Friday, March 22, 2002 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific

Popcorn quiz: Oscar trivia

Do you have a beautiful mind for Oscars? Test your mettle with these trivia questions. Check this page on Friday for the answers. Here's a warm-up to get you started: When was the last time two Oscar nominees played the same character? The answer is below along with last week's answers.

Quiz for Friday, March 15:

1. This year, Russell Crowe is nominated for an acting award for the third consecutive year, which is pretty good, but not yet a record. Who holds the record for consecutive acting nominations, and for how many years?

2. What two-time Best Actor winner will appear on this year's show as a presenter, for the tenth time?

3. Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge" was nominated for Best Picture, but he did not get a nomination for Best Director. When's the last time a film won Best Picture without a director nomination?

4. Speaking of Luhrmann, he may have not gotten a nomination, but his wife did, twice. Who is she, and what was she nominated for?

5. Who, speaking of the sensitivities involved with this year's ceremony, has promised that "Whoopi's not going to come out wearing a burka".

6. Who has not been invited back for a second appearance on the Oscars pre-show, perhaps because she addressed a former Oscar winner on camera as "Miss Thing"?

7. This year's best-director category features two directors whose films were not nominated for best picture (David Lynch, for "Mulholland Drive," and Ridley Scott, for "Black Hawk Down"). Has anyone ever won best director without a best-picture nomination? If so, who?

8. What dubious distinction does composer Randy Newman hold?

Go to answers

1. Who, upon viewing his first Oscar, said of the statuette, "He has no genitalia, and he's holding a sword."

2. Which of the Best Picture nominees this year has the distinction of being the first nominated film in decades that was made entirely on soundstages?

3. Who holds the record for the most-ever Oscar nominations, with 64?

4. Who actually won the television set promised by Oscar producer Gil Cates to the winner who gave the shortest acceptance speech last year? And what did he do with it?

5. In the disastrous 1999 Oscar pre-show, on whose lap did Meredith Viera perch?

6. This year, David Lynch received a best director nomination for "Mulholland Drive," but the film received no other nominations. What was the last film to receive only a directing nod?

Go to answers

Answer to warm-up:

In 1998, Gloria Stuart and Kate Winslet both received Oscar nominations for playing the role of Rose (older and younger) in "Titanic." Even more recently, though, in 1999, Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench were both nominated for playing Queen Elizabeth I in, respectively, "Elizabeth" and "Shakespeare in Love."

1. Dustin Hoffman
2. "Moulin Rouge"
3. Walt Disney
4. Michael Dudok de Wit, who won the Oscar for best animated short film. He donated the TV to a boys' and girls' club.
5. Clint Eastwood
6. Robert Altman's "Short Cuts," in 1994.