Oscar FACTS: The Acting Awards

Before you boldly make your predictions, wait, read this....

Only a fool would think that acting is a walk in the park compared to a normal job. Okay, so these people get the pick of the women, the high quality cocaine and the best yachts in the business. But there is a downside. Some days they feel so stripped down and raw. They look from their huge tinted windows in their mansions to see four men with cameras loitering by their golden gates waiting for them to nip out for some semi-skimmed - they've never felt so abused. To get over the gruesome intrusion into their luxury lives they will have to send out their butler instead, and spend their time weeping by the pool. It's harsh.

Still, here's a perk: they get to go to the Oscars. And if it's a gong they're after, here's a few facts to sip your champagne to:

» Eleven of the last thirty Best Pictures have featured none of the award winning actors for that year (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress).

» Eight of the last thirty Best Actors have been the star of the Best Picture. Six of the last thirty Best Actresses have been in the best film.

» Only twice in the last thirty years have the Best Supporting Actor and Actress been in the same film (Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest, Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986; Jason Robards and Vanessa Redgrave, Julia, 1977).

» The Best Actor and Best Actress have been in the same films four times in the last thirty years (Jon Voight and Jane Fonda, Coming Home, 1978; Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn, On Golden Pond, 1981; Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, Silence of The Lambs, 1991; Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, As Good As It Gets, 1997).

» The Best Picture is most likely to be starring one of the Best Supporting members of the cast, with nine of the last thirty starring a Best Supporting Actor or Actresses.

» Only three times in the last ten years has a single film starred more than one award winner. The last time it happened was in 2003, when Sean Penn (Best Actor) and Tim Robbins (Best Supporting Actor) both did well in Mystic River.

» Only six actors in history have won both a Best Actor award and Best Supporting Actor - Jack Lemmon, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Gene Hackman, Kevin Spacey, and Denzel Washington. Phillip Seymour Hoffman will be vying to add himself to that list.

» Jack Nicholson is the most successful actor with three gongs - two for Best Actor (One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, 1975; As Good As It Gets, 1997) and one for Best Supporting Actor (Terms of Endearment, 1983)

» The youngest actor to pick up a major acting prize was 20-year-old Timothy Hutton, for Ordinary People in 1980. The youngest actress was 10 (Tatum O'Neal, Paper Moon, 1974).

» Two actors directed their own Oscar-winning performances: Laurence Olivier in Hamlet and Roberto Benigni in Life Is Beautiful. To date, however, no individual has won both Best Actor and Best Director.

» Seven men have won the Best Actor award twice - Spencer Tracy (1937, 1938), Fredric March (1932, 1946), Gary Cooper (1941, 1952), Marlon Brando (1954, 1972), Dustin Hoffman (1979, 1988), Tom Hanks (1993, 1994), and Jack Nicholson (1975, 1997).

» Only two actresses have won this award in consecutive years: Luise Rainer (1936 and 1937) and Katharine Hepburn (1967 and 1968).