Perry White, blustery editor of the Daily Planet, proclaims in "Superman Returns" that "Pulitzer Prizes are like Academy Awards. No one remembers what you got one for."
Good thing Lex Luthor wasn't in the room. Playing egomaniacal villain Lex is Kevin Spacey, the latest in a venerable line of Oscar recipients who have gone slumming in comic-book adaptations.
Starting with 1978's "Superman," virtually every major superhero franchise has made the leap from comics to big-screen with at least one Oscar winner on board.
For their "Superman," director Richard Donner and producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind persuaded two-time Oscar winner Marlon Brando ("On the Waterfront," "The Godfather") to wear snow-white hair as Superman's dad and best-actor winner Gene Hackman ("The French Connection") to go bald as villain Lex Luthor.
"You've got to credit Donner, the Salkinds, all those people who said `Superman,' a comic-book movie, can be an epic," said "Superman Returns" director Bryan Singer, who also cast Oscar recipient Anna Paquin ("The Piano") and future winner Halle Berry ("Monster's Ball") as mutant heroes in "X-Men." "They really deserve the credit for credibilizing comic-book movies."
Since then, superheroes have turned up alongside a parade of Oscar winners. Jack Nicholson ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Terms of Endearment") played the Joker in "Batman." Its sequel, "Batman Returns," co-starred Christopher Walken ("The Deer Hunter"). The second sequel, "Batman Forever," featured Tommy Lee Jones ("The Fugitive").
Last year's revival, "Batman Begins," had two-time winner Michael Caine ("Hannah and her Sisters," "The Cider House Rules") and Morgan Freeman ("Million Dollar Baby").
"Dick Tracy" featured three Oscar winners _ Warren Beatty (best director for "Reds"), Dustin Hoffman ("Kramer vs. Kramer," "Rain Man") and Estelle Parsons ("Bonnie and Clyde") _ plus two co-stars who would win Oscars shortly after, Al Pacino ("Scent of a Woman") and Kathy Bates ("Misery").
"Hulk" had Jennifer Connelly ("A Beautiful Mind"), "Spider-Man" had Cliff Robertson ("Charly") and the "Batman" spinoff "Catwoman" came the year after Berry won best actress for "Monster's Ball."
Though "Catwoman" flopped, Berry said making the movie was as enjoyable as any other and that she does not let the Oscar win limit her choice of roles.
"I haven't taken it all that seriously. It was a great night, a great moment, nobody takes it away, but I didn't get that great moment and receive that statue operating my career with any standard people try to put on me," Berry said. "I got it by being free enough to make individual choices, being free enough to take chances and risks, being free enough to organically choose what moves me as an artist."
"X-Men" co-star Paquin agreed. Just 11 when she won the supporting-actress prize for "The Piano," Paquin said the Oscar never has dictated what characters she plays.
"I think it's pretty safe to say there's nothing terribly conventional about my career. I mean, generally the Oscar bit doesn't usually happen to small children or people who have never acted before," Paquin said. "So as far as people having some kind of preconceived notion as to what exactly you're supposed to do and how you're supposed to do it, I just kind of have to say I'm doing it my own way.
Batman himself eventually won an Oscar. George Clooney, who starred as the Dark Knight in "Batman & Robin," won the supporting-actor prize for last year's "Syriana." Other co-stars in "Batman" movies who went on to earn Oscars were Nicole Kidman ("The Hours"), Kim Basinger ("L.A. Confidential") and Jack Palance ("City Slickers").
"Superman Returns" technically has three Oscar winners. Besides Spacey, it features Eva Marie Saint as Martha Kent, Superman's adoptive mother, and archival footage of Brando as the hero's biological father, Jor-El. Saint won the supporting-actress Oscar opposite Brando in "On the Waterfront."
Fresh off his early '70s career revival with "The Godfather" and "Last Tango in Paris," Brando signed on for "Superman" and raised eyebrows among film snobs.
"Oh, pooh on them. He was so good in that role," Saint said. "An actor acts, an actor works. That's what I do, and I continue to do it because I love it. ... If something comes along that's exciting, you do it, and this was exciting. It's fun. My grandchildren think it's cool."
Spacey, who won Oscars for "American Beauty" and director Singer's "The Usual Suspects," said "Superman Returns" finally gave him the opportunity to work with Brando. The film features a sequence where Spacey's Lex interacts with a recording Brando's Jor-El left for Superman.
On the set, Spacey only had audio of Brando's performance to work with, the filmmakers inserting images of Jor-El later. Still, it was an unexpected opportunity for Spacey to share a moment with a screen legend, one double Oscar winner to another.
"Just the whole idea of being able to do a scene with Brando was pretty flabbergasting, because you know, I'd waited my whole life to work with Brando," Spacey said. "For me, it was just a gas."