all the nominated works.
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Mel Gibson holds his two statuettes after acceptingby CNBthe best picture award for "Braveheart." Gibson was one of the
movie's producers as well as its star and director. Other
actors-turned-directors who have won Oscars include Robert Redford,
Warren Beatty, Woody Allen and Kevin Costner. color. Graphic. Chart.
color. Illustration. color