Several upsets at Academy Award

[MIKE BURN]

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Moore's speech, and the reaction to it, was the exception. Many winners were full of laughter and surprise.



For most of its first two hours, the Oscars managed to pretty much avoid any mention of politics. But as the evening wore on, there were more references to the war in Iraq, with varying responses.



Michael Moore's acceptance speech, however, earned applause from some -- but hoots of derision from others.



Accompanied on stage by his fellow documentary nominees, Moore, who won best documentary feature for "Bowling for Columbine," wasted no time in lighting into President Bush, the 2000 election and the war in Iraq.



"I've invited my fellow documentary nominees on stage with us here in solidarity with me," he said, "because we like non-fiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man who's sending us to war for fictitious reasons, whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts. ... We have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. We are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you."



Moore expanded on his comments with the press backstage.



"I'm an American," he said. "You don't leave your citizenship behind when you enter the doors of the Kodak Theatre." He added that expressing opinions is "what I do. I do that in my filmmaking."



Asked what he thought of the catcalls, he said, "Don't report that there was a split decision in the hall because five loud people booed."



There was some protest activity outside the theater Sunday. Reuters reported a group of about 50 protesters at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine held signs saying, "One more American for peace" and "Bring U.S. soldiers home." At the opposite end of the street, a group supporting the troops waved American flags and had tied red, white and blue ribbons to the barricades.

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