Actor Sean Penn accepts the Oscar for best actor for his work in Mystic River at the 76th annual Academy Awards Sunday. Associated Press

Oscar winner Sean Penn picks right time to overcome shyness

LOS ANGELES -- Sean Penn didn't shy away from attending the Academy Awards this time. Good thing, too, since his name was called as the best-actor winner for "Mystic River."

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Penn, nominated as lead actor for 1995's "Dead Man Walking," 1999's "Sweet and Lowdown" and 2001's "I Am Sam," had never taken part in an Oscar show before.

"It came down to a bit of social discomfort," he said backstage, crunching ice from a drink he carried. "Too many people you know a little bit in one room. That's what this is."

Penn, who has been dismissive of awards contests, seemed taken aback by the standing ovation he received when his name was called.

"I did arguably feel I was there to debunk the notion that it was a popularity contest, but they took that joke away from me," he said afterward.

Writer-director Blake Edwards can't understand why there's so much hoopla about Janet Jackson baring one of her breasts at the Super Bowl.

After all, Edwards' wife, Julie Andrews, bared both of hers in "S.O.B." her husband's devastatingly funny putdown of Hollywood wheeling and dealing. And that was in 1981.

"I think it's such hypocrisy," the 81-year-old filmmaker said backstage after receiving an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. "As you say, my wife did it in the film, for God sake, and that was when it wasn't thought of movie stars doing things like that."

Edwards' other films include "10," "Micki & Maude," "Skin Deep," "Switch," "Victor/Victoria," "Days of Wine and Roses" and "The "Pink Panther" movies.

He said he's been left out of the loop, however, when it has come to plans to remake "The Pink Panther," which debuted in 1963.

"I'm not advising anybody where the 'Panther' is concerned," Edwards said. "In fact, nobody has really been that interested in whether or not I have any opinions about it."

Sofia Coppola's Oscar for best original screenplay for "Lost in Translation" puts her in some rarified company, as one of only two third-generation family members to win an Academy Award.

The other was Angelica Huston, who captured the best supporting actress Oscar for "Prizzi's Honor" in 1985. Her grandfather Walter Huston won supporting-actor honors in 1948 for "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," and her father, John Huston, won directing and writing awards for that film.

Coppola's father, Francis Ford Coppola, has won five Oscars, including three in 1974 for "The Godfather II," when Sofia was a toddler. "The Godfather II" also won her grandfather, Carmine Coppola, the 1974 Oscar for best original score.

Coppola's cousin, Nicolas Cage, also won a best-actor Oscar for "Leaving Las Vegas" in 1995.

"I was so happy to look over and see my parents and my cousin Nicolas and my brother Roman," she said backstage. "I never thought my dad would be watching me get one. It was just a thrill."

No Oscar winner was more surprised than confirmed pessimist Errol Morris when he and Michael Williams received the documentary feature award for "The Fog of War."

"I hoped I would win, but I've had very bad experiences with the academy in the past, so I was counting on nothing," Morris said backstage. "Having said all that, I'm really, really overwhelmed and delighted to have won this evening. Wow!"

Morris also couldn't resist adding a bit of political commentary.

"I find our foreign policy atrocious, appalling," he said. "And if this movie in some way contributed to the debate of what is going on in the world, I am immensely pleased."

Associated Press writers Ryan Pearson and John Antczak contributed to this story.

--From the Tuesday, March 2, 2004 online edition of the Augusta Chronicle