Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Of course, Kevin Bacon is connected to each of this year’s best actor and actress nominees. Here are some of our favorites:

Woody Harrelson (“The People vs. Larry Flynt”) starred with Kiefer Sutherland in “The Cowboy Way.” Bacon starred with Sutherland in “Flatliners.”

Geoffrey Rush (“Shine”) appears in the upcoming movie “Children of the Revolution” with Judy Davis. Davis appears with Jack Nicholson in “Blood and Wine,” and Nicholson starred with Bacon in “A Few Good Men.”

Billy Bob Thornton stars in “Sling Blade” with Robert Duvall. Duvall appeared in “Something to Talk About” with Bacon’s wife, Kyra Sedgwick. Bacon and Sedgwick starred together in the “American Playhouse” drama “Lemon Sky,” and he directed her in the film “Losing Chase.”

Frances McDormand (“Fargo”) appeared in “Chattahoochee” with Gary Oldman, who co-starred with Bacon in “Criminal Law.”

Emily Watson appears with Jean-Marc Barr in “Breaking the Waves.” Barr starred with Rosanna Arquette in “The Big Blue.” Arquette appeared with John Lithgow in the Showtime movie “The Wrong Man,” and Lithgow co-starred with Bacon in “Footloose.”

THIS YEAR’S MODEL

Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” is nominated for best costume design and art direction. Laurence Olivier’s 1948 “Hamlet” won Oscars in both categories.

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“The Preacher’s Wife” is up for original musical or comedy score. The 1947 original, “The Bishop’s Wife,” was also nominated in that category. Hugh Freidhofer’s score, though, lost out to Miklos Rozsa’s for “A Double Life.”

SMALL-SCREEN GEMS

Several of the nominees have TV backgrounds. Best actor nominee Woody Harrelson, of course, starred as Woody the bartender from 1985 to ’93 on “Cheers.” Best actor nominee Billy Bob Thornton, below, appeared in the 1990 Fox series “The Outsiders” and the 1992-95 CBS series “Hearts Afire.”

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Best actress nominee Frances McDormand appeared in the 1987 CBS detective series “Leg Work.”

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Best supporting nominee William H. Macy (“Fargo”) has a recurring role as Dr. Morganstern on “ER.” Best supporting nominee Barbara Hershey (“The Portrait of a Lady”) starred in the 1966-67 ABC western “The Monroes.”

REPEAT CUSTOMERS

“Jerry Maguire” marks the second time nominees Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr. have starred together. They both appeared in the 1992 best picture nominee “A Few Good Men.”

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Though “The Mirror Has Two Faces” marks the first Oscar nomination for Lauren Bacall, she has won Tony Awards for her work in the Broadway musicals “Applause” and “Woman of the Year.” Bacall’s late husband, Humphrey Bogart, won the 1951 best actor Oscar for “The African Queen.”

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Ralph Fiennes has appeared in three best picture nominees in the last four years. He was in the 1993 best picture winner, “Schindler’s List,” the 1994 nominee “Quiz Show” and this year’s “The English Patient.”

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Best actress nominee Diane Keaton (“Marvin’s Room”) has starred in three best picture winners: 1972’s “The Godfather,” 1974’s “The Godfather Part II” and 1977’s “Annie Hall.”

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Incidentally, Keaton made her film debut in 1970’s “Lovers and Other Strangers.” The hit tune from that film, “For All We Know,” won the Oscar for best song, and Renee Taylor, Joseph Bologna and David Zelag Goodman were nominated for their adapted screenplay.

DEMOGRAPHIC PARTY

Eight of the acting nominees are non-American. Back in the 1960s, the majority of acting nominees were not American-born. In fact, every best supporting actress nominee of 1963 was a non-American: Diane Cilento (“Tom Jones”), Dame Edith Evans (“Tom Jones”), Joyce Redman (“Tom Jones”), Margaret Rutherford (“The V.I.P.’s”) and Lilia Skala (“Lilies of the Field”). Rutherford won the Oscar.

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Cuba Gooding Jr. is just one of a handful of African Americans to be nominated for best supporting actor. The first was Rupert Crosse for 1969’s “The Reivers.” The first African American to win in the category was Louis Gossett Jr. for 1982’s “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

OSCAR FLASHBACKS

And the winners were . . .

Ten years ago:

Best Picture: “Platoon” (with Tom Berenger, above)

Best Director: Oliver Stone, “Platoon”

Best Actor: Paul Newman, “The Color of Money”

Best Actress: Marlee Matlin for “Children of a Lesser God”

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Twenty years ago:

Best Picture: “Rocky”

Best Director: John G. Avildsen, “Rocky”

Best Actor: Peter Finch, “Network”

Best Actress: Faye Dunaway, “Network”

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Sixty years ago:

Best Picture: “The Great Ziegfeld”

Best Director: Frank Capra, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”

Best Actor: Paul Muni, “The Story of Louis Pasteur”

Best Actress: Luise Rainer, “The Great Ziegfeld”

DIRECT APPROACH

If “Jerry Maguire” wins for best picture, it will be the first best film since 1989’s “Driving Miss Daisy” (with Jessica Tandy, above) to win without its director being nominated.

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If Milos Forman wins an Oscar as director of “The People vs. Larry Flynt” he’ll join Frank Capra and William Wyler with three wins apiece. Forman previously won for 1975’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and 1984’s “Amadeus.” Capra won for 1934’s “It Happened One Night,” 1936’s “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” and 1938’s “You Can’t Take It With You.” Wyler won for 1942’s “Mrs. Miniver,” 1946’s “The Best Years of Our Lives” and 1959’s “Ben-Hur.”

