Given that the first two Spider-Man movies made Sony about $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office, it probably surprises no one to learn that the studio's relentless pursuit of another huge summer run may have resulted in the third installment becoming The Most! Expensive! Movie! Ever! Made! Still, even if the $350 million number (throw in marketing and promotion and we're at half a billion) passed along in Kim Masters' Radar story on Spider-Man 3's historic, budget-busting run are, is claimed by a flack, a "complete fabrication," the real amount is still big enough to choke even its free-spending producer:

Yesterday, the Academy continued its annual tradition of inviting its awards nominees to the Beverly Hilton for a casual lunch, an opportunity to have their picture taken in front of a giant version of the statuette they likely won't be taking home following the ceremony (we're looking at you, Will Smith! ), and a chance to receive an official warning about the dire consequences that await the willfully verbose should they violate their allotted ten seconds of acceptance speech time. While last year's too-gentle admonition about overlong speeches contained an ineffectual warning of a premature orchestra swell, Oscar producer Laura Ziskin now threatens overly grateful windbags with bodily harm: