10) My Cousin Vinny's Marisa Tomei, supporting actress, 1992 - Lore has it the only reason Tomei beat out Joan Plowright, Judy Davis, Vanessa Redgrave and Miranda Richardson was because Jack Palance read the wrong name. Alas, that rumor is false.

9) Crash over Brokeback Mountain, best picture, '05 - We were naive to think that a beautifully told, tragic romance about gay sheepherders could win. You could almost hear the reaction echoing through the hills: What's Crash

8) Mighty Aphrodite's Mira Sorvino, supporting actress, '95 - Can you say, "Somebody up there likes me" There's no explanation for Sorvino's win as an airheaded, helium-voiced hooker. Not against the likes of Kate Winslet and others.

7) The Greatest Show on Earth, '52 - Worst best pic ever Maybe not, but stand Cecil B. DeMille's all-star circus extravaganza against Fred Zinneman's High Noon and John Ford's The Quiet Man and the glitz looks tacky.

6) My Fair Lady, best picture - By '64 the world had changed but the Academy hadn't. How else to explain how a drag show like My Fair Lady (starring a miscast Audrey Hepburn) could beat the brilliant satire of Dr. Strangelove

5) Dances with Wolves, best picture, '90 - It's not like Martin Scorsese hadn't gotten the shaft before. Ordinary People's win over Raging Bull is legendary. But losing to Costner (who TKO'd Marty and Coppola) had to hurt.

4) Going My Way's Leo McCarey, best director, '44 - Not because McCarey was bad - he earned his win for The Awful Truth - but because he bested Hitchcock (Lifeboat), Preminger (Laura) and Wilder (Double Indemnity).

3) The Pianist's Adrien Brody, best actor, '02 - It looked like a shoo-in: Two-time winner Jack Nicholson playing an aging widower in the bittersweet About Schmidt. Instead, the Oscar went to the youngest (28) ever to win best actor.

2) Hustle & Flow's "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," best song, 2005 - The idea that Three 6 Mafia's hip-hop celebration of sex trafficking - complete with Oscarcast-unfriendly lyrics - could win was just plain unthinkable.

1) Helen Hunt, best actress, '97 - It was Judi Dench as Queen Vic, Julie Christie in Afterglow, Helena Bonham Carter doing Henry James and Kate Winslet hauling the Titanic from the depths of cliche vs. Hunt as a plucky mom. Take that, RADA grads!