03/22/2001

Associated Press

Americans would prefer to see either the movies Erin Brockovich or Gladiator win the Oscar for best picture of the year on Sunday, says a Gallup Poll released Thursday.

That may be because those are the two movies in the group of nominees that have the largest viewership, the poll suggested. About half had seen Erin Brockovich, the Julia Roberts movie about a legal secretary who helps uncover a pollution scandal, and four in 10 had seen Gladiator, which recreated life and a gladiator's struggles in ancient Rome.

Fewer than one in 10 had seen each of the other nominees for best picture, Chocolat, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or Traffic. About a fourth of Americans said they planned to see those movies, and four in 10 said they planned to see Traffic, the movie that examines all phases of the drug war.

And the number who thought each of these three should win was at 10 percent or below.

Comic Billy Crystal was the favorite host of the Oscars for more than a third when people were asked whether they preferred Crystal, David Letterman, Whoopi Goldberg or this year's host, Steve Martin. Martin and Goldberg were picked by about a fifth.

The poll of 800 adults was taken March 15-18 and has an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.