HOLLYWOOD -- Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank is ready to shave her head and play a man-boy again, if that is what it takes to get a role in Clint Eastwood's next picture.
"I joke around with Clint because his next movie doesn't have a woman," Swank said backstage at the Oscars after winning the best actress prize for Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby.
Eastwood is working with producer Steven Spielberg to direct a World War II action picture, Flags Of Our Fathers, set for release in 2006. Now being written by Paul Haggis, who wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, the movie is the story of the battle of Iwo Jima.
"And I said," Swank said of her conversation with Eastwood, "I've played a boy before (her gender-bending role in Boys Don't Cry) and I think I've gotten closer to shaving my hair and having him let me be in his movie."
On a more serious note, she said that it is difficult to follow up an Oscar-winning role with another great role. She had to wait five years after Boys Don't Cry for something as substantial as Million Dollar Baby. "I think it's always going to be a challenge and, you know, I certainly see a lot of actresses talking about that. We'll see what the future brings."
IN THE KISSER: Add Swank's name to those who have won Oscars for playing a boxer. Others include Robert De Niro (Raging Bull), Marlon Brando (On The Waterfront) and Wallace Beery (The Champ). "One of these things is not like the other," Swank quipped, invoking her Sesame Street memories. Obviously, she is the first femme to do it.
HIT THE ROAD, JACK: Best actor winner Jamie Foxx has his own solution for maintaining quality control in his future career, especially after Sidney Poitier urged him to take "responsibility for your art." Foxx said backstage that, "I can cheat. I'm a stand-up comedian. So that means that, if we do not have the movie that we think is going to be a responsible movie, I will go on the road. And I will see you in somewhere in Poughkeepsie, Detroit, whatever."
CHEEKY DEVIL: In live TV interviews going into the Governor's Ball after the ceremony, best supporting actress winner Cate Blanchett fired off the raunchiest line: "There's no genitals, which always freaks me out," Blanchett said, examining the Oscar statue a little too closely.
IN THE TRUNK: Eastwood said late into the after-Oscars party cycle that he had no plans to relinquish a hold on his two Oscars, one for best picture, the other for sharing the prize for best picture with his two producers. But, after that, the statuettes were going "in the trunk" of his car for the ride home. According to his wife, Dina, that's their home for a while. "They'll stay there for four months until we get our act together," she told TV reporters with a grin.
Actually, Eastwood already has a trophy room and the two Oscars will join the two he won for Unforgiven.
THE MUNCHIES: Producer Albert S. Ruddy shared that best picture prize for Million Dollar Baby with long-time pal Eastwood. It was Eastwood who reluctantly agreed to present best picture at the 1973 Oscar ceremony only because he "had a hunch" that Ruddy would win that one, too, for producing Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece The Godfather.
But Ruddy fretted when The Godfather lost other key categories. He revealed Sunday that he jokingly asked Eastwood to rig it, whispering in his ear before the actor went up on stage: "Clint, in case it's not me, when you open the envelope, just tear it up, swallow it and say: 'Al won it!'" No problem, The Godfather and Ruddy did win. Or did they?
BETTER LATE: Faye Dunaway, who won her best actress Oscar for Sidney Lumet's Network, figures "it's about time" that the Academy got around to honouring the 80-year-old filmmaker, who is still at work but has never won a competitive best director Oscar. Lumet received an honorary Oscar this year for his body of work.
Dunaway told TV reporters that the Academy should now pay attention to the case of Martin Scorsese, who remains a classic Oscar loser. "I was sorry not to see him properly recognized," Dunaway said.
FOXXY LOVE: Best actor winner Jamie Foxx (Ray) got the most enthusiastic wave of support in the hours after the Oscars. Among many who expressed their support and respect was Kristin Davis (formerly of Sex And The City). "Jamie, Jamie," Davis said in awe, "he's so generous and beautiful." Brendan Fraser, who loved Foxx's work in Ray, later said: "I think he just unified everybody."
SECRETS: Oscar host Chris Rock said after the Oscar ceremony that he had one big challenge: Keeping his prepared material under wraps long enough to deliver it Sunday night. "The hardest part (was) just getting the material ready without the press putting every joke in a magazine."
Said R&B star Usher of Rock: "He definitely shook them up."
Not everyone liked how it played. Oprah said Rock should have been allowed to shake them up with longer segments. "I wanted more Chris!" Oprah teased on E! Entertainment. "Because I came for Chris. I think he was great," she said, adding, "I think he was polite enough."
