George Bush, Halle Berry share worst film honors

LOS ANGELES - George W Bush won the "Razzie" worst actor of the year award on Saturday for his performance as US president in Fahrenheit 9/11.

Berry was named worst actress of 2004 by the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation for her performance in Catwoman and she showed up to accept her "Razzie" carrying the Oscar she won in 2002 for Monster's Ball.

"They can't take this away from me, it's got my name on it!" she quipped. A raucous crowd cheered her on as she gave a stirring recreation of her Academy Award acceptance speech, including tears.

She thanked everyone involved in Catwoman, a film she said took her from the top of her profession to the bottom.

"I want to thank Warner Brothers for casting me in this piece of shit," she said as she dragged her agent on stage and warned him "next time read the script first".

It is rare for a Razzie winner to show up at the spoof awards held on the night before Oscars -- but Berry did, saying her mother taught her that to be "a good winner you had to be a good loser first". She received a standing ovation.

Bush, beating such established Hollywood heroes as Colin Farrell and Vin Diesel, won the Razzie for worst actor of the year for his appearance in the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

Bush, two members of his administration, Britney Spears and the storybook about a goat that the president was reading to children as the September 11, 2001, attacks were taking place all took top honors at the "Razzie" awards, now in their 25th year.

Catwoman tied with Fahrenheit 9/11 by winning four "Razzies" -- worst picture, worst directing, worst screenplay and worst performance by an actress for Berry and her "berry bad" work.

John Wilson, founder of the nonprofit Golden Raspberry Award Foundation that gives out "Hollywood's least coveted trophies" said the anti-Bush documentary allowed the foundation's nearly 700 members to do some Bush bashing of their own.

The president not only was named worst male actor in a leading role, he also won for being half of the year's worst screen couple when paired with either Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or My Pet Goat, the book he was reading to schoolchildren on the morning of September 11.

Footage of Bush continuing to read after being given first word of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon was one of the key scenes in Michael Moore's highly critical film.

Two other "Fahrenheit" stars were "honoured". Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was named worst supporting actor and pop star Spears won for worst supporting actress for a clip in which she declared blind faith in Bush's policies while popping chewing gum.

Winners receive a golf ball-sized figure of a "Raspberry " atop a mangled Super 8 film reel that is spray-painted gold.

- REUTERS