WHAT did it all mean? Backstage at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, reporters struggled for a peg to the 67th Annual Academy Awards. Was the success of Forrest Gump, winner of six Oscars, a sign that the United States is moving back to basics? Did Pulp Fiction 's sole award mean the country is signalling its disapproval of violence? Statue-holders stared bug-eyed at the press corps. 'It doesn't mean a thing,' said Forrest Gump 's producer Wendy Finerman. The night went exactly according to predictions: Gump took the major awards for Best Picture, Director and Actor, as well as Adapted Screenplay, Visual Effects and Editing. Pulp Fiction, its major rival, took one Oscar (for Best Original Screenplay) out of seven nominations, as did Bullets Over Broadway (Dianne Wiest for Best Supporting Actress). Prison drama The Shawshank Redemption went into the night with the worst title and seven nominations: it came out empty-handed. A centenary of film is celebrated this year, but what did the 1995 Academy Awards signify? To Taiwan's Ang Lee, two-time nominated director in the Best Foreign Film category for last year's Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman, they spelt a big Tinseltown career. Lee didn't win - 'of course I'm disappointed, but it's not the end of the world' - however he did parlay his Academy nod into a job directing Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. The cameras start rolling in England next month on this lofty period drama. It took Lee seven years of knocking on doors before the state-run Central Motion Pictures in Taiwan agreed to finance The Wedding Banquet - but by last December, Hollywood giant Sydney Pollack was courting him. 'Sydney has a reputation for leaving directors alone,' said Lee, casually. 'It's a low-budget picture by Hollywood standards, so I can still retain my credibility in the art-house world. I have only made three films so far and I wrote the script for all of them; by the time we started production, I was two years ahead of the crew. With Jane Austen, I am 200 years behind. And it's my first film to be made entirely in English. And it's about a woman. I know nothing of these things.' Lee, despite having missed out on a trophy for two consecutive years, could be the success story of this year's Academy Awards. Along with Best Actress winner Jessica Lange, whose film Blue Sky 'was seen by all of half-a-dozen people before the nominations were announced', admitted the star. Directed by the late Tony Richardson, this story of a frustrated army wife is now slated for a worldwide release after four years in the vaults when its studio, Orion, went bankrupt. It was Lange's fifth nomination in this category; she previously won Best Supporting Actress for Tootsie in 1980. But Forrest Gump, certainly, has nowhere to go from here. This tale of a slow-witted Alabama boy is already the highest-grossing film to win a Best Picture Oscar, at more than US$600 million at box office worldwide. It's the highest-grossing non-science fiction movie ever. And it's out on video in five weeks. 'I doubt we're going to do much more business in the interim,' said Finerman. The theme of the Oscar ceremony was comedy; the opening number was Make Em Laugh, and nobody, but nobody, wanted to make a meaningful statement. Tom Hanks, the first man to win two consecutive Best Actor Oscars since Spencer Tracy in 1937 and 1938, had this to say: 'Last year I was standing up and saying my thing for Philadelphia because so many gay men are dead from AIDS. This year, I don't represent anything as specific as that. It would be cheesy proseletysing for me to say that Forrest Gump is a movie that says respect your mum, or look after your friends. Everyone has a different answer as to what it all means tonight.' To Hanks, Gump means a paycheque, which, after bonuses and percentages, has been estimated at US$35 million. Perhaps the most meaningless moment of the night - it was almost sublime - came from a Pakistani journalist making his Oscar debut (and probably his exit). After begging Best Director Robert Zemeckis for a lift in his limo to the Forrest Gump bash at Mortons restaurant, he asked honorary Oscar winner Clint Eastwood: 'You've spent a lot of time in the saddle; have you ever chafed your bottom?' Eastwood paused. 