Jeff Haynes, AFP, Getty Images Best director winner Clint Eastwood, left, brought along grade-school character Flat Stanley to the Oscars. Click photo for larger image. Previous Story: 'Million Dollar Baby' wins four top awards

HOLLYWOOD -- Clint Eastwood brought a pair of Oscars, a pair of producers and one Flat Stanley -- familiar to parents of grade-school children everywhere -- into the press room of the 77th annual Academy Awards.

"Flat Stanley is my child's class project," said Eastwood, slipping into his role as Dad for just a minute and flashing the paper figure for the crowd. Flat Stanley goes to the Oscars, where "Million Dollar Baby" is crowned best picture and Eastwood is named best director. Sounds like someone's getting extra credit.

Eastwood may have school-age children, but he is 74 years old, directed 67-year-old Morgan Freeman to a best supporting actor Oscar and works with a longtime crew that includes production designer Henry Bumstead, who is on the cusp of 90.

"Yeah, we're taking over. The AARP and me, we're coming in there," Eastwood quipped. "I think there is room for everybody. ... I love to see young directors come along," singling out "Sideways" director Alexander Payne for praise.

"But I would like to say to the various financiers, don't forget the senior guys, because the senior guys and gals are both there ready to do their best work for you. And Sidney Lumet is still out there working. And you saw the newsreel of him tonight. He was bouncing around like he was 25 years old, so you don't want to write off the guy who did '12 Angry Men' ever."

Another guy who's still out there: Martin Scorsese, who might now have his first Oscar for directing "The Aviator" if "Million Dollar Baby" hadn't come along. Pundits and oddsmakers had made the Oscars a two-man race when it came to best director and picture and Eastwood nabbed both prizes.

"I was a little disappointed when they started building a competition between Marty and myself because I have the greatest respect for him," Eastwood said. "He produced a series on the blues; I did a segment on that. And all of the work he does for motion-picture preservation, I have the greatest respect for him and for the films he's done over the years and right up through 'Aviator.' "

Kevork Djansezian, Associated Press Best actress winner Hilary Swank celebrates with her husband, Chad Lowe. Unlike her win in 2000, she said, she remembered to thank Lowe in her acceptance speech. Click photo for larger image.

The smart money was on "Million Dollar Baby," but Eastwood said he never takes anything for granted. And then he quoted a line from his character, Bill Munny, in "Unforgiven," the western that also had brought him Oscar glory: "Deserve's got nothing to do with it.

"I don't want to say necessarily that I adhere to that, but in some way, you never know. You just never know. There are a lot of great movies that have won Academy Awards and a lot of great movies that haven't, so you just do the best you can."

Rock 'n' roll

Chris Rock could be a two-time Oscar host. All they have to do is ask.

The host stopped into the pressroom after the show (something that's almost never done) and fielded questions about the gig that had ended minutes earlier. Quizzed about whether he would return, he said, "Yes, I would do it again. I mean, who knows if they would want me again."

He loved Sean Penn's comeback to his joke about Jude Law being in every movie imaginable and said the hardest part of preparation was "just getting the material ready without the press putting every joke in a magazine," and that he keeps a photo of his father close by, as a good luck charm.

On the subject of colorful language, he said, "I don't curse in front of my mother. And my mother was front and center, you know, right in my view. So I could never curse in front of Rose Rock, so why would I do it on television?"

Rock emceed on a night when two African-American men took the top acting prizes and the audience was more racially diverse than usual. "It always feels good to see some color in the room that don't have mops. It's always good."

	Robyn Beck, AFP, Getty Images Chris Rock is ready to host the Oscars again next year. Click photo for larger image.

Dream on

The pressroom is a strange blend of workroom, interview room and banquet room, minus the food, which is available in the hallway and carted inside. Members of the media sit at rectangular blue cloth-covered tables, which stretch like long fingers to the back of the room.

In the front, on a two-foot raised platform, is a single supersize Oscar flanked by the sorts of flowers Pittsburghers can only dream about these days. A small garden of stargazer lilies, roses, gladioluses and hydrangeas blooms behind the winners, such as Eastwood and best actress Hilary Swank.

