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Sunday, 25 March, 2001, 03:34 GMT 04:34 UK Hollywood honours its worst

Battlefield Earth: Started badly and got worse As Hollywood prepares for Oscar night, the awards season has come to a cringe-worthy end with the honouring of the year's worst films.

As expected, John Travolta's profit-free science fiction epic Battlefield Earth swept the board at the 21st Golden Raspberry awards, winning Worst Movie of the Year amid strong competition.

The film, which stars Travolta as a Rasta-haired alien, won seven "Razzies", tying the record set by Showgirls in 1996.

Unlike hits Gladiator and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which will do battle at Sunday's glitzy Academy Awards, Battlefield Earth failed to trouble the box office charts.

Travolta won worst performance by a male actor in a starring role and worst screen couple was won by Travolta and "anyone who appeared with him".

The film's producer, Elie Samaha, in an acceptance speech noticably shorter than 45 seconds, said: "I welcome the free publicity."

He alleged: "The more the critics hit Battlefield Earth the more DVDS it sells."

Battlefield Earth easily beat out Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 and Little Nicky, starring Adam Sandler and Rhys Ifans.

"It was actually a cake walk for jurors. Battlefield was truly wretched," Golden Raspberry Foundation founder John Wilson said.

Based on a science fiction novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, the film has actually won praise from some science fiction groups, despite the critical blasting it received.

It also won awards for worst supporting actress (Kelly Preston), worst supporting actor (Barry Pepper), worst director (Robert Christian) and worst screenplay (Corey Mandel and J. D. Shapiro).

Madonna

The worst actress of the year was Madonna for her performance in The Next Best Thing.

The Razzie trophy is a gaudy plastic raspberry atop a film canister, worth $4.29.

Members consist of critics, filmgoers and people who work in the entertainment business.

This year the Golden Raspberry Foundation dispensed with a formal ceremony to present its trophies - gold-painted, golf-ball sized plastic raspberries on top of a film canister.

"I don't think this year's pictures are worthy of a ceremony," said Mr Wilson.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2001