Halle Berry was a good winner. She might be an even better loser.
Berry checked her ego at the door at the 25th Annual Razzie Awards, showing up Saturday in Hollywood to personally accept a spray-painted golf ball dishonoring her work as Worst Actress in Catwoman.
"I want to thank Warner Bros. for casting me in this piece of [excrement]," Berry told the audience.
Berry's speech mocked her teary Oscar thank-yous from 2002 when she was honored as Best Actress for Monster's Ball.
"I'd like to thank the rest of the cast--to give a really bad performance like mine you need to have really bad actors," she said.
Indeed, Berry, who took the stage at the Ivar Theatre with her Academy Award in one hand, the Golden Raspberry in the other and her agent in tow, had company in Razzie hell. Catwoman was one of the night's big winners, as it were, taking four awards, including the ultimate dis, Worst Picture.
The other big "winner" was Fahrenheit 9/11, which also claimed four Razzies. Michael Moore's popular and polemic documentary on President Bush and post-9/11 politics was not itself ridiculed. Voting members of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation, a consortium of 675 dues-paying film buffs from around the world, reserved their scorn for the featured talking heads.
To wit, President Bush was named Worst Actor; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Worst Supporting Actor; and Britney Spears, seen in a brief clip voicing support for the President, Worst Supporting Actress. Bush scored a second Razzie win for Worst Screen Couple category, a needling shared with now Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the titular hero of the children's book My Pet Goat.
The White House contingent did not attend the Razzies ceremony. Aside from Berry, neither did any of the other scorned winners, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, named Worst Razzie Loser of Our First 25 Years for his knack of racking up nominations (eight in all), but never quite converting them to wins. Until now, that is.
As one might expect, star appearances at the Razzies are rare. The last name act to take his medicine--and his golf ball--in person was Freddy Got Fingered's Tom Green, proving himself a better sport than filmmaker in 2002.
Berry's act of bravery was the product of her upbringing, she told the audience. "When I was a kid, my mother told me that if you could not be a good loser," she said, according to the Associated Press, "then there's no way you could be a good winner."
The failed feline heroine bounces back Sunday as a scheduled presenter at the 77th Annual Academy Awards.
Good egg or no, Berry said she has no intention of becoming a Razzies regular. Quipped the actress, per the AP: "I hope to God I never see these people again!"
Here's a complete look at the razzed winners of the 25th annual Razzie Awards:
Worst Picture: Catwoman
Worst Actor in a Leading Role: President Bush, Fahrenheit 9/11
Worst Actress in a Leading Role: Halle Berry, Catwoman
Worst Supporting Actor: Donald Rumsfeld, Fahrenheit 9/11
Worst Supporting Actress: Britney Spears, Fahrenheit 9/11
Worst Screen Couple: President Bush and either Condoleezza Rice or his pet goat, Fahrenheit 9/11
Worst Remake or Sequel: Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Worst Director: Pitof, Catwoman
Worst Screenplay: Catwoman
Worst Razzie Loser of Our First 25 Years: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Worst Musical of Our First 25 Years: From Justin to Kelly (2003)
Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Years: Gigli (2003)
Worst Drama of Our First 25 Years: Battlefield Earth (2000)