By Paul Palazzolo

The 76th Academy Awards

Lord of The Rings, the conclusion of the trilogy, won an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards Sunday night. The number of wins tied the record with Ben Hur and Titanic.

The trilogy’s first two parts won a total of six Academy Awards, but voters took this opportunity as the last chance to capture this movie as one of the all-time greatest. Lord of The Rings attained the most treasured awards including Best Picture, Best Achieving in Directing and Best Achievement in Sound.

Other Academy Awards went to underdog actors and actresses. Sean Penn, who has been known as the bad boy in Dead Man Walking, I Am Sam and Sweet and Lowdown, won his firsMystic River.

The surprise of the night was Charlize Theron winning the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for her incredible performance of Aileen Wuornos in Monster. Renee Zellweger won her first Oscar by her amazing performance in Cold Mountain.

The Other Award Show

The awards show that “celebrates” Tinseltown’s worst achievements in film, the Razzies, occurred on Saturday.

The largest debacle this year in Hollywood, Gigli, had disappointing box-office results with eighth and 18th place during its short tenure, was the “winner” of six Razzie awards.

The “wins” are from Worst Picture with producers Martin Brest and Casey Silver, Worst Actor with Ben Affleck, Worst Actress with Jennifer Lopez, Worst Screen Couple with Affleck and Lopez, Worst Screenplay and Worst Director with Brest.

Other “winners” include Sylvester Stallone in the worst Supporting Actor category. His record tenth Razzie “win” was caused by his performance in Spy Kids 3-D. Demi Moore was supposed to use Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle as her launching pad, but movie-goers want to keep her grounded by awarding her with Worst Supporting Actress. The fiasco From Justin To Kellyearned the Governor’s Award for Distinguished Under-Acheivement in Choreography for Travis Payne.