MAESTRO?

Barbra Streisand is the recipient of her second best song nomination for “I Finally Found Somone” from her movie “The Mirror Has Two Faces.” Streisand co-wrote the tune with Marvin Hamlisch, Bryan Adams and Robert “Mutt” Lange. Streisand previously won the 1976 Oscar for her song “Evergreen” from “A Star Is Born.”

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Barbra Streisand, who also directed “Mirror,” isn’t the first director nominated in the best song category. Oscar-winning Leo McCarey (“The Awful Truth,” “Going My Way”) was nominated for co-writing the title tune from his 1957 film “An Affair to Remember,” with Harry Warren and Harold Adamson.

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Speaking of Streisand, she has introduced several Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning tunes since making her film debut in 1968’s “Funny Girl,” for which she won an Academy Award for best actress:

“Funny Girl” from “Funny Girl” (nomination)

“The Way We Were” from “The Way We Were” (Oscar)

“How Lucky Can You Get” from “Funny Lady” (nomination)

“Evergreen” from “A Star Is Born” (Oscar)

“Papa, Can You Hear Me” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel” from “Yentl” (nominations)

BEST OF SHOW

“Fargo” is the only best picture nominee currently out on video. “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991) was the first best picture winner to have already been released on video when it won its Oscar.

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If “Fargo” wins for best picture, it will be the first time since 1951’s “An American in Paris” that a city’s name has been in the winning film’s title.

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“The English Patient” leads the pack this year with 12 nominations. The most-nominated film of all time was 1950’s “All About Eve,” with 14. The most honored film of all time was 1959’s “Ben-Hur,” which won 11 Oscars. The 1977 drama “The Turning Point” and 1985’s “The Color Purple” hold the record as the two most-nominated films (11 each) that went home empty-handed.

MISSING IN ACTION

Actors from each of this year’s best picture nominees also received nominations for their performances. But that hasn’t always been the case.

The last best picture to win without any of its actors nominated was 1987’s “The Last Emperor.” Among the other best picture winners that failed to gain nominations for its stars are 1958’s “Gigi,” 1956’s “Around the World in 80 Days,” 1952’s “The Greatest Show on Earth” and 1951’s “An American in Paris.”

MISCELLANY

The 1932 drama “The Private Life of Henry VII,” for which Charles Laughton, above, won the Oscar for best actor, was the first non-Hollywood-produced film to win an Academy Award. Laurence Olivier’s 1948 version of “Hamlet” was the first non-Hollywood-produced film to win as best picture.

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Walter Murch is nominated for both best achievement in editing and best achievement in sound for “The English Patient.”

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Arthur Miller, above, nominated for his adapted screenplay of “The Crucible,” won the 1953 Tony for his original Broadway play.

GOTTA DANCE

Choreographer-director-actor Michael Kidd (“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” “Guys and Dolls”) is a recipient this year of an honorary Oscar.

Two other famous hoofers also received honorary Oscars. Fred Astaire won a special 1949 Oscar for “his unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures.” Gene Kelly, above right, took home a 1951 honorary Oscar as “an appreciation of his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film.

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From 1935 to ‘37, choreographers even had their own Oscar category: dance direction. David Gould received the first Oscar in this category for his “I’ve Got a Feeling You’re Fooling” number from “Broadway Melody of 1936” and “Straw Hat” from “Folies Bergere.” Seymour Felix won for the “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” number from 1936’s “The Great Ziegfeld.”

CEREMONIAL TIDBITS

The Shrine Auditorium is home to this year’s Oscars. The first Academy Awards ceremony to take place there was March 14, 1947. Jack Benny was the host.

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Artist Hiro Yamagata and special-events company Ambrosia Productions are designing and executing the plan for the decor of this year’s Governors Ball. The concept will use images from Yamagata’s “Earthly Paradise” collection projected onto a 70-by-200-foot ceiling scrim.

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For the ninth straight year, Fred Hayman is the fashion coordinator for the ceremony. He’s responsible for coordinating gowns and accessories for many of the show’s nominees and presenters from his Fred Hayman Beverly Hills store on Rodeo Drive.

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Otis Sallid, who arranged the dance numbers for Spike Lee’s movie “School Daze” and conceived the Broadway hit musical “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” will make his debut as the choreographer of the Oscars.

A FEW GOOD MENUS

For the third straight year, Wolfgang Puck, right, in association with Restaurant Associates Caterers, will be creating the cuisine for the Governors Ball.

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And just what will the 1,650 guests be dining on this year?

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The hors d’oeuvres consist of roasted new potatoes and caviar, Chinois vegetable spring rolls with apricot mustard sauce, smoked sturgeon on crisp potato galettes, pizza with smoked salmon and dill cream and assorted Spago pizzas.

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Appetizers include marinated lobster salad, artichokes with white truffle vinaigrette, chopped Chino ranch vegetable salad, asparagus with orange mustard, tuna Tataki with Wasabi cream, Parmesan bread sticks wrapped with prosciutto.

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The main course consists of roasted salmon with horseradish mashed potatoes and tomato basil fondue and Chinois rack of lamb with mint cilantro vinaigrette and stir-fried vegetables.

The dessert: “Oscar’s Decadent Delights.”