Oscarama!

And the winner is—
JoAnn Cooley!

Kaneohe woman claims
the Oscarama prize

By Burl Burlingame
Star-Bulletin

While anyone can hum that they wish they were an Oscar Mayer wiener, only four Honolulans can sing that they're Oscar money winners. Four, yes four, not only guessed right on every category but also predicted that "Titanic" would win the most awards with 11.

Picking the order of winners was more difficult, but we solved that by drafting a 12-year-old visitor, telling him to close his eyes, spin around and pick one by reaching out blindly. Sort of like pin the tail on the Oscar. Since there were four winners, we added a fourth place slot, and will send Charity Saludares of Waipahu a check for $50.

Third place, for $100, went to Kaiewa Masuda of Honolulu.

Second place, for $250, went to Ken Morita of Honolulu. "Very cool!" he said. Morita had only seen "Good Will Hunting" and "Titanic" of the major nominees, even though the hotel worker tries to go to the movies at least twice a month.

"I really liked 'Titanic,' " he said, and then insisted that the mushy stuff wasn't the major draw. "It spurred my interest in the history -- and the mystery -- of what happened to the Titanic."

First place -- envelope, please! -- and $500 goes to JoAnn Cooley of Kaneohe.

"I don't believe it!" said Cooley, and wasn't that Kim Basinger's line?

"What did I see? I saw 'Titanic' -- loved it! -- I saw 'Good Will Hunting' -- loved it! -- and 'As Good As It Gets' -- loved it! -- and 'L.A. Confidential.' Loved it too."

The secretary missed only "The Full Monty," and generally travels to Kahala to see movies. She's pleased that theaters are in the works for Kaneohe.

Given the near-guaranteed good showing of "Titanic," it's a good thing only four out of 2,412 legitimate ballots guessed right this year.

And several dozen ballots were received from the city prosecutor's office, faxed in during working hours. And you thought they were out taking depositions.

Pick of the litter

'Titanic' was far and away the top pick of our Oscarama entrants. Well, duh. But there were people who ventured to pick another film:

As Good As It Gets: 73
The Full Monty: 17
Good Will Hunting: 84
L.A. Confidential: 79
Titanic: 2,159
Total valid ballots: 2,412