BY LARRY CARROLL

Million Dollar Baby looked like a million bucks as it took home four Oscars at the 77th Academy Awards tonight in Hollywood. Clint Eastwood's boxing drama scored a knockout in such major categories as Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman), Best Actress (Hilary Swank), Best Director (Clint Eastwood) and the creme de la creme, Best Picture. CountingDown.com was live in the press room, where the backstage was filled with one smiling face after another.

"It means that Hollywood is continuing to make history," Freeman said backstage when asked about the victories of himself and (Best Actor winner) Jamie Foxx, the first time two African-Americans to have swept an Oscar Best and Supporting. "Life goes on. Things change. They never stay the same. So we're evolving with the rest of the world. That's what it means."

"For the young kids out there in our community, there are so many negative things they are influenced by," Foxx agreed backstage. "Why not have something positive and then stamp it with blackness? It's important, and not to say were excluding anybody, but we just want to be included in the pie and make everything artistically better."

But some things never change, including the fact that Clint Eastwood keeps winning Oscars and Martin Scorsese keeps getting snubbed. Nominated seven times, Scorsese has never won a gold man. Tonight, Eastwood's Baby and Scorsese's The Aviator had a tug of war that saw the latter walking away with five awards, but only one major victory (Cate Blanchett for Best Supporting Actress).

Blanchett, in a beautiful yellow gown, praised her once-in-a-lifetime role from the podium and even offered a roundabout marriage proposal."When you play someone as terrifyingly well-known as Katharine Hepburn, it's a collaborative effort, you need as much help as you can get. And thank you, of course, to Ms. Hepburn. The longevity of her career, I think, is inspiring to everyone. But most importantly, and on behalf of everyone I know on The Aviator, thank you to Martin Scorsese. I hope my son will marry your daughter."

Scorsese's daughter isn't the only one getting lucky. As expected, Jamie Foxx took home his first Oscar tonight for his slam-dunk portrayal of Ray Charles in this past year's smash hit biopic. Naturally, Foxx seemed well-prepared for his moment and naturally, he stole the show.

Partner-in-crime Chris Rock didn't need to steal an Oscar for Foxx, and he didn't need to have any kudos stolen for himself either, as he sizzled on stage. Rock had some great lines on people like Michael Moore ("One of my favorite movies this year was Fahrenheit 9/11. He didn't get nominated. Right now, Michael Moore is saying "I should've done Super Size Me. I did the research"), Passion ("I saw Passion of the Christ not that funny, really"), and Russell Crowe ("If you're doing a movie about the past, you're best to get Russell's ass"). Backstage, he insisted that "My jokes are like my children. I have no favorites."

For the fans, however, tonight's awards spread the wealth around, and plenty of favorites took home some little gold men.