As is the burden of the Oscar winner, Christoph Waltz was being peppered in the press room with questions and Academy Awards trivia: He'd just won his second statuette in three years, one reporter told the actor; David Arquette was 41 and had never won once, another reporter informed him.
Um, come again on that last one?
As it turns out, the "another reporter" was actually the Scream star himself.
Arquette, clad in a black tux, and looking not unlike the other male reporters in black tuxes, told us he was here covering the 85th Annual Academy Awards, journalist-style, for Sirius Satellite Radio.
Asked if there was a Howard Stern connection—Arquette's been a famous Stern guest, and Stern is Siruius' main star—Arquette admitted there was, but, he added, he was trying to keep things respectful.
Waltz, for one, didn't seem fazed by Arquette's question about his thoughts on a black pope.
By contrast, Waltz seemed very fazed by his latest Oscar win.
"How do you think you feel when someone someone's name is called in that context," Waltz told the press room. "I can't tell you. Sorry."
Referring to his newly minuted statuette, the overwhelmed-sounding Waltz added, "This is about seven minutes old."
Waltz, who name-checked Robert De Niro and others in his acceptance speech, kept right on name-checking the Raging Bull legend backstage.
"I am in awe of the people who are in my category.…That's why I keep mentioning them," Waltz said. "Robert De Niro and Alan Arkin are role models for me since i started "
As for Arquette, he got in a second question to Animated Short Film winner John Kahrs (Paperman), during which he outed himself to the press room, and told us he intended to stick it out with the fourth estate all night along, provided the Oscar police didn't "kick me out."