Palisadians Randy Newman, Colleen Atwood Win Oscars

Pacific Palisades residents Colleen Atwood and Randy Newman won Oscars at Sunday night's 83rd Academy Awards ceremony.

Atwood, a longtime resident, won the Academy Award for best achievement in costume design for her work on Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Atwood added this trophy to her collection, which includes Oscars for costume design for 2003’s Chicago and 2006’s Memoirs of a Geisha. The costume designer has been nominated nine times over the years.

From the dais, cradling her gold statuette, Atwood praised Burton and his partner and actress, Helena Bonham Carter. Atwood’s collaboration with Burton has spanned more than 20 years and includes such Burton favorites as Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Planet of the Apes.

A Palisadian who was raised here in town, singer and songwriter Newman scored the Oscar for best achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original Song) for his tune “We Belong Together” from the Toy Story 3 soundtrack.

The win marked Newman's second Academy Award. The "Short People" singer has been nominated 20 times and has a long association scoring Pixar movies. He won his first Oscar in the same category a decade ago for the Monsters, Inc. song "If I Didn't Have You." 

He was in full acerbic mode, wondering out loud why his category had only four nominees. “You can find a fifth song from somewhere!” he quipped.

“It was completely unplanned, I’ll tell you that,” Newman said, reflecting on his Oscar speech later in the evening to KABC entertainment correspondent George Pennacchio. “I gotta get organized!”

Newman revealed that he is working on a new album.

The Oscar telecast was bookended by Palisadians. Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks kicked off the presentation and Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg announced The King’s Speech as the winner for best picture. Another Palisadian and fellow Oscar winner, Hilary Swank, also made an appearance on the show.