Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe WHOOPI!! Oscar-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg will host the 74th Annual Academy Awards telecast on March 24, telecast producer Laura Ziskin announced Tuesday. Advertisement "Whoopi has great warmth, wit, humor, humanity and a social conscience," said Ziskind, "all qualities that I feel are essential for this year's show." Goldberg won the supporting actress award in 1990 for "Ghost." She was nominated for best actress in 1985, when she made her screen debut in "The Color Purple." Goldberg has hosted the awards telecast three times -- in 1993, 1995 and 1998. She earned Emmy nominations in 1993 and 1995. "I'm delighted to have been asked to once again host the Academy Awards," Goldberg said. "It'll be the first broadcast done from Oscar's new home (the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood) and I love a housewarming." She has also appeared in hit movies "Sister Act" and "Girl, Interrupted," and doubles as producer and star of the syndicated game show, "Hollywood Squares." Advertisement The selections end the annual suspense as to who will host the Academy Awards show. Steve Martin received good marks from critics when he hosted last year, and Billy Crystal became one of the most popular Oscar show emcees ever when he handled the chore several times during the '90s. BIG WEEKEND FOR 'RINGS' "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" piled up its box-office winnings and took home a major award over the weekend -- taking in an estimated $23 million to run its 19-day total to $205.5 million, and winning the first-ever American Film Institute best picture award. It was also a big weekend for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which moved past the $800 million worldwide and ran its domestic gross to $300.6 million. That makes "Harry Potter" the biggest domestic grosser in Warner Bros. history, a distinction previously held by "Batman" ($251 million, 1989). "A Beautiful Mind" was second to "Lord of the Rings" this weekend, grossing $17 million and running its three-week total to $38.2 million. "Ocean's Eleven" is still going strong after five weeks in release, finishing third with $11.8 million and a running total of $152.7 million. Advertisement "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" was fourth with $9.2 million, and a three-week total of $62.5 million. "The Royal Tenenbaums" finished fifth with $8.8 million. "Ali" finished sixth with $7.6 million -- a 48 percent drop from its second weekend. Overall, the U.S. box office was up 6 percent over the same weekend of 2001 -- a year that saw the movie business post record numbers. 'BLACK HAWK DOWN' BUILDS BOX-OFFICE CASE Just going by early box-office returns, "Black Hawk Down" is looking like it will be a commercial hit. According to Daily Variety, director Ridley Scott's movie about a U.S. military battle in Somalia in 1993 grossed an estimated $50,000 per screen at four Los Angeles and New York theaters over the weekend -- the second straight weekend it put up those kinds of numbers. The movie has been generating some Oscar buzz, and the buzz may grow if it performs as well in wide release next week as it has so far in limited release. The new Sean Penn-Michelle Pfeiffer movie, "I Am Sam" -- which opens nationwide Jan. 25 -- grossed an impressive $27,000 on a single screen in Los Angeles over the weekend. Penn is the subject of some Oscar buzz for his performance as a mentally challenged father facing loss of custody of his young daughter. Advertisement Other movies performing well in limited release include Robert Altman's "Gosford Park" and the new Billy Bob Thornton-Halle Berry drama, "Monster's Ball." HOME VIDEO BUSINESS SETS MARK IN 2001 The home video rental business is picking up, according to the Video Software Dealers Association, which reported Friday that rentals of home videos and DVDs amounted to more than $8.4 billion last year -- up 2.1 percent from 2000. The VSDA report credited the growing consumer acceptance of DVDs as a main reason for the improvement. The amount of money Americans spent on video rentals is slightly more than the total that movie fans paid at the U.S. box-office last year. Depending on whose figures you go with, the U.S. box-office took in anywhere from $8.13 billion to $8.35 billion in 2001. DVD rentals were up 164 percent last year from 2000, and accounted for $1.4 billion of the total home video rentals. DVD acceptance really took off towards the end of the year when titles like "Dr. Suess' How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "Planet of the Apes," "Shrek" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" took turns establishing new sales records for single DVD titles. Advertisement TV AUDIENCE LACKING FOR AFI AWARDS SHOW According to preliminary Nielsen numbers, the ratings were not good for the telecast of the first-ever AFI Awards Saturday night, as CBS finished fourth for the night behind the other three major networks. The three-hour special -- which featured awards for both movies and TV shows -- averaged about 6 million viewers and managed only a 1.9 rating/5 share among adults 18-49. By comparison, NBC drew 10 million viewers for its rebroadcast of the 1996 James Bond movie, "GoldenEye." CBS is used to attracting bigger audiences than this for awards shows. Last year, 14.6 million viewers tuned in to the People's Choice Awards. THE POWER OF POWER The New York Post carried two stories Monday that illustrate the special effect of power -- one involving former President Bill Clinton, the other involving rap star Eminem. Picking up an item from "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn," the paper reported that Julie Bowen -- one of the stars of the NBC comedy-drama, "Ed" -- admitted that it was she who came on to Clinton, not the other way around. She was talking about the tabloid photo showing her standing close enough to Clinton to count the change in his pocket. Advertisement "The horrible truth," said Bowen, "is that I pretty much catapulted myself at him at a benefit for all of 90 seconds." "(Clinton) is a very powerful man," she said. "There's something very sexy about that ... and no, he hasn't called me. I've never seen him again." When Kilborn asked if Clinton caressed her back, Bowen said: "You know what? He did." The Eminem story comes from an interview the rapper did with MTV Asia, in which he described a close encounter with a couple of groupies who talked him into going to a hotel room with them following a recent concert. "I didn't like either of them," said Eminem, "so I left the room." His reluctance to give himself to either of the young women, said Eminem, led to a fistfight between them outside the hotel. "Each of them was blaming the other for me leaving," he said. "If it weren't for this rap stuff, I could never get a girl." ACADEMY TO HIGHLIGHT WOMEN IN FILM The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced Monday that a photography exhibit spotlighting 30 women who made their marks in the film industry will premiere at the Academy headquarters on Feb. 8. Advertisement "Great Women of Film: Photographs by Helena Lumme and Mika Manninen" is meant to celebrate "film's current female talents" according to an Academy press release. The exhibit will show women in a variety of professions and crafts in the movie business. The exhibit will focus on actresses Joan Allen and Susan Sarandon, actress-director-producer Jodie Foster, cinematographer Lisa Rinzler, editors Dede Allen and Maysie Hoy, producers Bonnie Curtis, Jane Rosenthal and Christine Vachon, and screenwriter-directors Jane Anderson, Kasi Lemmons and Allison Anders. It will also highlight the work of women in animation, sound and visual effects, music, production design, costume design, makeup and casting. "Great Women of Film" is free and open to the public through April 21.