As her husband, Chad Lowe, smiled from the doorway, Swank demonstrated posture as perfect as the Oscar hovering behind her. With her hair swept back in a sophisticated style, drop earrings and curve-hugging Guy Laroche gown, she looked little like the waitress turned boxer from "Million Dollar Baby."

"I remembered to thank my husband, which was nice, but my heart was pounding so fast out of my chest, I didn't know if words were coming out of my mouth," Swank said. "It's really one of the most surreal things, and even standing here right now and talking, I think I may be dreaming. I might wake up tomorrow and it's the 27th of February and it's not all happening." The self-proclaimed girl from the trailer park with the dream wasn't dreaming.

Swank is not only a two-time winner, but a woman who won for unconventional roles. Told she had upped the ante for women who have won Oscars for portraying hookers and loose women, she smiled and said, "Well, I would play the hooker if it was the right hooker, to be quite honest. You know, I just haven't found a hooker that is meaty enough yet."

Swank joined the ranks of an elite fraternity -- and it has been a fraternity until now -- of actors who have received Oscars for playing boxers. The roster now reads Wallace Beery, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Swank and, of course, Morgan Freeman, whose character is a retired boxer in "Million Dollar Baby."

Beautiful music

Jamie Foxx's date for the evening was his daughter, Corrine Marie, who just turned 11 and is still waiting for the big awards show: the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. "She may not know the significance of everything that's going on tonight, but years from now, she will be talking to her friends and say, "Me and my dad one night had a great time,' " Foxx said.

Foxx, who won the best actor Oscar for "Ray," explained why the award was important to him as an African American. "In our music, in our community, so many negative things. Why not have something positive and then stamp it with blackness," just as Halle Berry and Denzel Washington did, Foxx suggested.

Lucky charms

Good luck charms come in many forms. In Cate Blanchett's case, it's a pair of white silk evening gloves once owned by Katharine Hepburn. Cynthia McFadden, an executor of Hepburn's estate, gave them to the Aussie actress, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for playing the screen icon in "The Aviator."

She could only squeeze one, however, into her bag. "I have a ridiculously small purse."

Jeff Haynes, AFP, Getty Images Best actor winner Jamie Foxx, right, escorted his daughter, Corrine Marie, to the awards ceremony. Click photo for larger image.

Freeman, winner of the best supporting actor Oscar, was carrying silver with his gold-plated statue. "There is a gentleman here who, for every one of the awards shows, comes with silver dollars and gives them out. I have about five of them."

Good party spoiled

Early in the evening, "The Aviator" was on a roll, and Thelma Schoonmaker picked up an Oscar for film editing. It was the second time that she worked with director Martin Scorsese and won an award while he did not.

"The last time I won was 'Raging Bull.' Scorsese did not win, which was quite devastating for me. It kind of ruined my night a bit," she said.

And on the totally frivolous side, Schoonmaker said (in response to an inquiry) that the DVD of "The Aviator" will not feature more shots of Leonardo DiCaprio's bare backside. "Not one?" was the question. "No" was the answer.

On the carpet

No one cares if the sun comes out tomorrow because it was shining on Oscar day.

Makeup and hair weren't ruined by rain, and floor-length gowns -- and their trains -- weren't dragged through puddles. It's like an unofficial holiday in Hollywood, with stores nearest the Kodak Theatre closed (they're inaccessible to the public, and the stars don't need to shop for T-shirts, pricey cosmetics and faux Oscars), parties planned and security guards at every intersection and then some.

By Sunday afternoon, the outdoor set for the Academy Awards had been dressed. Almost all of the protective plastic, stretched across the entrance in anticipation of rain, had been stripped away. The red carpet had been vacuumed, the bleachers festooned with red fabric and the low boxwoods accented with trays of fresh flowers -- cyclamen, Gerbera daisies and more.

The bleacher creatures, the bleacher seat-fillers (who get box lunches and share the space with some of the press), photographers and reporters were in place when one of the first power couples came out to greet the fans: Beyonce and Jay-Z. As they took the lap around the carpet, older couples quietly and slowly wandered inside. No one knew who they were and no one much cared.

	Amy Sancetta, Associated Press When Beyonce and Jay-Z arrived, they created little stir. Click photo for larger image.

