Despite the pall of war hanging in the air, the Academy Awards stuck to the script Sunday night. There were glamorous nominees (Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore), surprise upsets (Roman Polanski, Adrien Brody), self-righteous spectacles (Michael Moore, Michael Moore) and a handful of head-scratching mysteries that demanded solving. So, without further adieu, let the sleuthing commence!

Who's that tough lady law enforcer in The Hunted and Basic? There's a reason you'll barely recognize her as the same actress who played Gladiator's tragic Princess Lucilla. Connie Nielsen does her homework!

To turn this 38-year-old Danish beauty into Basic's stiff and stubborn U.S. Army captain Julia Osborne, it took military training, an androgynous uniform and a slight Southern drawl. "Every woman I portray is vastly different from me!" says Nielsen, who co-stars with John Travolta in the whodunit. "[My character] has that Southern belle quality: She's spunky on the one hand, but she's also durable.

"What's hard is to not exaggerate [the accent]," she adds. "It feels so nice and relaxed to talk like that, and then after a little while, you can do it so much, it becomes like a character in and of itself.

How'd she get the hang of her upright, by-the-book persona? "When we were preparing for the movie, I got to talk to these women in the military," she explains. "They also came every morning, and would take me through marches and would give me tapes with march songs [to practice]."

Since donning combat boots, Nielsen's also played two other women with rough occupations — the employee of an evil corporate conglomerate in Demonlover, and a WWII-era nurse in The Great Raid. So, it's no surprise she's longing for some lighter fare.

Since his quirky turn in 1998's Rushmore, we haven't seen much of Jason Schwartzman. Where's he gone? "I've been to Hawaii and all over the world, and finished high school," the 22-year-old actor tells TV Guide Online. "It's funny that people think because you don't have a movie or record out, you disappear into a frozen chamber someplace. They think you're dead when you're not in the public eye."

Well, at least Schwartzman — last seen in Al Pacino's forgettable Simone — completed his education. "When we shot Rushmore, I was 17, and when it came out, I was 18," he recalls. "I was trying to finish high school when we were making the f---ing movie, but it was hard! I'd do a scene with Bill Murray, and then they'd pull me from him and send me off to school. I hated that."

Now all grown up, he currently co-stars with John Leguizamo, Brittany Murphy and Mickey Rourke in Spun, a frenetic film about speed addicts, helmed by music video director Jonas Akerlund. "I wish people could take a Xanax before they came in," he jokes. "You know, like, 'You and a Xanax are cordially invited to see Spun.' It's jarring and uncomfortable to watch, physically and emotionally. Jonas uses techniques to kind of make the audience feel like s---, which is like how the people in the film feel."

Oy vey. Truer words never were spoken. It sure ain't cheery when Ross — the strung-out twentysomething played by Schwartzman — leaves a naked stripper tied to his bed for four days, with her eyes and mouth duct taped shut. "It was hard to shoot," he says. "I felt responsible for Chloe Hunter, the actress, to make her feel comfortable. I felt embarrassed for her. She's really naked and I'm naked...