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AMERICAN BEAUTY, THE INSIDER, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, THE GREEN MILEOscar's PC lineupAnti-suburban, anti-smoking, pro-abortion: This year's leading nominees for the Academy Awards to be passed out on Oscar Night, March 26, displayed not only physically correct actors and actresses but politically correct themes. American Beauty, a drama of sorts featuring a middle-class dad who chases after a high-school cheerleader, last week rounded up eight Academy Award nominations to lead the pack. The 5,300 directors, screenwriters, actors, and others who chose nominees were evidently receptive to a film showing a rootless, shallow family leading a life of quiet desperation in the existential nightmare known as suburbia. Also on the Hollywood plus side: Beauty is rated R for bad language, nudity, sexual situations, drug use, and violence. The Insider, a film about a tobacco industry whistle-blower, and The Cider House Rules, based on John Irving's pro-abortion novel of that name, each received seven nominations. Planned Parenthood set up special screenings of Cider House and pushed it to critics, as part of a broad campaign to let modern moviegoers know how bad things were in the days when fetuses were babies. Those two films were nominated for best picture, along with The Green Mile (a Tom Hanks death-row saga), and The Sixth Sense (about a child who can see ghosts). Two movies WORLD recommended, The Winslow Boy and The Straight Story, did not receive nominations, but Richard Farnsworth received a nomination for best actor for his work in the latter. ART UNPLUGGEDBlending ethics and artSomething's rotten in Denmark: an art exhibit. Danish artist Evaristti put up an art exhibit featuring 10 goldfish swimming in blenders. And visitors to the Trapholt Art Museum got the chance to make goldfish puree just by hitting the "on" button. After seven fish died for the cause of art, the police came in and cut the power to the blenders. Danish animal-rights activists are up in arms, but Museum director Peter Meyer defends the exhibit. He says the exhibit didn't encourage people to blend the fish but addressed ethical questions about death.

Ups & Downs of the WeekDominik Hasek: At least 16 million reasons could explain why the well-paid Dominator, the greatest goalie in the National Hockey League, changed his mind about retiring at the end of this season. His agent, though, put it this way in USA Today: "I asked him, 'What's the difference between John Elway and Dan Marino, or Wayne Gretzky and Ray Borque?'" Mssrs. Elway and Gretzky have won championships; the other two have not. Nor has Mr. Hasek, whose Buffalo Sabres were robbed of a Stanley Cup last year when a non-call by officials gave a victory to the Dallas Stars. William Safire: One week after ridiculing conspiracy theorists, The New York Times' respected wordsmith spun a fatuous and factually incorrect yarn about WORLD's policy of sending free copies of the magazine to journalists and members of Congress. Mr. Safire insinuated this was illegal on the part of WORLD's nonprofit parent company. Pretty weak, but as Mr. Safire himself has said, "vast-conspiracy theorists need not be encumbered by facts." Our crime? The Feb. 19 issue raised questions about John McCain The New York Times refuses to raise.

Remembering Schulz, LandryTwo American InstitutionsTwo giants in their respective vocations died five hours apart the night of Feb. 12: Tom Landry, 75, founding coach of the Dallas Cowboys, at a Dallas hospital; and Charles "Sparky" Schulz, 77, creator of Peanuts, the most popular comic strip in newspaper history, at his home in Santa Rosa, Calif. Mr. Landry was being treated for leukemia, Mr. Schulz for heart disease and colon cancer. In his 29 seasons as head coach of the Cowboys, beginning in 1960, Mr. Landry guided his teams to 19 NFL playoffs, 13 division titles, five Super Bowls, and two Super Bowl wins. His overall record was 271-180-6. The quiet, intense, steel-jawed man in a suit and fedora hat, watched by millions every week as he paced the sidelines, was known for his consistent upright life on and off the field. Mr. Landry wrote he was "born again" in 1959 at a weekly breakfast Bible study for businessmen at a downtown Dallas hotel. He joined Highland Park United Methodist Church, a conservative congregation; he also attended Grace Bible Church for four years in the early 1970s after one of his teen-age daughters was converted there. He served on the 35-member governing board of Dallas Seminary from 1978 until his death. He was active in prison ministry, and he devoted significant time to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, including a stint as president. He gave testimonies at Billy Graham meetings. He would tell people there was something more important in his life than football: his relationship with Jesus Christ. "His legacy will last for generations ... because he influenced so many lives in such a positive way," said Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs. Through Charlie Brown and the other Peanuts characters, all of whom mirrored their creator's philosophy in one way or another in their nearly 50-year life span, Mr. Schulz was able to address big issues of life in a sensitive and perceptive way-and make people smile at the same time. His audience was huge: Peanuts appeared in 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries and two dozen languages, with an estimated readership of more than 350 million people. Once active in the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.), the shy and introverted Mr. Schulz was the first widely published cartoonist to include quotes from Scripture in his work regularly-and get away with it. With or without the quotes, preachers often saw theology in the strip-sometimes when even the cartoonist didn't, and many used the strip in sermon illustrations. By pre-arrangement, the final Peanuts strip appeared Feb. 13, which, it turned out, was just hours after the cartoonist's death. Mr. Schulz, Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy, and all the other Peanuts characters, it seems, exited together. "evidence piling up," accused robber fleesTake the money and runNow you see it, now you don't-but it didn't matter for robber Douglas Holmes, sentenced last week to 55 years in prison. Midway through his Kansas City, Mo., trial last month, Mr. Holmes jumped up, grabbed the cash from an evidence bag, and fled. But Circuit Judge John R. O'Malley continued the non-jury trial and, even without the evidentiary dollars, found Holmes guilty of robbing three people. Police recaptured him two weeks ago at a liquor store. Mr. Holmes, explaining his disappearing act, said, "I saw the evidence piling up on me. I thought it would be in my best interest if I left for a little bit." Judge O'Malley, however, castigated the 30-year-old man for making "one stupid decision after another."

