Sex scene needed to clinch Oscar: expert

By ANNE BESTON and AGENCIES

It seems that all Russell Crowe really had to do to carry off the coveted Best Actor Oscar today was get his gear off.

According to the respected Entertainment Weekly's Oscar commentator Justine Elias, a steamy sex scene between Crowe's Maximus and Lucilla (Connie Nielson) in the blockbuster movie Gladiator would have clinched it for the New Zealand-born star.

The Academy Awards will be announced this afternoon.

Major studios have plastered the usual giant vote-persuading billboards around Tinseltown to attract the attention of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' 5722 members.

Some estimates put the spending on advertising as high as $US50 million ($120 million).

Movie magazines have run full-page ads in the lead-up to the awards with Crowe splashed across the cover of the industry bible, Variety.

Beneath the words "For Your Consideration" is a picture of Crowe as Maximus, complete with sword, short skirt and smouldering gaze.

Most critics are picking Crowe to win. Los Angeles Times critics Kenneth Turan and Kevin Thomas are picking Crowe for the Best Actor Oscar, but are split on Best Picture between Gladiator and Traffic.

The Oscar race with an Antipodean flavour has encouraged Australian punters to place $100,000 on the Best Actor race with Alice Springs-based online betting shop Centrebet.

Crowe is odds-on favourite at $A1.65 ($1.96). Fellow nominee Tom Hanks is on $A2.50.

New Zealanders have put about $18,000 on the Best Actor race with Centrebet - one Kiwi punter putting $A1500 on Crowe.

Centrebet sports betting manager Gerard Daffy said Crowe's nomination had seen an increase in betting on the awards this year.

"We've found a lot of people have put money on it this year who have never bet on it before."

In the United States, betting on the Oscar race is illegal in some states, but that has not stopped bookies from giving the odds for fun.

Johnny Avello, director of race and sports at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas, puts Crowe at two-to-one odds to beat Hanks, who is on three-to-one.

Crowe is also out in front with Las Vegas odds-maker Lenny Del Genio, who has been handicapping the Academy Awards for more than 25 years.

Gladiator is the picture to beat, says Del Genio.

If Crowe loses to Hanks, a two-time Oscar winner, it will be the first time an actor has won the golden statuette three times.

The Best Actor race was shaping up yesterday with Geoffrey Rush, an Australian, in third place for his role in Quills. Centrebet had Rush on $A11 to win.

One reason Crowe could be chosen this year is his failure to win for his part in last year's The Insider.

Then there is the old-fashioned heroism of Crowe's Maximus. Academy voters are notorious for harbouring a soft spot for stirring, straightforward notions of heroism (think Braveheart, Ben Hur).

Maximus is not only tough but loyal to his family.

That could offset what some say is Crowe's reputation as the new bad boy of Hollywood.

Some think his dalliance with married co-star Meg Ryan during the making of Proof of Life hurt his chances of respectability.

But as the stars walk through the barrage of cameras, screaming fans and comedians posing as stalkers, the most interesting game might be trying to figure out which of those guys in a tuxedo has been hired as a bodyguard.

After a plot to kidnap Crowe was revealed this month, the FBI could have nine agents shadowing the star.