Backstage At The Oscars Glamorous Stars And Gracious Winners Combined For A Stunning Evening Of Entertainment

For Helen Hunt it was a day - and a night - when her blossoming movie career and blooming TV career came together.

Earlier in the day she announced she’ll return next season for another year of her hit NBC sitcom “Mad About You.” She’ll reportedly earn about $1 million per episode. In the evening, she won best actress honors for “As Good As It Gets.”

Backstage, Hunt said that her movie and TV career complement each other, noting that she currently has three movies in development with Sony and also hopes to work with director James L. Brooks again.

“I feel very lucky that I get a chance to choose,” she said, noting that in the past, TV actors were virtually “blacklisted” from being considered for an Oscar. “I think (the industry) is finally changing.”

Hunt said her experience making “As Good as It Gets” with Brooks, Jack Nicholson and Greg Kinnear was “thrilling and fun and brutal and hard. The movie was in search of itself the whole time. Certainly it was a one-of-a-kind experience.”

Asked to compare her Oscar with the Emmys she has won, Hunt joked: “Thinner? Without wings. I don’t know how to compare them. They are two projects close to my heart.”

Basinger not rushing to next project

Hard as it is to believe - on the heels of a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild nod and now the Oscar - supporting actress Kim Basinger still doesn’t have her next film lined up. “I’ve been very spoiled by ‘L.A. Confidential,”’ she said. “It’s taking me a whole year to decide what to do.”

That’s hardly surprising, given where the actress stood a few years ago after losing a $9 million lawsuit for pulling out of indie film “Boxing Helena” at the last minute. But she denied that her sabbatical from the screen had anything to do with deciding not to act. “It’s funny, this word ‘comeback,”’ she said. “I left to have a baby.”

In picking up her Oscar, Basinger said it was for her dad. “My father was my very first acting teacher. I’m from Athens, Ga., and I used to spend many nights on the floor watching (old) movies, and my father would question me from time to time…. By the time I left home…I had a pretty good background in film because of him.”

Asked if the best things in a woman’s life come after age 39, Basinger said, “For me, obviously (they did). Look at this (Oscar) and my baby. (‘The Tonight Show’ host) Jay Leno told me something very funny: He told me there has never been a genius born whose mother was not over 40. I think he’s a genius - his mother was over 40 when she had him.”

Williams serious side wins

As soon as he came backstage, Robin Williams gave the press as good as he got. “229! 223! 117!” he shrieked, teasing them about the paddles they were waving for his attention, as if at an auction.

On this night, he could be forgiven for recycling a gag he tried out at the recent SAG Awards. From that point, it was jokes all the way. Asked which of his Oscar-nominated performances he most believed he should have won for, Williams said “Good Will Hunting.” “The other ones were just foreplay,” he quipped.

Did his background as a comedian prove a drawback in his serious acting? “I was trained as an actor,” he said. “It’s not like they have to medicate me. Basically (the challenge) was to find the very painful (aspects) of a character who had lost his wife and shut down for a couple of years. Once you throttle someone (as his character does to Matt Damon’s), that’s not therapy - unless it’s in the WWF,” he said, referring to the pro wrestling organization.

Nicholson happy to be on top

After the SAG Awards, the Golden Globes and a litany of critics picks, Jack Nicholson, who won the best actor statuette for “As Good as It Gets,” was happy to be done with awards ceremonies but glad to come out on top with the big one, the Academy Award.

“You feel like you’re running for office and you feel like you want to win,” he said. “I lost about three quarts of water up until they mentioned my name.”

Until the end, Nicholson said, he had no clue whether he would snag his third Oscar. “Well, I guess a lot of times you know if you are going to win or not, but this time, I really didn’t know.”

Asked how he felt about becoming only the third performer to win three Oscars, he said: “Welcome to the ‘90s. I like a career that covers three decades. One in the ‘70s, one in the ‘80s and one in the ‘90s.” Regarding prospects for his next picture, Nicholson gave the tongue-in-cheek reply, “(It’s) peaks and valleys. I’ll put a real tanker up there next.”

Ben and Matt; Matt and Ben

Golden boys Ben Affleck and Matt Damon made it clear that their collaboration on the Oscar-winning original screenplay for “Good Will Hunting” will not be their last writing project together.

“Not only do we plan on it but we are contracted to do it,” Damon said. “Have you ever worked with (Miramax Films co-chairman) Harvey Weinstein? You never (do only) one.” Added Affleck jokingly: “You sign for one and end up doing nine at $5 apiece.”

In a final word, Damon ribbed a reporter who asked which award he wanted more - best actor (which he lost) or best screenplay. “I’ve never even been here before. I didn’t care.”

‘L.A. Confidential’ writer not disappointed

“L.A. Confidential” was a critical favorite but came away with only two awards on Oscar night - Kim Basinger for best supporting actress and Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland for best adapted screenplay. Asked if that was disappointing, Hanson cited wise - unheeded - advice from an industry great.

“I read Frank Capra’s autobiography (from) 1939,” he said. “The lesson he learned was don’t make your best picture the year that ‘Gone With the Wind’ comes out.”

Most original acceptance speech

In much the same way his films’ great musical moments could stop an audience in its tracks, director-producer-choreographer Stanley Donen’s song and dance to a version of Broadway standard “Heaven” was a standout Oscar moment.

“It was difficult to come up with what I wanted to do,” said Donen, who received an honorary Oscar for his work on films such as “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “Charade.” “I didn’t want to do something boring and list a (bunch of people). I figured I’d sing and dance since I’ve done a little bit of that before.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ABC SCORES WITH OSCARS It was a titanic night for ABC, too. With an estimated 87 million people in the United States tuning in to all or some of the Academy Awards Monday night, ABC said it was the most-watched Oscar telecast of all time in the United States. “That’s an astonishing number,” ABC spokeswoman Susan Sewell said. The show scored a 40.5 rating and 60 share in Nielsen Media Research’s overnight measurement from 38 major markets. It is expected to be the top Oscar telecast in ratings since 1983, when “Gandhi” was named best picture.