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British insurer demands a smarter who wants to be a millionaire?Is that your final claim?Who wants to be an insurance company? The British Goshawk Syndicate says the questions on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? are too easy and wants out of its contract. The ABC show is the lone new hit on network television, airing three times a week and spawning the return of TV prime-time quiz shows. Only ER comes close to its monster ratings. As is often done with big-prize contests, those who conduct the game take out an insurance policy against the unlikely event of anyone actually winning the biggest bucks. For Millionaire, Goshawk's insurance firm agreed to pay prizes of $500,000 or $1 million, after a $1.5 million deductible and with an upper limit of $5 million. So far, only two people have won the top prize, but the insurance company is nervous and has filed suit in England against Disney's Buena Vista Entertainment division, which produces the show. The suit demands that the questions get harder and the contestants get dumber. Millionaire executive producer Michael Davies defended the 15-question gantlet that contestants must run through. "You have to answer every single question," he said. "The questions might be easy within their category, but there is such a broad range, it is almost impossible for anybody on a regular basis to be able to go through all the questions in any given stack." Producers vow there will be no changes. Millionaire is one of the great cash cows in television history. Like Jeopardy, which became a craze in the 1980s, it makes intelligence into sport. People love believing they could have won a fortune if only they had been asked the right question. The show has also given a boost to the once-standard TV "family hour" policy, in which shows on during the 8-9 p.m. time slot are suitable for all ages. Studies indicate that families-even those in which the kids have TV sets in their rooms-are watching the show together. "It's very, very rare that you have a program like Millionaire that reaches every demographic group, where everybody watches together," said ABC's Larry Hyams. -Chris Stamper To the chagrin of CanadaHockey goes globalIs hockey becoming an American pastime? It hasn't caught up with baseball or football, but its momentum is growing. This year's All-Star game had nearly a quarter more viewers than last year, after jumping from Fox to ABC. The game received high Nielsen ratings in places like Seattle, Indianapolis, and Orlando, which don't even have franchises. In a pre-game ceremony fans saw Wayne Gretzky's No. 99 jersey retired in tribute to the legendary multiple-record holder. Yet as hockey's popularity grows, the game is changing. Hockey today isn't as Canadian as it used to be, to the chagrin of many Canadians. Hockey Night in Canada may be their equivalent of Monday Night Football, but it's Detroit, St. Louis, and New Jersey that have hot teams, while smaller-market Canadian clubs are worrying about survival. Today, many players are pouring out of Europe to play in the NHL, with players like Jaromir Jagr (from the Czech Republic) and Pavel Bure (from Russia) heating up the statistics. Only 65 percent of NHL players now come from North America.-Chris Stamper Man knows not his timeAn Ernest comicKnowhutimean? Comedian Jim Varney, who died Feb. 10, turned one break into a career. In 1972, he did his first commercial playing Ernest P. Worrel, a well-meaning but clumsy oaf who pitched the virtues of cars, milk, or pizza. Without Ernest, Mr. Varney was just another hard-up actor playing bit parts and doing standup comedy. A Nashville adman discovered he could successfully syndicate the Ernest character, and soon different cities saw Ernest annoying his neighbor Vern about a whole host of products. The original ads were often funny. Only when Disney made four Ernest movies did he become a pop-culture annoyance. While the movies made money, the likes of Ernest Goes to Camp demonstrate that what works in 30 seconds won't make a feature-length film. The role came to an end when Mr. Varney discovered he had lung cancer. He tried to take his career in a post-Ernest direction, making an as-yet-unreleased Billy Bob Thorton movie about alcoholism called Daddy and Them, but the cancer claimed his life. "You don't really appreciate life until you look death in the eyes," he told the Nashville Scene shortly before his death. -Chris Stamper