E-Paper
Angelina & Thurman join Oscars cast
Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts, and winner Angelina Jolie and Uma Thurman will join the star-studded cast of Academy Award presenters
Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts, Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie and
Pulp Fiction
star Uma Thurman will join the star-studded cast of Academy Award presenters this weekend, organisers said Tuesday.
Also handing out Hollywood's most coveted trinkets will another of this year's nominees, best director contender Sofia Coppola, up for her comedy Lost in Translation, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said.
Australian Watts, 35, up for a best actress Oscar for the death-themed drama 21 Grams this year, will be making her first appearance at the Oscars show as she become a hot Hollywood property.
The girlfriend of fellow Aussie star Heath Ledger, Watts had roles in 2002's The Ring and David Lynch's dark 2001 drama Mulholland Drive. She joins second-generation Hollywood star and Lara Croft Tomb Raider actress Jolie, the daughter of actor Jon Voight, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for 1999's Girl, Interrupted in this year's line-up.
Thurman, nominated for her role in off-beat filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's 1999 hit Pulp Fiction, will be making her fourth appearance as an Oscars presenter. Tinseltown royalty Coppola, 32, the daughter of Godfather filmmaking legend Francis Ford Coppola, is the first US woman to win a best director's nomination for her gentle cross-cultural comedy filmed in Japan and starring Bill Murray.
The quartet will be handing out Oscars with a veritable who's who list of stars and filmmakers at Sunday's 76th annual Academy Awards show. Other presenters already announced include Thurman's Pulp Fiction co-star John Travolta, best supporting actor nominee and political activist Tim Robbins, his partner Susan Sarandon and Miss Congeniality star Sandra Bullock.
Also handing out "golden guys" on cinema's biggest night are megastars Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger, Julianne Moore, 2004 best actress front-runner hopeful Charlize Theron.
Previous Oscar winner Robin Williams, fellow funnyman Jim Carrey and Britain's Jude Law, nominated this year for best actor in Cold Mountain, will also do turns on stage. ET and Raiders of the Lost Ark director Steven Spielberg, double Oscar-winner Tom Hanks, the star of 1993's Philadelphia and 1994's Forrest Gump, irreverent Irish star Colin Farrell and comedians Will Ferrell and Black Jack will also appear.
The 2002 best-actor Oscar winner Will Smith and US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey will also do turns. Nominations for the 76th-annual Academy Awards were unveiled earlier this month and will be handed out at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