Wolfgang Puck, who was overseeing the lavish meal at the Governors Ball, tossed some chocolate coins dusted with golden tones into the crowd. Gil Cates, the veteran producer handling the duties again this year, was already in his tuxedo and wished fans a great time, as if he were the host of a grand party. Which, in a way, he was.

In person, a platinum-haired Kirsten Dunst and Natalie Portman could qualify as waifs, they're so petite. Portman said she was "freezing," a sentiment shared by the folks in the bleachers by 4:30 p.m. True, it wasn't raining, but some of the bleachers were in the shade and the temperature was dropping by the minute.

Antonio Banderas, escorting his wife, Melanie Griffith, pleaded time constraints, not even stopping for the Spanish-speaking press. Presenter Sean Combs caused a stir and the parade just kept on coming: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Virginia Madsen, Frances Fisher and her daughter by Eastwood, Don Cheadle and Orlando Bloom, his hair dark once more and curling above his collar.

Few stars matched the reaction sparked by Leonardo DiCaprio, looking dapper in a very old-school, old-Hollywood way, who cruised the carpet with his girlfriend, a very tan Gisele Bundchen in a flowing white gown. DiCaprio made a point of telling Army Archerd, who has his own piece of red carpet real estate for interviews, that he had arrived in a hybrid car.

Also strolling down the carpet were Oscar nominee and "Hotel Rwanda" co-screenwriter Keir Pearson and his wife, the former Jackie Connelly of Pittsburgh. Pearson said it was a little surreal to go from watching the fishbowl to being inside the fishbowl that is the Oscar experience.

His wife, wearing an ivory gown, pearl and diamond earrings and with fresh orchids tucked into the back of her hair, said her in-laws were watching their daughters. The Pearsons have two young girls, and while they don't understand the international weight of the event, the older one "knows we're going to the Oscars and Daddy might bring home a trophy," Jackie said on the way into the ceremony. In the end, the Oscar went to "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

They had a long night in front of them, with the actual 77th annual Academy Awards being just the start. They planned to attend the Governors Ball, Vanity Fair, Elton John and Amnesty International parties. Back in Pittsburgh, Jackie's mother, Eileen Connelly, was planning her own Oscar party with one movie in mind: "Hotel Rwanda."

And in Hollywood, the kings and queens of the entertainment press are as famous as -- if not more famous than -- than the subjects they cover. While reviewers are often no fans of Joan and Melissa Rivers, their appearance sent up cries of approval. "Entertainment Tonight" co-host Mary Hart, wearing a green Richard Tyler gown, cheerily described what was tucked into her purse and let the lookie-loos stare at the $6.6 million in canary diamonds she was wearing. On loan from Harry Winston, they looked as if they were worth every million.

Prophetic

A two-page spread in Sunday's Los Angeles Times was devoted to New Yorker Martin Scor-sese. A pullout quote proved to be telling: "As far as the politics, war strategy ... the climate in Hollywood, the temperature, I have no idea. Even when I was living there, I had no idea." The temperature, it turned out, was set to Clint.

Bird in the hand

Brad Bird, award winner for "The Incredibles," could have been speaking for moviegoers everywhere when asked about a "state of the cinema" talk he will be delivering in San Francisco.

"The one thing that I really miss myself, as a moviegoer, is single-screen movie theaters, where the whole experience of going to the movie was a little more grand. ... The communal experience of being in the cathedral of a movie theater is also at the heart of what makes a movie great."

Odd couple

After accepting his honorary Oscar, Sidney Lumet gave a shout out to -- of all people -- Vin Diesel, star of his next movie tentatively called "Jackie Dee."

Backstage, Lumet said, "He's one of the best actors I've ever worked with. It's an interesting thing that develops about how we get blinded by the way people become stars. Being an actor, as you may have gathered, is a rather desperate occupation, and you try to make it work for you, whichever way you can."

Lumet called Diesel "a glorious actor ... beautifully prepared technically, knows what he's doing." And then he said he didn't want to oversell Diesel but hoped critics would be wonderfully surprised when the movie opens.

Asked what the secret to movie success is, Lumet said: "I don't know. And I'll tell you something else, I don't think anybody else does. And anybody who says they do is faking. As far as I know, the only man who was consistently able to make pictures that made money was Walt Disney," and even he ran into some trouble and branched into TV.