'I've never made a Pakistani film; maybe they make you ride longer there.' The Lion King, which won both musical Oscars, is the fastest-selling video in history - and the highest-grossing animated picture of all time. So it didn't need the financial boost an Oscar traditionally brings either. But was it derogatory to Africans, asked a reporter scrabbling for that elusive peg? 'Those criticisms are barmy,' snapped composer Elton John. But the subliminal message of the night was fashion, glamour, sex and the selling of an industry which flogged US$5.6 billion worth of movie tickets in the US last year, the most since 1960. But by the time US cinema chains had deducted their expenses and percentage shares, overseas revenues of US$2.77 billion to Hollywood were greater than domestic for the first time ever. The average cost of a Hollywood movie has now soared to US$50.4 million (including advertising), so it's important to get out there and sell it to death - especially in front of a worldwide audience of one billion viewers on Oscar night. And although the Academy Awards are just one of 50 annual showbiz roll-calls in Hollywood now, they are still the largest. So out rolled new host David Letterman (wearing Armani) and his 'stupid pet trick' and 'top 10 list', pulling in nine of his own writers to spice up the broadcast. A success, said the critics. And out rolled the red carpet for an orgy of fashion and glamour. Who was wearing who? Who was with whom? Screeching fans, a limo log-jam, a celebrity pile-up in front of the thousand members of the press corps; you couldn't see the Armani for the Versace on the way into the Shrine Auditorium (both fashion houses issued press releases concerning the stars' attire before the Oscar telecast even started). Odd couples of the evening were the recently-separated Steve Martin with Diane Keaton (both starring in the upcoming Father of the Bride II ) and Best Actor nominee Nigel Hawthorne cheek-to-cheek with Loretta Swit of MASH. Mogul David Geffen, one-third of the new studio DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, gallantly squired Sally Field (wearing Chanel). For the scandal hounds, Joey Buttafucco (of Amy Fisher fame) turned up with his wife; former 'Mr Roseanne' Tom Arnold trekked the red carpet with his new fiancee. Some people went up and down the carpet three or four times until they were finally noticed. Sharon Stone and Holly Hunter wore white, courtesy of top designer Vera Wang; Spielberg's wife Kate Capshaw was wearing a necklace valued at US$1 million (on loan from Harry Winston), while Oprah Winfrey (Gianfranco Ferre) was sporting her own diamonds; Andie MacDowell, who recently gave birth, was demure in an Empire-waisted satin number from a British designer; Wiest wore Donna Karan, while other celebrities hung on tight to their lucky tokens. Hawthorne had a 'charmed' postcard given to him by a fan in a Los Angeles restaurant last week, but sadly to no avail. He lost Best Actor (for The Madness of King George ) to Hanks. Eastwood didn't wear his 'lucky' red bowtie because he already knew he'd been given the honorary award; while Best Supporting Actor winner Martin Landau (wearing Armani) had the best charm story. Landau, finally a winner after three nominations for his portrayal of Dracula star Bela Lugosi, 'a 74-year-old Hungarian heroin addict who had mood swings' in Ed Wood, was being interviewed by a reporter for the Los Angeles Times in a Chinese restaurant last week when he was given a fortune cookie. 'It literally says, 'you will receive some high prize or award', ' said Landau. 'I've carried it with me ever since; here it is in my wallet. And it worked.' Celebrities split every which way after the Governor's Ball at the Shrine - some went to Elton John's AIDS bash at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills; others to Spago's, catered for by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck; Gump producer Steve Tisch and Vanity Fair held a party at Mortons and there was a celebration of Women in Film at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard. As the sun rose, John's party, his third for his own charity foundation, was again the success of the night. And that was it for another year. When pressed for a Gump-ism to describe the night, Zemeckis said: 'Miracles happen, some people don't think so, but they do.' However, that's Hollywood-speak. In reality, the ABC network pays the Academy so much money for the exclusive rights to the live telecast, it bankrolls the 5,000-member organisation into next year and will fully finance the 68th Annual Academy Awards. Now that's show-business.
