Site Seeing - March 20

Often nick names stick in the mind and stay there for life. Just like the Oscars. A popular story has been that an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' librarian and eventual executive director, Margaret Herrick, thought the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar and said so, and that, as a result, the Academy staff began referring to it as Oscar.

Though there is no hard evidence to support that tale, the Academy started using the term officially in 1939 (Oscars started in 1928 but film industry insiders and the press called the award "the Academy statuette", "the golden trophy", "the statue of merit", "the iron man", but the terms didn't stick).

Considered the highest honour in the Hollywood film industry, this year's Oscars will be telecast live worldwide on Sunday from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. This will be the 73rd Annual Academy Awards night. For film fans there are many sites to check out this year's favourites or just surf through Oscar trivia that is as entertaining as this most-awaited event of showbusiness.

www.oscars.com

This is the official Academy Awards website produced in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (www.oscar.org is the official website of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).

A neatly-designed site, a bit conservative though, takes you through Nominees, Styles, Oscar Night, Exclusives, Fun and Games and Gallery. The homepage also lists Oscar Night which will be hosted this year by actor, screenwriter, playwright and author Steve Martin.

Oscar Night lists the Red Carpet Retrospective that takes you through eight decades of Oscar dressing. There's the gilded look of the 1940s, the sweetheart statements of the 1950s, the pinups of the 1960s, the revealing styles of the 1970s, the dramatic designs of the 1980s and the individualised ideas of the 1990s. The Style section features Women's Fashion, Men's Fashion and Gems and Jewellery.

The jewellery section is especially interesting; like last year Cameron Diaz made a bold style statement reiterating the term 'minimal elegance' with a simple black dress to accentuate her extravagant diamond bracelet and earrings. But the real fun is in going through the FAQ (frequently asked questions) like what material was the Oscar statuette made of during World War II?

In support of the war effort, the Academy handed out plaster Oscar statuettes during WW II. After the war, winners exchanged the plaster awards for golden statuettes! Plenty more to have you hooked and surfing.

www.apple.com/trailers/awards/

A visual treat where you can see the trailers of the movies (in Quick Time format). You can select the option of seeing them in three sizes, (small, medium or large) or in resolutions as well (low resolution – which is the quickest, medium and high resolution – which offers the best quality).

The homepage has a visual of this year's top five nominees – the films Chocolat; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Erin Brockovich; Gladiator and Traffic.

The site also lists other Academy Award nominations as achievement in directing; in art direction; in visual effects; in film editing; in sound; in sound editing; performance by an actor in a leading role; actress in a leading role; actor in a supporting role and actress in a supporting role.

Also offers links to giants like Columbia, Dream Works, MGM, Miramax, Paramount, Touchstone, Universal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. etc. This is what I call pure entertainment.

www.littlegoldenguy.com/home.asp

Another good site with exhaustive information is www.littlegoldenguy.com/home.asp, though it looks more like a financial site than one on movies.

The homepage has a graph with Real Time voting results. Also one can find detailed information on movies (select a year from 1928 to 2000) and category (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay, documentary). There are links to other Oscar sites, related books, voting booth, contacts, categories and more. The interesting feature is a multi-choice option to 'Find any record holder'.

It begins with – 'Tell me' which 'person' (or 'movie' or 'studio') has the most 'wins' (or 'losses' or 'nominations'). A good source for a hardcore film buff.

Other sites on the same are www.dallasnews.com/oscar/ (another cool site, visually), www.critics.com/oscars_2000.htm, www.britannica.com/oscars (neat and crisp design), www.movies.yahoo.com/oscars, www.oscarwatch.com and www.us.imdb.org/
(lists Oscar nominations on the homepage).