THEY’RE WORKIN’ IT: Billy Crystal hams it up last night as host of the 84th Academy Awards at the Hollywood & Highland Center in LA, where “The Artist” stunner Bérénice Bejo (right), who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, dazzled on the red carpet in short hair and flowing gown. (Getty Images)
Moviegoers were at a loss for words last night as Oscar thumbed his nose at the year’s most popular films and gave the top honor to “The Artist,’’ a silent black-and-white film beloved by cinema snobs.
It was the first black-and-white silent movie to win Best Picture since 1929, when “Wings,’’ a film about World War I fighter pilots, won the big prize a few months before the stock market crashed.
Jean Dujardin won Best Actor for playing George Valentin, a silent-film star whose life changes when the film business switches to talking pictures and he becomes the rival of a gorgeous starlet.
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“If George Valentin could speak, he would say, ‘Merci beaucoup, I love you!’ ” the French Dujardin screamed on stage.
The film’s helmer, Michel Hazanavicius, was named Best Director.
Among those Hazanavicius thanked was the film’s scene-stealing Jack Russell terrier.
“I think he doesn’t care,” sniffed Hazanavicius. “He’s not that good, but thank you.”
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But it was Meryl Streep who stole the night, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.”
“When they called my name, I had this feeling I could hear half of America going, ‘Oh, no. Oh, come on, why her again?’ But whatever,” she said.
It was Streep’s third Oscar — and her 17th nomination.
Fan favorite Octavia Spencer took Best Supporting Actress for “The Help” — and was showered with a standing ovation — for playing a sassy maid who takes delicious revenge in the ’60s-era drama.
“Thank you, world!” said Spencer, who wept and was shaking as she accepted the award.
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The film, based on the best-selling novel about the lives of black domestic workers in the pre-Civil Rights-era South, has turned Spencer into a star.
Overcome with emotion, Spencer had to be helped onstage by the film’s writer-director, Tate Taylor.
Christopher Plummer won Best Supporting Actor and, at 82 years old, set a record as the world’s oldest Oscar-winner. He plays a father who comes out as a gay man to his adult son after becoming a widower in “Beginners.”
“You’re only two years older than me, darling,” Plummer said to his Oscar. “Where have you been all my life?”
Then he joked, “I have a confession to make. When I first emerged from my mother’s womb, I was already rehearsing my academy thank-you speech. But it was so long ago. Mercifully for you, I’ve forgotten it.”
Woody Allen won his first Oscar in 25 years — for Best Original Screenplay— for “Midnight in Paris.” He last struck Oscar gold in 1986 for “Hannah and Her Sisters.” The notoriously shy Allen was not present to collect the trophy.
“Hugo,’’ Martin Scorsese’s love letter to silent movies, took five technical Oscars, including best cinematography.
Earlier, security guards at the Academy Awards escorted comedic cut-up Sacha Baron Cohen away from the red carpet’s E! News host Ryan Seacrest after he dumped a jar of ashes — which he said were the cremated remains of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il — all over the horrified TV personality.
“If someone asks what you are wearing, tell them Kim Jong-il,” Cohen said before he was dragged away from the star-studded event.
The 40-year-old actor had turned up at the awards show in full character as Adm. Gen. Shabazz Aladeen, the despot he plays in his new film, “The Dictator.”