Eighteen days before the awards ceremony, 55 Oscar statuettes en route from Chicago to the Academy were stolen from a Roadway Express shipping dock in Bell, California. A week and a half later, a scrap metal dealer, Willie Fulgear, found 52 of the statuettes in a Dumpster behind a grocery store. (In the meantime, the Academy had had replacement statuettes made.) For finding the awards, Mr. Fulgear received two tickets to the Academy Awards show, where he was praised by host Billy Crystal, and a $50,000 check from the shipping company. A few months later, $40,000 of his reward was stolen from a safe in his apartment.
Meryl Streep's role in Música do Coração (1999) is the only Oscar nominated performace directed by Wes Craven.
In June 2003, FBI agents in South Florida performing a drug bust found one of the three missing Oscar statuettes.
Reportedly, the omission of DeForest Kelley from the 'In Memoriam' tribute montage, led to some protest from Star Trek fans.
Mary Kay Bergman had originally been considered to perform "Blame Canada" at the 72nd Academy Awards, which had been nominated for an Oscar, but after her death, the song was instead performed by Robin Williams in tribute to Bergman.