SCREEN TEST

Economies around the globe are melting down. The U.S. is embroiled in multiple armed conflicts with no easy exits. So who cares what five Oscar winners have played superheroes in their careers? Chances are, you do. That’s why you’re reading this. Test your Oscar nerdiness with the questions below. So what if you can’t resolve global conflict and the unemployment rate, at least you’ll know which Oscar winners double-dipped as a -- costumed crime fighter.

-- Michael Ordona

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BEST PICTURE (PART I)

1. In what years were the most films

nominated for best picture?

2. What is the only film to win best

picture with no other nominations?

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ACTORS & ACTRESSES

3. Who won/has won more competitive

acting Oscars: Richard Burton,

Charlton Heston, James Mason,

Peter O’Toole or Ronald Reagan?

4. Halle Berry is the only African American

woman to win lead actress so far.

Who is the only African woman to do so?

5. What is the only character to win

an Oscar for two different actors?

6. Name an actress who won for

playing a male character.

7. Name two Oscar winners who

played James Bond, two who played Bond villains, and one who played a Bond girl.

8. Name five Oscar winners who

have played a total of six

comic-book superheroes.

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DIRECTORS, WRITERS & OTHER ICONS

9. Who is the only person to be nominated more than 10 times for directing?

10. Who has won more times for

directing: Robert Altman, Mel Gibson,

Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa

or Orson Welles?

11. Which of these pop music

superstars does not have an

Oscar for original song: Phil Collins,

Bob Dylan, Prince, Lionel Richie,

Bruce Springsteen or Stevie Wonder?

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BEST PICTURE (PART II)

12. Name the only film to be nominated for more than 10 awards and win them all.

13. Only three films have swept the

top five categories -- best picture, director, screenplay (original or adapted), actor and actress. What were they?

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ANSWERS

1. In 1934 and 1935 there were 12 nominees each year, including “The Gay Divorcee.” The winners, respectively, were “It Happened One Night” and “Mutiny on the Bounty.” For the next several years, there were 10 nominees.

2. “Grand Hotel” (1931-1932).

3. Charlton Heston (1) won for “Ben-Hur” (1959). Burton, Mason and, so far, O’Toole never won competitive Oscars.

4. Charlize Theron (“Monster,” 2002) is from South Africa.

5. Vito Corleone (“The Godfather,” 1972, Marlon Brando; “The Godfather Part II,” 1974, Robert DeNiro).

6. Linda Hunt (“The Year of Living Dangerously,” 1983). Hilary Swank’s “Boys Don’t Cry” (1999) character was a pre-op transsexual, biologically female. Gwyneth Paltrow in “Shakespeare in Love,” (1998) played a woman playing a man.

7. Sean Connery, of course, and David Niven (Sir James Bond in “Casino Royale,” 1967); Christopher Walken (Max Zorin, “A View to a Kill,” 1985) and Orson Welles (won as a screenwriter and played Le Chiffre in “Casino Royale,” 1967); and Halle Berry (Jinx, “Die Another Day,” 2002) . . . we don’t count Judi Dench (as Bond’s superior, M) as a Bond girl.

8. George Clooney (Batman), Halle Berry (Storm, of the X-Men; also Catwoman), Anna Paquin (Rogue, of the X-Men), Nicolas Cage (Ghost Rider) and Ben Affleck (Daredevil -- we didn’t say they had to win for acting).

9. William Wyler (12 noms, three wins).

10. Mel Gibson (1, for “Braveheart”). The others never won a competitive directing Oscar.

11. Prince. This one’s a cheat: He won the rarely awarded Song Score trophy for “Purple Rain,” not for an individual song. And no, “When Doves Cry” wasn’t even nominated.

12. “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003) went 11-for-11. The most-nominated films, “All About Eve” and “Titanic,” each received 14 nods but won six and 11, respectively.

13. “It Happened One Night” (1934), “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991).

SCORING 11-13 right: You are a Titanic success. | 6-10: You know All About Eve but not so much about Oscar.| 1-5: You’re seeing red, or at least The Color Purple. 0: Why are you even reading this?