WALTZ PULLS OSCAR UPSET

The Associated Press, Sunday, February 24, 2013, 6:47pm (PST)

It didn't take long for the first big upset of Oscar night.

Christoph Waltz claimed the first statuette on Sunday night, winning best supporting actor for his role as a refined bounty hunter in"Django Unchained."

Waltz and the other nominees — Alan Arkin, Robert De Niro, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Tommy Lee Jones — all are previous Oscar winners.

Jones and De Niro were considered favorites to win, and Waltz acknowledged them and the other nominees.

"I was on a list with greatest actors around," he said.

It's the second Oscar he's won working with writer-director Quentin Tarantino. The pair teamed in 2010 for "Inglourious Basterds," the role that gave the Austrian actor U.S. name recognition.

"Quentin writes poetry and I like poetry," Waltz said backstage.

Waltz briefly found himself in a bizarre moment in the backstage interview room when actor David Arquette popped up and asked if he was excited about the possibility of a black man being chosen as the next pope.

"It would be an exciting thing," he said. "I'm an adamant non-racist. I don't care whether the pope is black or white or whatever color. If we are non-racists then we have to stay non-racists all the way."

— Beth Harris — http://www.twitter.com/bethharrisap

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