Best Oscar Scandal Goes To ...

By Rebecca Winters

The ending of Million Dollar Baby has conservatives and some advocacy groups campaigning against CLINT EASTWOOD'S film, which is up for seven trophies. Will the dustup hurt it? Oscars' past may tell us.

A BEAUTIFUL MIND

Good news, Dirty Harry. In spite of complaints, it omitted unsavory details about its mathematician subject, played by RUSSELL CROWE. Mind won Best Picture for 2001, as Oscar voters rallied around another old-school director--Ron Howard.

AMISTAD

Timing matters. Steven Spielberg's 1997 slave-revolt tale got shut out amid plagiarism charges. The suit was dropped, but not in time for ANTHONY HOPKINS or DJIMON HOUNSOU to take home a statue.

THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT

When a liberal condemns you, Hollywood listens. Even with early critical buzz, WOODY HARRELSON'S Oscar chances took a dive when Gloria Steinem lambasted the 1996 Milos Forman film for canonizing a pornographer.