by Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood awoke to a day of reckoning on Monday after making history at the Oscars with two black actors, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington, taking the top awards and shattering race barriers.
A Beautiful Mind, a movie that explores the line between genius and mental illness, claimed three top Oscars including best picture, best director for Ron Howard and best supporting actress for Jennifer Connelly.
Whoopi Goldberg's hosting performance proved tame compared to her last Oscars outing in 1999, and fashion -- despite a talk of a return to glitz -- turned to subdued colors and classic black.
But history was made nonetheless as, for the first time in Oscar's 74 years, two black performers earned the top acting awards -- leaving Tinseltown wondering if race barriers had fallen for good or for one night only. Feelings among the winners were mixed.
Washington won his Oscar, Hollywood's top film honor, playing a street-wise and corrupt cop in Training Day, while Berry nabbed her prize portraying a down-and-out waitress who, out of frustration, seeks solace in the arms of a white man.
The 47-year-old Washington, a sentimental favorite, was asked if the history-making awards highlighted Hollywood's persistent racial prejudice. He said he thought of singer/songwriter Randy Newman, who finally won an Oscar for original music score Sunday after 15 nominations.
"Sixteen times," Washington said. "What would he say on his 15th time when he lost, was that racism?"
"There's been a lot of talk about race ... this is an award to an actor," he added.
Berry, 33, however, said she "never thought it would be possible in my lifetime" to see a black woman holding the best actress statuette. But she added that she did not want Hollywood to suddenly turn colorblind to different races.
"I hope this means they won't not see our color. That's what makes us so unique," Berry said.
Sidney Poitier had a different outlook. In 1964, he became the first black actor to win a best actor Oscar for the previous year's Lilies of the Field, and he was on hand at to receive an honorary Oscar for more than 50 years of film work.
"To speak of Hollywood as if there has not been change is unfair. You can question the pace of it. You can even question how long it will last. But you ought to, at first ... take note of the fact that there has been change."
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) agreed, hailing the awards to Berry and Washington as "a sign that Hollywood is finally ready to give opportunity and judge performance based on skill and not skin color."
"However, if this proves to be a momentary flash in a long history of neglect, then Hollywood has failed to learn the real meaning of equality."
The change that has already taken place in Hollywood was on view from the start of the show -- which was hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, herself an Oscar winner for best supporting actress in 1991's Ghost.
This year, however, her humor was tame compared to 1999 when she regaled the audience with bawdy jokes about former U.S. President Clinton's sex life.
That's not to say she didn't have sex on the brain. She entered by gliding from the Kodak Theater's rafters, sitting on a trapeze bar in a showgirl outfit recalling Moulin Rouge, the wild musical that was one of the best picture nominees.
"Come and get me, boys," she yelled as she dangled above the heads of Hollywood's biggest heavyweights.
Goldberg commented on this year's negative Oscar campaigns run by the major studios. "So much mud has been thrown this year, all the nominees look black," she said.
She even joked about America moving on from the tragedy of the Sept. "America has suffered through a great national tragedy. But we have recovered -- Mariah Carey already has made another movie," she said, alluding to the pop diva's film, Glitter, a box office flop.
But in a final show of respect for the events of Sept. 11, Whoopi turned her back to the audience at the show's end to display the back of her gown adorned with the initials of various police and firefighter groups whose members lost their lives that day.
Much was made this year about a return to Hollywood-style glitz and glamour following Sept. 11 -- but for all the talk, most of the gowns showed less skin than the flesh-fests of previous years.
Some actresses dripped in diamonds, such as Nicole Kidman, with a 200-carat Bulgari necklace. Others wore pendants.
Berry proved to be the night's fashion winner in an A-lined, claret gown and sheer bodice with floral appliques strategically located. Jennifer Connelly, in a skin-toned strapless gown, and Gwyneth Paltrow in black gown and sheer bodice, however, landed in the "fashion don'ts" column.
"For a long time, girls in Hollywood have done sex. It has been an epidermis fest, shoulders, back, decolletage. (This year was) very feminine, pretty, soft. It wasn't harsh at all," said People magazine fashion critic Steven Cojocaru on NBC's morning television talk show, "Today".
He described Berry as "racy and sexy, yet elegant," but called Connelly's gown "a band aid" and said Paltrow's dress accentuated her caving posture.
"(There was a) lack of support," he said.
But there was no lack of excitement, or history, at this year's Oscars. Fashion will change, but Berry and Washington are in the history books, for good.
© 2002 Reuters