Show Million Dollar Baby Is Knockout Winner John Horn Susan King Los Angeles Times It had heart controversy a tragic twist and old-fashioned old craftsmanship and in the end Clint Eastwoods Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby emerged as the winner in Sunday nights night's Academy Awards taking four Oscars best picture director actress and supporting actor In an evening when the Oscars tried for a younger hipper image with cocky new host Chris Rock Sundays Sunday's annual awards were mostly evenly divided between the works of two veteran filmmakers Eastwood and The Aviators Martin who between them have nearly 85 years in show business The Aviator won five trophies the most of the evening although the influential influential influential director was once again shut out of the best picture and director races But ultimately it Was Eastwoods Eastwood's night At age 74 Eastwood became the oldest director to earn the top honor He previously won the directing trophy for Eastwood directed his first film three years before its winning Oscar-winning star Hilary Swank was even bornIm bornIm bornIm born Im just a kid Eastwood said in accepting accepting accept accept- accepting ing his award Ive got a lot of stuff to do doyet yet Jamie Foxx who seamlessly blended his own piano playing with Ray Charless Charles's vocal tracks collected the best actor Oscar for starring starring starring star star- ring as the legendary rhythm and blues singer L. L in the Ray In a sometimes emotional speech Foxx thanked Charles who died last June and Foxx's late grandmother who taught him tobe to tobe tobe be both an actor and a Southern gentleman She still talks to me but now she talks tome to tome tome me in my dreams Foxx said I cant can't wait togo to togo togo go to sleep tonight because we got a lot to talk about Foxx also was nominated for best supporting supporting supporting support support- ing actor for Collateral but lost that statuette statuette statuette stat stat- uette to Million Dollar Morgan Freeman who played the ex-boxer ex who managed managed managed man man- aged Eastwoods Eastwood's gym It was Freemans Freeman's first win in four nominations and it proved to be a crowd pleaser winning the veteran actor a standing ovation Freeman said backstage that he wanted to become a movie actor at the age of 15 IS This is the fight Ive I've been fighting all of my life This isn't serendipity in terns terms of being here The two victories for the black actors comes three years after American African-American performers Denzel Washington Training Day and Halle Berry Monsters Ball won the top acting prizes Foxx is only the third black to win the best actor trophy But it was Million Dollar evening Im just a girl from a trailer park who had hada a dream Swank said from the podium describing both her life and that of her Million Dollar to riches char char- acter This was Swanks Swank's second best actress Oscar she won five years ago for Boys Dont Don't Cry Oscar producer Gilbert Cates Gates tried to jazz up the event by bringing in standup comedian comedian comedian come come- dian and actor Rock to emcee the ceremony The shows show's ratings ratings ratings rat rat- ings have been stalled for years and when nominations were announced this years year's V y 1 0 I r ef v 11 4 iI i I J 1 e OJ 0 s iJ o SIJ rr j 1 1 t I J o Jo oi o i r rA Io J Jo o o n. n 8 a aE A i E P F l C Clo o o 0 00 t d do 1 o a J Hillary Swank Best Actress winner for her portrayal of a boxer in Million Dollar Baby and husband Chad Lowe arrive arrhe at Annual Academy Awards five best picture selections had the smallest cumulative office box-office gross of any field since 1986 The often raunchy Rock who has hosted MTV's Video Music Awards but is not an established movie star took over from last years year's host Billy Crystal Rock immediately fell into his trademark urban take-no-prison- take ers DaUer telling the assembled tie black-tie audience audience audi audi- audience ence of Hollywood royalty royalty royalty roy roy- alty Sit yo asses down Rock spared few in his five- five minute opening i t Im m 0 0 assailing actors Jude Law Tobey Maguire Colin Farrell and Cuba Gooding Jr for not being real movie stars Seconds after saying Im not going to bash Bush tonight Rock then launched into a critique of the president His main tar tar- get through the evening however was Hollywood itself In one skit presented later in the show Rock interviewed patrons of the Magic Johnson Theatre in south LA to point out how out of touch the Oscars were with audiences Most of them had not seen any of the best picture nominees but heaped praised on popcorn fare like White Chicks and The Tha Chronicles n c of Riddick u Censors for ABC which broadcast the show objected to numerous lyrics in a cheeky song to be performed by Robin Williams as part of the presentation for the animated feature feature feature fea fea- ture award Cates Gates said backstage Sunday that the s songwriters song songwriters song song- ng- ng writers quickly revised seven or eight of the lyrics that mocked the concerns of some Christian conservatives about alleged gay rid influences in animated films J fp Mowing 9 ng Jb CS JWilliams ms never sang instead r ion the se sexual u J or of some cartoon characters including including including ing Bugs Bunny and Donald Duck In another twist in this years year's show all the nominees in some categories were invited on onstage onstage onstage stage and some Oscars were presented in the audience The goal was to give the faces of all nominees even brief screen time but it was reserved for lesser categories such a as art direction animated short visual effects and makeup It may not have revolutionized the broadcast broadcast broadcast broad broad- cast but it helped speed the show along as it clocked in a comparatively brisk 3 hours 14 minutes Next time they're going to give Oscars in inthe inthe inthe the parking lot Rock joked |