OVERHEARD

I feel as though I'm standing on magic legs in a special-effects shot that's far too costly to make a reality.

Tom Hanks, tearful actor, on receiving his second Oscar

I really have to take a pee right now, so I'm going to go.

Roger Avary, co-writer of Pulp Fiction, cuts his Oscar speech short

There was a lot of pain . . . I felt like the pinch-hitter who had all the equipment, a great bat, and the manager just kept skipping me.

Martin Landau, an Oscar-winner at last, on

his years in the wilderness, New Yorker

We assumed 80 per cent of the audience wouldn't have the foggiest what the answers were. So occasionally we'd slip in a question about `recent history' . . . That way, people at home could say, `Aha,

I know that'.

Peter Mullings, director of University

Challenge, Evening Standard

Sometimes I wonder how much the cake business has hurt the serious actress image.

Jane Asher, actress and celebrity

cake-maker, Radio Times